Bharat Rakshak

Chinese are so trusting. How do they know some animal rights ecoterrorists haven't laced that tiger penis or rhinocerous horn with arsenic or polonium?

They just stop short of eating 'you know what' of humans!



Of course anymore economic slowdown, China's population may yet mysteriously decline. hehehehe

The historical distribution of the Asiatic lion, which morphologically differs from its African counterpart in having a belly fold, stretched from Syria, across West Asia to eastern India. In his book The Gir Lion, Indian Forest Service officer H.S. Singh concludes that the present range of Gir lions is limited to the three Gujarat districts of Junagadh, Amreli and Bhavnagar, covering a total area of 8,500 sq km. If the areas recently visited by some lions, especially nomads, are also included, this range or Greater Gir is as large as 10,500 sq km. Conflict with people, in the form of depredation of cattle, is high outside the Gir Protected Area. People retaliate occasionally by poisoning the lions or electrocuting them using power stolen from government supply lines.

Lions were seen in Rajasthan, MP, and Haryana till the 19th century. They became extinct in these places because their habitat was easy to convert into farmland. They were also easier to hunt than tigers. And because they lived in prides, any hunt would lead to the killing of several members of a family.

The planned re-introduction of lions into the Kuno reserve (Madhya Pradesh) will help the future of the species. But the danger is the presence of tigers in the neighboring forests. In the previous century the Maharaja of Gwalior attempted to introduce African lions into a reserve in his state; most of these animals took to cattle-lifting and had to be killed. One lion was mauled to death by a tiger in whose territory it strayed.

Wildlife Institute of India researchers confirmed that the Palpur-Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary is the most promising location to re-establish a free ranging population of the Asiatic lions and certified it ready to receive its first batch of translocated lions[1] from Gir Wildlife Sanctuary where they are highly overpopulated. There are large scale deaths in the population annually because of ever increasing competition between the human and animal overcrowding. Asiatic lion prides require large territories but there is limited space at Gir wildlife sanctuary, which is boxed in on all sides by heavy human habitation.[2]

The Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary was selected as the reintroduction site for critically endangered Asiatic lion because it is in the former range of the lions before it was hunted into extinction in about 1873.[3] It was selected following stringent international criteria and internationally accepted requirements & guidelines developed by IUCN/SSC Reintroduction Specialist Group[4] and IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group[5] which are followed before any reintroduction attempt anywhere in the world.

Asiatic lions

Currently the Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project is underway. The lions are to be reintroduced from Gir Wildlife Sanctuary in the neighboring Indian state of Gujarat where they are currently overpopulated. This has involved the displacement of twenty four villages of the Sahariya tribe, which had lived in the remote core area set aside for the reintroduction of the Asiatic lions, who agreed to move out.[6] Zoo-bred pair of asiatic lions from Hyderabad, one male from Bhopal and a female from Delhi will be introduced into the forest as Gujarat rejected the idea of Kuno being an alternate habitat for the asiatic lion. Comment passed by Gujarat Govt “Since Kuno Palpur sanctuary has had some tigers, it’s not advisable to shift Gir lions there, as there are bound to be frequent clashes between the two kings over territories. It has been observed that tigers and lions can never co-exist”

Feral cattle

Feral cattle also roam the sanctuary, left behind by the relocated Sahariya tribal herders. The cattle are intended to serve as buffer prey for Asiatic Lions until wild prey populations are revived.[2]

is kuno dry deciduous?

Comment passed by Gujarat Govt “Since Kuno Palpur sanctuary has had some tigers, it’s not advisable to shift Gir lions there, as there are bound to be frequent clashes between the two kings over territories. It has been observed that tigers and lions can never co-exist”

wooded area along the Kuno River, with dry brush among the distant hills:





This is what concerns some naturalists. Historically lions inhabit the open grasslands and tigers the wooded hills and swamps. Introducing lions into an area frequented by tigers may lead to a conflict.

In the Kotah princely state there were both lions and tigers, but inhabiting different habitats. The earlier painting showed a pair of lions at a waterhole in Kotah around 1820. This painting shows a tiger hunt around that same time in a more wooded habitat:

oh! man! thats lush. but i would think as long the terrain is flat it should be ok. but do we really have any grasslands in india? bar the sholas high up in the mountains, i dont recall any other grasslands. perhaps that is why asiatic lions are sdre wct, tfta african ones.

btw. is their a reason to prefer african lions to indian ones? wouldn't they bring in their african pathologies to indian forests? in anycase, african ones have all sorts of attention and monies. but what about the sdre indian ones?

