Nature Conservation in India News & Discussion

[Pranay]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13697179

A 55-year-old man who left his house in the Bamboo Bazaar area of Mysore after hearing the commotion was trampled to death, Karnataka state Higher Education Minister SA Ramdas told AFP news agency.

Mr Ramdas said schools and colleges in the city were closed throughout Wednesday and extra police had been deployed as a precaution.

State forest department officials said the young elephants came from forest about 35km (22 miles) from the city.

They say that two other elephants remain at large on the outskirts of Mysore.

One official blamed the rampage on human encroachment into areas traditionally inhabited by elephants.

"Unregulated expansion of farm lands and increasing movement of people and vehicles through the elephant corridor are making the wild jumbos enter into villages and towns in search of food and shelter," he told AFP.

Mr Ramdas said that the two captured elephants would be released back into the wild.

Very tragic for everyone involved, especially for the individual killed by the elephants. Fortunately the elephants were captured and would be released back in the wild, rather then being killed by a mob or put down by the police

Saw the video clips... pretty scary.

[Pranay]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/0 ... 73183.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1k3iA30VDg

Video links to the elephant rampage in Mysore... pretty gory!

[Pranay]

http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/ ... n-vultures

But for all of human history, vultures have served India faithfully. They scoured the countryside, clearing fields of dead cows and goats. They soared over the cities in search of the scattered refuse of the region’s ever-expanding populace. For a place where religious and cultural mores restrict the handling of the dead—human and animal alike, for both Hindus and Muslims—vultures served as a natural, efficient and underappreciated disposal system. On the Towers of Silence in Mumbai, they were an integral part of the death rites for Parsis, who lay out their dead for the vultures to consume in a ritual known as a ‘sky burial’. In Delhi, they flocked to city dumpsites: one photograph in the archives of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), India’s largest and oldest wildlife conservation organisation, captures 6,000 vultures in a single frame; another shows 200 vultures on one animal carcass.

But, today, India’s vultures are virtually gone. The three dominant South Asian Gyps vultures—slender-billed, white-backed, and long-billed—started dying mysteriously in the 1990s; by 2003, scientists had isolated the cause. Vultures that ingest carcasses treated with diclofenac, a mild painkiller akin to such harmless curatives as aspirin and ibuprofen, develop untreatable kidney failure that kills them within weeks. Commonly used by humans worldwide for decades to control pain, Indians began using the drug on their livestock in the early 1990s. The effect on the vultures was immediate—dead birds literally falling from trees.

The Indian government banned the sale of diclofenac for veterinary purposes in 2006, but it was already too late. In less than ten years, vulture numbers had plummeted by 97-99 per cent. Scientists began using terms such as ‘functionally extinct’ and said they were ‘monitoring to extinction’. BNHS immediately set up captive breeding facilities, and the Parsis have settled on solar re.ectors directed at the bodies to speed up the process of decay, but a larger issue remains. Nature abhors a vacuum. With the vultures nearly gone, what has filled the ecological niche they once filled so seamlessly?

Dog attacks in India are on the rise. Two young girls survived an assault in the city of Bikaner in the Thar desert of western Rajasthan, but a four-year-old boy named Manjunath in Bangalore, for example, did not. One study figured that 70 per cent of the world’s rabies deaths occur in India, where there are more than 17 million dog bites every year. In the decade of major vulture decline, from 1992 to 2003, one estimate showed dog populations increasing by a third, up to nearly 30 million. The escalation of the dog population corresponds perfectly with the disappearance of India’s vultures.

[thayilv]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13697179

This is a sign of degrading forest habitat as well as a possible increase in elephant poaching.

The elephants in the video were adolescent elephants. Rogue and rampaging "adolescent" elephants (usually bull elephants) were on the rise in Africa. Scientists believe that these attacks are becoming more common due to increased poaching of older more mature elephants. The older elephants are supposed to keep the adolescents on the straight and narrow and instruct them on how to behave socially. As mature elephants are picked off, the younger ones are forced to fend for themselves.

The part where one of the young elephants attacks a cow reminded me of a picture I saw of an adult rhinoceros badly mutilated by one such rampaging elephant.

[Airavat]

Male tiger raising orphaned cubs!