UNESCO Designates 22 New Biosphere Reserves among them three from India:

Nokrek, India, is a biological hotspot in the state of Meghalaya featuring undisturbed natural ecosystems and landscapes. Inhabited by elephants, tigers, leopards and hollock gibbons, the area is noted for its wild varieties of citrus fruits that provide a genepool for commercially produced citrus.

Pachmarhi, India, in Madhya Pradesh state includes tiger and other wildlife reserves. At the interface of tropical, moist and dry forests as well as sub-tropical hill forests, the area is considered a botanist’s paradise. Local tribes contribute to conservation of the forest while using its resources for nutrition, agriculture and income generation.

Similipal, India, is a tiger reserve in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, which used to be the hunting ground of the Maharajah of Mayurbhanj. This tropical environment is inhabited by elephants, panthers, deer and numerous plant species, making it a living laboratory for environmental scientists. The tribal inhabitants depend on agriculture, hunting and collection of forest products for their livelihoods but need additional sources of income.

But grasslands are declining as a whole, being reclaimed by agriculture, often illegally. That's one reason that cheetahs, were any to be reintroduced, won't survive long because of lack of viable habitat.

Mullahs' regime says "No" to cloning of Cheetah
Jul 9, 2005

Iranian.ws

India's ambitious plan to clone the cheetah, which vanished from the subcontinent in 1962 due to largescale hunting, has run into a dead end.

Iran has refused to send two cheetahs � a male and a female � to India for research purposes. They have also refused to allow a team of scientists from Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) to travel to Iran to collect sperm and tissue samples from a cheetah in a zoo there.

a plan was floated to clone the extinct Indian chettah using the iranian cheetah and release the products into the wild.

while a good move, at least getting the iranian cheetah would have been better, it's more closely related to the Indian variety than the african one.

added later : iran has refused to loan a chetah or even allow DNA samples !
http://www.iranian.ws/cgi-bin/iran_news ... cgi/3/8133

Reintroduction of cheetahs back into the Indian wild is a bad idea. The causes for its extinction are still around and unless the causes are addressed the re-introduced populations will meet the same fate.

Reintroduction of cheetahs back into the Indian wild is a bad idea. The causes for its extinction are still around and unless the causes are addressed the re-introduced populations will meet the same fate.

we didn't have *ANY* conservation law back then. it's wrong to say nothing has changed.
mind you, it's still bad but not that bad.

Desperate to hold on to its monopoly as the last wild habitat of the Asiatic Lion, Gujarat has come up with new reasons to stall sharing its ‘pride’ with Madhya Pradesh....................The central Indian state, says Gujarat, has not done a very good job of conserving its tigers, citing the example of Panna Tiger Reserve, where the big cats have been completely wiped out — as was confirmed by MP Forest Minister Rajendra Shukla just this week............In its response to a Supreme Court case that seeks to create a second habitat for Gujarat’s Gir Sanctuary lions, the state has also argued that tigers and lions cannot coexist..........“The population of tigers was reducing in many parts of the country including Madhya Pradesh, while the Asiatic Lion population has increased from 177 in 1968 to more than 350 in 2005,” the affidavit filed by the Gujarat Government says. “A newspaper report saying ‘Experts Fear No Tigers Left in Panna’, also indicates there is enough reason for concern,” it goes on to state. ......................“Lions need to be moved from Gujarat. The argument of lions and tigers fighting in this case doesn’t hold. As both are large predators, they will not co-occur in the same forest, but in the same region. Kuno does not have a large population of tigers, but only a small number of transient tigers from Ranthambhore. Extensions of the Gir sanctuary, which have been made in Mitiyala and Girnar do not protect from the threat of epidemic extension. The point is to create another population far away from Gir. Though Kuno can be improved as a habitat, it is still the best choice for relocation of lions in India,” says Qamar Qureshi, from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

Over 50 blackbucks recently died out of shock, following unexpected cloudburst and thunderstorm at the Tal Chappar Wildlife Sanctuary in Churu District of Rajasthan.

The game warden and rangers of the Tal Chappar Wildlife Sanctuary, some 100 kilometers from Bikaner, are of the view that the number of deaths could be high as they are continuously recovering more carcasses since the heavy rains, which lashed the region on May 28 and continued for quite a long time.