[Pranay]

http://flonnet.com/stories/20110701281306400.htm

On the Tiger Trail - Ranthambhore.

[Pranay]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13697179

This is a sign of degrading forest habitat as well as a possible increase in elephant poaching.

The elephants in the video were adolescent elephants. Rogue and rampaging "adolescent" elephants (usually bull elephants) were on the rise in Africa. Scientists believe that these attacks are becoming more common due to increased poaching of older more mature elephants. The older elephants are supposed to keep the adolescents on the straight and narrow and instruct them on how to behave socially. As mature elephants are picked off, the younger ones are forced to fend for themselves.

The part where one of the young elephants attacks a cow reminded me of a picture I saw of an adult rhinoceros badly mutilated by one such rampaging elephant.

Good input there, Thayilv!

[ramana]

Pioneer article

Great Indian Bustard facing extinction

Great Indian Bustard facing extinction
June 16, 2011 1:40:59 AM

Moushumi Basu | New Delhi

Experts demand ‘Project Bustard’ on lines of Project Tiger

Once hunted down by falcons (falconry being a favourite sport of Arab princes and sheikhs ) for “aphrodisiac value” of its meat, the Son Chiriya (golden bird) or the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) today figure in the critically endangered “red” list of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Worse, the erstwhile haven of the Great Indian Bustard — Karera Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, where experts such as Dr Salim Ali and Dr Asad Rahmani carried out researches on these birds — is under the process of getting denotified.

According to experts, these flagship species of grasslands, largely endemic in India, are already extinct from almost 90 per cent of its former range, with less than 300 left in the wild.

Raising alarm bells, they have called for setting up ‘Project Bustard’ on the lines of Project Tiger and Project Elephant for the conservation of these birds and the restoration of the grassland habitat. The Government should react promptly on the GIB being declared as ‘critically endangered’, they said.

The GIB, which happens to be the largest of the bustard species, is a favourite of the Arab elites, along with its migratory relatives Houbara Bustards. These large birds weighing about 18 kg and standing one metre tall were preyed upon by trained falcons that swooped on them, broke their necks or blinded them.

Falconry, the ancient sport of hunting with the use of falcon, was prevalent in the Middle East. Arab falconers would make regular visits to Pakistan, Afganistan and northwest India in search of bustards.

“Hunting, destruction and mismanagement of habitat, disturbances caused to breeding, over grazing of livestock, conversion of grasslands into agriculture and various developmental projects are among the major reasons that caused near extinction of these birds,” says Dr Asad Rahmani, Director of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).

Grasslands are most neglected ecosystems in India and under-represented in the protected area network in the country. They are in fact relegated to the status of “wastelands”.

The bustards can ideally be considered indicators of grassland ecosystems and by conserving them and their habitats, a very large number of species dependent on healthy grasslands will also be protected,” he feels.

Hence, the need of the hour is to start Project Bustard and save all the four Bustard species namely, the Great Indian Bustard, the Bengal Florican, the Lesser Florican and the migratory Houbara Bustard (Macqeen’s) from imminent extinction. This can be the only long-term solution which would also look into the long-term conservation of grassland biodiversity of nation, feels Dr Rahmani.

Today, the bird is restricted to only 6 Indian States, including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. A few birds have survived in Pakistan, but their future is uncertain due to lack of protection. Out of the nine sanctuaries where it was found, Karera (Madhya Pradesh), Sorson (Rajasthan) and Rannibennur (Karnataka) have already lost their birds.

“The denotification of Karera is just a tip of iceberg —- the major problem with grassland sanctuaries is that they were established on revenue land that included private agricultural areas or common grazing lands. Out of 202.21 sqkm in Karera as much as 146.66 sqkm is private land, feels grassland conservationist Dr Pramod Patil.

The respective State Governments ignored the ‘settlements of rights’ proceedings in these sanctuaries which left them with virtually no control over the land. Therefore, it was not easy to protect the habitat or to do any habitat improvement by the Forest Department who were in charge of managing these protected areas.

PM Lad, former Chief Wild life Warden of MP, and authority on bustards, says development of core areas for bustard breeding is necessary to increase their population. As the bustard live in marginal agriculture areas, support from the local people is necessary for any long-term conservation planning. In sanctuaries such as Karera, where core areas could not be protected, a gradual decline in the bustard population has occurred.

[Airavat]

Delhi’s green cover has increased from 2 per cent to more than 20 per cent

“The main reasons for the increase in forest cover...is new plantation,” says the State of Forest Report, 2009. Of these, Bhatti Mines is the showpiece of successful afforestation and eco-restoration, primarily through the efforts of the 132 Infantry Battalion (Territorial Army) — the Eco Rajputs. In the last 10 years, the Eco Rajputs have planted 1.1 million saplings in the abandoned mines spread over 2,100 acres in the south of the state.

Densification of the forest cover in The Ridge, described as the lungs of the city, is a more recent initiative, as are the plantations along the national highways, and important junctions such as ITO Chungi, which were undertaken in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games, and around 175 water bodies in the national capital region.

2005 article in Tribune displays the greening of Delhi:




The last unit from above, TA's 133 Infantry Battalion (Dogra), is now active in Himachal.

[Vasu]

ISRO prepares first national inventory of wetlands

A detailed national inventory of wetlands has been prepared on the basis of satellite imagery by ISRO, highlighting areas of critical ecological significance and those which are facing extreme threat due to developmental activities.

This is for the first time in India that the city-based Space Application Centre (SAC), a part of ISRO, has prepared such an inventory and atlas of all the wetlands that exists in the country.

“Wetlands are the most productive ecosystems which play crucial role in hydrological cycle like helping in storm and flood control, water supply, providing food, fibre and raw materials and in recreational benefits,” said SAC Director Dr. Ranganth R. Navalgund.

“However, the very existence of these unique resources is under threat due to developmental activities and population pressure. This calls for long-term planning for preservation and conservation of these resources,” Mr. Navalgund said.

“Creating an updated and accurate database that supports research and decision making is the first step towards this.

SAC took up this challenging task under the project National Wetland Inventory and Assessment (NWIA) sponsored by Ministry of Environment and Forests,” he said.

“Two-date, satellite data acquired during pre and post-monsoon seasons are used for inventory of wet and dry season hydrology of wetlands. They have been categorised in 19 classes and mapped following standard map projection. The map outputs include status of water spread, aquatic vegetation and turbidity,” Mr. Navalgund said.

As per the finding of SAC study, excluding rivers, wetlands cover some 10 million hectares, or a little over three percent of the country’s geographical area. Of this 10 million hectares, reservoirs account for about 2.5 million hectares, inter-tidal mud flats for 2.4 million hectares, tanks for 1.3 million hectares, lakes/ponds for 0.70 million hectares, mangroves for some 0.47 million hectares and corals for about 0.14 million hectares.

The main objective of the project were wetland mapping and inventory at 1:50,000 scale resolution by analysis of digital satellite data of post and pre-monsoon seasons, creation of digital database in GIS environment and preparation of state-wise wetland atlases.

State wise distribution of wetlands showed that Lakshadweep has 96.12 per cent of geographic area under wetlands followed by Andaman and Nicobar Islands (18.52 per cent), Damand and Diu (18.46 per cent) and Gujarat (17.56 per cent) have highest extent of wetlands.

Puducherry (12.88 per cent), West Bengal (12.48 per cent), Assam (9.74 per cent) are wetland-rich States. States like Mizoram, Haryana, Delhi Sikkim, Nagaland and Meghalaya the extents of wetland is less than 1.5 per cent.

The inventory has also mapped high altitude lakes lying above 3,000 meter elevation. The Indian Himalayas cover almost 18 per cent of India’s land surface and is spread over six states, which have 4703 lakes above 3,000 meter elevation.

This includes 1996 small lakes. The total area of these lakes is 1.26 lakh hectares.

[ramana]

Mahesh Rangarajan on The great Indina bustard conservation.

Deccan Chronicle

Let the glorius bustard live,fly

Let glorious bustard live, fly

June 24, 2011 By Mahesh Rangarajan DC

The last day of December 1978 found a motley crowd of students and young people — all volunteers of the World Wildlife Fund — at Race Course Road, New Delhi.

The conjoint purpose was to meet the external affairs minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to protest against the permission given to Saudi princes to hunt down bustards with falcons in the Thar desert, Rajasthan.