It has also been observed by the rangers that the dead deer were mostly old and young fawns since they were unable to withstand the sudden change of climate. A team of three veterinaries in the sanctuary is treating the deer, which have survived the storm.

Tal Chappar Wild Life Sanctuary is spread over 1334 square kilometers. It is home to nearly 2,000 blackbuck.

At a time when the state government is mulling shifting lions from Gir to Barda wildlife sanctuary in Porbandar and Jamnagar, information sought under the Right to Information Act (RTI) revealed rampant mining activities in the surrounding areas.

The sanctuary is spread over 192.31 sq km falling in Jamnagar and Porbandar districts. According to Wildlife Protection Act (1972), mining is not permissible in 5 km periphery of the sanctuary.

An RTI application filed by Bhanu Odedara, a resident of Porbandar, has revealed how a number of mining licences have been given within the 5-km area of Barda wildlife sanctuary since 2002 till date.

Airavat,
Just a small technical quibble, the Blackbuck is an antelope, like the *deleted* while the Chital is a Deer...

Staff Reporter | Bhopal

Protests over translocation of tigers in the near future to Panna as part of the revival plan of big cats there are gathering momentum. Two tigresses were relocated to Panna from Kanha and Bandhavgarh national parks in March and a male is also likely to be shifted there from either Kanha or Bandhavgarh in the near future. Conservationists like Ajay Singh president district panchayat Umaria have already opposed the plan. Singh has said that tigers should be kept, where they are secure.

He has said that efforts should be made to conserve the tigers and not the parks and affiliated hotel businesses. He has said that locals from Bandhavgarh would oppose the move to relocate the tigers from Bandhavgarh to Panna.

Vivek Trivedi | Bhopal

The probe panel formed by the State Government for looking into the mysterious decline in the big cat population in Panna will land in the park for starting the inquiry on July 2. The panel is likely to hold public hearings, interrogate officials and also seek relevant documents required for the probe. A separate panel formed by the Centre has already probed the issue recently.

The State probe panel comprises of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) Member Secretary Rajesh Gopal, State Principal Chief Conservator Forest (PCCF Wildlife) HS Pabla, former director Wildlife Institute of India HS Pawar, former State PCCF JJ Dutta and World Wildlife Fund's former member Ravi Singh.

The panel has decided to land in Panna on July 2 and conduct the inquiry for 2-3 days. The persons concerned with the probe have already reportedly been summoned for handing written or oral evidence before the panel.

The panel in its first meeting had discussed the points to be included in the probe and the possible corrective measures for the park. The inaugural meeting of the panel formed by the State Government for probing the causes responsible for disappearance of big cats from Panna met here on Friday.

The meeting had discussed what points should be included in the probe, what are the documental evidences, which will be required in the probe, how should various responsibilities be distributed regarding the probe.

The panel was formed by the State Government to probe the mysterious disappearance of the big cat community and also suggest corrective measures for avoiding this kind of situation in future.

The probe panel formed by the Centre has already submitted its report, in which it has mentioned that there were no tigers left in Panna and also has expressed apprehension that a large number of big cats might have fallen prey to poachers.

Prerna Singh Bindra | New Delhi

In what can only be described as the last-ditch attempt to prevent a Sariska-like situation in nearly a dozen tiger reserves across the country, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has advised an in situ build-up of tiger population in 11 reserves.

The advisory, sent on May 27, 2009, to the Chief Wildlife Wardens concerned, suggests that to save tigers from local extinction, the reserves must opt for active managerial intervention which essentially entails having “a founder population of two adult tigresses and a tiger in a large enclosure, built in situ within the reserve, to protect it from poaching and other decimating factors”.

The letter details that the tigers must be translocated from the same habitat or landscape, that the enclosure should contain natural prey base and, importantly, that this is to be a one-time intervention. The tigers should be radio-collared and released after the first generation of cubs reaches two years of age. The 11 reserves include Valmiki (Bihar), Palamu (Jharkhand), Manas (Assam), Nagarjunasagar (Andhra Pradesh), Namdapha (Arunachal Pradesh), Indravati (Chhattisgarh), Buxa (West Bengal), Kalakad Mundanthurai (Tamil Nadu), Dampa (Manipur), Sanjay-Dubri (Madhya Pradesh) and Simlipal (Orissa).