The ground-living, slow-flying birds were to be hawked for the pot. Hence the slogan, “Eat custard, not the bustard”.

If the quarry was significant, so too was the hunters’ companion. Falcons have long been used to hunt wild birds. In his epic book, Birds of Prey of the Indian Subcontinent, the leading chronicler of hawks, eagles and falcons in this part of the world, Rishad Naoroji dips into history to make a point.

Naoroji tells us that the female falcon is larger than the male. The latter is supposed to be one-third the size of the female. For this reason it is known as the tiercel. A century or so ago, the female falcon was flown at prey larger than herself. Common cranes and storks, ibises and bustards were common fare.
But the bustard itself has long been sought after as quarry. Nearly half a millennium ago, Timurid prince Babur was at home in India, hunting the houbara. At least 20 Peregrine falcons were kept at any time in the Mughal court.
Old habits die hard. The palate was not complete for the landed gentry in western India without the famous taloor as the bird was called.

Salim Ali, later to be a doyen of ornithology, recalled the hunts of 1910 in Sind. Here, there were no falcons. The bustard was ridden after on a trained camel. “To pick out with the naked eye a houbara in its native sandy environment”, he recalled later, “at a distance of 500 yards is a feat few can perform even with binoculars without previous experience”.

The protective coloration of the bustard kept it safe till it moved. More often, it was shot not from camel back but on foot. Birds were driven towards the hunters who shot them on the wing.

The houbara or the McQueen’s is the smaller of the bustards. The pride of place goes to the great Indian bustard (GIB), the heaviest land bird in Asia.

The Godawan, as it is known, is not quite the prey for a falcon. But it made a nice enough dish for hunters to have reduced numbers by the early 1960s for it to get a measure of protection.

On that wintry morning of 1978, these distinctions between one bustard and the rest meant little to the protesters. When they — and let me admit, I was there as a high school student — got to South Block all that Mr Vajpayee would give was five minutes.

He did sound amused by the bird’s name and quipped that we were simply troublemakers. “Bustard, wustard”, what he asked is all this. He was charming but not quite aware of what the fuss was all about.

When told there were children out to protest at his decision, he simply brushed it aside. “Bacche nahin aaye hain”, he said, “aap unhe laye hain”. (Children are not here to protest, you brought them here, he said.)

The case was a simple one. The houbara was a threatened species, its larger cousin was endangered. Both were firmly protected by law. There was no reason anyone — least of all a guest of the country — ought to be allowed to hunt it.

The minister did not bat an eyelid. It was sad, he said, but it had begun during the Emergency — the first hunts being held in the winter of 1975. What could he do now? Maybe next year. When reminded that the New Year was but hours away, he looked sheepish and gave in.

The bustard got a reprieve. The Saudis never came back to hunt in India. Rajasthan was spared further hunts. Earlier the same year, it has demarcated a vast nature reserve that would help both the bustards and the raptors: the Desert National Park.

The Saudis sought better hunting grounds: in neighbouring Pakistan. In fact, in his book, Taliban, Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid recounts how the first encounter of the Saudi head of intelligence, prince Bandar, with the Taliban took place on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The Saudis went across to hunt the houbara, only there was a far bigger player on the horizon: Mullah Omar himself. As in the 1970s so too again, the houbara was central as a bit player to a political drama.

Does it really matter? It is tempting to think it does not. Yet, the bustard is but a symbol of the grasslands and dry open country. It looks dead and barren to the untrained eye. That silence is illusory. It has a wealth of wildlife. Black buck prance in open spaces. Larks flutter away. Where it survives, the grey wolf still emerges at nightfall. In this setting, the bustard, certainly the larger one, stands out for its majesty.

Sheer size and looks make it a flagship for a biome every bit as important as the mature tree forest. Salim Ali thought so and championed it as national bird.

Of course, as critics pointed out, few Indians have ever seen the bird or know what it is. The peacock, which bagged the spot, is far more apt.

Pity the bustard. The name is a shame. When a young wildlife biologist wrote to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi about its impending local extinction in Saurashtra in 1985, he was shocked to find the reply had made an all too common error.

The “u” in the bustard gave way to an “a” with disastrous consequences. A further letter raising the issue elicited the same reply. Someone at the Prime Minister’s Office knew little of spelling. And even less of ornithology!

Now, a new paper by a team led by Farah Ishtiaq, (Conservation Genetics, 2011) has more grim news. Genetic sampling and mapping of DNA shows that the GIBs are not very genetically diverse. They are not just in danger but “critically endangered”.

This is all the more reason to protect them in their grassland home. The females lay an egg a year and that is when they need protection. Having bred and raised their young, they disperse. Secure them at the time of year in these patches and you are halfway home.

The bustard will then live to thrive another day. That protest of 1978 will not have been in vain.

The author is an environmental historian and co-editor of The Environmental History of India (Permanent Black, In Press)

Didn't know he worked on the issue as a schoolboy. very good article shows his caring nature.

[Airavat]

Mt Abu Wildlife Sanctuary visit

[Aditya_V]

Just came back from a trip to Bandipur including a Trip to Himvad Gopalaswamy Betta. The behaviour of Indian tourists in an ecologically sensitive zone to put it midly is outrageous. Mango Abduls and Ayeshas just dont understand making noises, throwing plastic bottles etc....

Plastic pieces in elephant dung worries officilas

[disha]

Just came back from a trip to Bandipur including a Trip to Himvad Gopalaswamy Betta. The behaviour of Indian tourists in an ecologically sensitive zone to put it midly is outrageous. Mango Abduls and Ayeshas just dont understand making noises, throwing plastic bottles etc....

Plastic pieces in elephant dung worries officilas

Not just mango abduls and ayeshas, even literates one to behave worse than bakistanis. I have seen their behaviour and it just is mind boggling and frustrating. Also the non-vegetarian fad actually hurts by taking away respect for the animals.

Anyway the solution to the plastic thing is search and destroy all plastic before entries to the area and further compostable plastics will help.

Edit: Can you also please write your experiences of the trip?

[Aditya_V]

Write up : No patience for me to do that, I am posting a few pics in the Photography thread

[Lalmohan]

need to get ecological awareness into the school curriculum at an early stage - otherwise this sort of disgusting behaviour is just perpetuated. makes me very angry

[sanjeevpunj]

We are discussing all the remote Environments and that is so wonderful to discuss, yet I am wondering if anyone pays attention to the Environment that is very close to us, right at home, in the form of cockroaches ,bed bugs,lizards,rats and flies.

I have been studying cockroaches informally. These are nearly immortal beings, in that they persistently crop up even after colonies have been destroyed.The one reason they are not easily killed is their blood-its white.They in fact have no blood based constitution, so they survive many poisons that would have killed blood based bio-organisms.I have watched how for more than four or five years, german cockroaches continued to surface at home, sometimes when neighbours drove them away, they came in pairs and multiplied in my kitchen. I tried to destroy this infestation using a gel poison that consists of poison laced in blobs of gel,the gel being the bait and food, which these creatures eat carelessly, and eventually the poison gets them.I noticed they even learnt to avoid eating this and survived. I then tried phosgene gas.This worked wonders though I had to stay out of home for three days to have it effectively work.The third but gory way of destroying them is Piff-Paff or Baygon.Its always a direct impact biological warfare that succeeds. This so far is my personal opinion, and I just can't let them wander freely at home with nothing to do.

Biologists however have different opinions,mostly derived from study, and here are some facts.
http://blog.hmns.org/?tag=can-roaches-hurt-you

Excerpts from the above URL.

Let’s start with the basics; cockroaches are insects with 6 legs, 3 body parts, 1 pair of antennae, and sometimes, 2 pairs of wings.These insects are most closely related to termites and praying mantids which have been known as “specialized cockroaches.” Did you know that there are about 4000 different species of cockroach worldwide? We’re used to seeing the brown ones, but they can be green , white , or even dark blue . Some can even have elaborate patterns with colors like red and orange . They live in almost every climate; however, they are mostly concentrated in tropical climates. Most roaches live in forests, making homes of trees, rotten logs and leaf litter. They spend their lives as scavengers and decomposers. They rid the world of decaying organic matter and replace it with nutrients that feed the soil and plants. They are one of our most important decomposers, and our existence depends on them! Sometimes, however, they can get a little too close to home.
If you keep your house clean, well organized, and in good repair, you may see one of these roaches in your house from time to time. Do not panic, it probably wandered in from outside and it’s very unlikely that you have a heavy infestation. Now, if you keep your house dirty, cluttered, and falling apart, well, you are welcoming every roach in a mile radius.
A familiar species of cockroach is the German Cockroach Blatella germanica. These roaches are very small, light brown, and have 2 longitudinal stripes just below the head. Unlike the American cockroach, German cockroaches are highly adapted to living only in human dwellings, completely dependent on the filth humans leave behind. So, if you see one of these roaches in your house, it is very possible that you do have a very serious infestation. Here are some common myths about roaches and the real truth behind them.