However, the directive has become the subject of a heated debate. Says Dr Ullas Karanth, conservation scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, “Such reintroduction exercises — and I am including Sariska and Panna — do not reflect optimal use of resources and I do not see them as priority. They fail to address the real issue of tiger decline and take the focus away from protecting viable tiger habitats where recovery can naturally take place.”

Also, points out another conservationist, is it practical to invest considerable resources into this programme when the reserves are unsafe? How can we ensure that the reserves will be safe two to four years later when the tigers are ready for release? And surely, this couldn’t be a blanket solution for 11 reserves. While it may be the answer in say, Buxa, where the lack of tigers has been an ‘open secret’, areas like Manas require a rethink. Though there is little doubt that tiger numbers are low, there is a need to scientifically assess the population first. Besides, though the situation is improving, their protection leaves much to be desired. Strengthening the existing infrastructure and capacity for protection of wildlife and its habitat are a priority.

Dr Rajesh Gopal, member-secretary NTCA, stresses that this strategy is supplementary to protection and an essential one-time managerial intervention only for those reserves where tiger population is in dire straits.

Elaborates PK Sen, former director of Project Tiger, “These directives have not been issued to all reserves; only where there is no viable population of tigers. It does not preclude protection, which is in fact primary, following which the population may be built up using in situ enclosures. The first consideration is protection by strengthening personnel, developing intelligence and adequate infrastructure. However, this has little meaning in reserves where the tiger population has almost died out and must therefore be augmented by such interventions.” Should these reserves, he reasons, be allowed to become other Sariskas or Pannas?

Most of these reserves are still viable habitats with unviable tiger populations, mainly transient tigers which are very vulnerable. “The in situ build-up of both tiger and prey is an ecological imperative to conserve the genetic pool of that particular region to ensure that the population does not die out,” says Dr Rajesh Gopal. Equally important, he emphasises, is backing it with sound protection measures, strong leadership and habitat management, ie notification and management of buffer zones.

It is hoped that this will also hold the errant States accountable. And therein lies the crux of the issue. The onus of protection rests with the States, but most have been failing miserably in the task.

Panna is a prime example, points out a senior official, where the State continued to be in denial for years, till all its tigers were gone. Most States have not learnt the lesson and continue to inflate tiger numbers and deny that reserves — including Buxa, Sunjay-Dubri and Palamu — have negligible tiger populations.

They also continue to ignore repeated warnings and advisories for strict protection measures from the Centre. In the face of such apathy, it is envisaged that such an intervention will provide for a base population that can be strictly monitored and conserved — and the State held responsible for any laxity, lest there be any more Sariskas or Pannas.

M Madhusudan | New Delhi

Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh has sought Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s “personal intervention to avoid Panna-type disasters” in the State’s six tiger reserves and called for the initiation of “urgent administrative and ecological” actions on the findings of a special investigation report which confirmed that the reserve had no resident tiger.

Staff Reporter | Bhopal

The State Forest Department is under immense pressure now with the double jolt being received on the issue of diminishing tiger population across the State, especially in Panna National Park. The State High Court on the one hand has sought a reply from the State Government over the declining tiger population in the State, while the Union Government on the other has also reportedly issued orders for acting against the forest officials responsible for the Panna episode.

…………. The committee in its recently submitted report has mentioned that widespread poaching might be responsible for the drastic decline in the population of the big cat in Panna. The Union Government has also taken strong objection to the fact that State Forest Department constantly handed misleading figures of big cats in Panna.

Pioneer News Service | Jabalpur

The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday directed the State and Union Government to submit a detailed report on the protection of the tigers and other wildlife animals facing extinction.

The court also directed to take action in compliance of the Central Steering Committee and the State Steering Committee constituted under the provision of the Wildlife Protection Act within four weeks. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Anang Kumar Patnaik and Justice Ajeet Singh issued these directices while hearing the Public Interest Litigation petition of Navneet Kabra, challenging the State's inaction for not taking suitable measures to protect the wildlife animals, including the tiger breed, reducing their number from 710 tigers in forest and five national tiger sanctuaries to half…….

Nokrek Biosphere Reserve in Garo Hills district of Meghalaya which has been added to Unesco's list of Worldwide Network of Biosphere Reserves has another distinction of having world's first citrus gene sanctuary.