ROACH FALLACIES AND TRUISMS

Roaches are dirty.

False! Roaches are obsessive compulsive about cleanliness! They spend most of their time resting, and the rest of their time cleaning themselves, much like a cat. Roaches are actually some of the cleanest animals around.

Roaches spread disease

Trufalse. This is a little less clear cut. Roaches themselves do not have diseases, but can transmit germs with their hairy legs and sticky feet. For example, if you leave residue from raw meat on your counter, it is possible a cockroach may walk through it and track it around, but if your counter is clean and disinfected, that roach will stay clean! There have actually been studies where a cockroach and a human finger touched the same dirty kitchen floor. They were each swabbed and the swab was smeared into a petri dish to be cultured. at the end of the study, the human finger produced several times the amount of bacteria the cockroach did.So watch where you put that finger!

Roaches can hurt you

False! Roaches are equipped with no more than a set of jaws for chewing. They are capable of biting, which would not hurt at all – but that’s really not their style; they’re more into running away. They have no stinging appendages or anything like that. They are harmless.

Roaches can live for two weeks with no head.

Ok, this one is actually true. The reason for this is that a roach has several brains throughout its body, not just one in its head. They are really just ganglia or bunches of nerve cells. The one in the cockroach’s head only controls its antennae and mouthparts. Remove the head, and it will still be able to control its legs which are equipped with millions of sensory receptors, allowing it to find its way quite well. Eventually, though, the insect will be overcome by dehydration and die.

I saw an albino cockroach!

False! It’s likely that the cockroach you saw is one that has just shed its skin. A freshly molted cockroach is white with black eyes, and very soft and vulnerable. After a few hours, its new skin will start to harden and grow darker, until it is the original color.

Cockroaches can give my child asthma

True. Unfortunately, a heavy infestation of cockroaches can cause asthma in allergen-sensitive individuals, especially children. If you have hundreds of cockroaches in your walls, the feces will build up and become airborne. This is all the more reason to keep your house clean!

Well, there you have it folks, the skinny on cockroaches. I hope that some of you may look at cockroaches in a new light and next time you see one – give it break! It’s not their fault they have a bad rap. If you still feel nauseous thinking of them, just make sure your house is sparkling clean. If we clean up after ourselves, the roaches don’t have to do it for us. Skip the poison, it’s bad for the environment and kills all of those wonderful bugs everyone loves to see. Until next time, happy bug watching!

[Pranay]

Just came back from a trip to Bandipur including a Trip to Himvad Gopalaswamy Betta. The behaviour of Indian tourists in an ecologically sensitive zone to put it midly is outrageous. Mango Abduls and Ayeshas just dont understand making noises, throwing plastic bottles etc....

Plastic pieces in elephant dung worries officilas

Not just mango abduls and ayeshas, even literates one to behave worse than bakistanis. I have seen their behaviour and it just is mind boggling and frustrating. Also the non-vegetarian fad actually hurts by taking away respect for the animals.

Anyway the solution to the plastic thing is search and destroy all plastic before entries to the area and further compostable plastics will help.

Edit: Can you also please write your experiences of the trip?

My 2 cents on plastic littering, etc. by "eco-vandals" - i will not call them eco-tourists.

For any visitor to national parks, make it a must for them to attend a 1 hour Information seminar, where they are informed via audio/visual aids - about the NP they are visiting, before they can venture out into the NP.

Included in this 1 hour tutorial, should be strict do's/dont's on tourist behavior while in the precincts of the national park.

Anyone littering in the national park should be fined heavily and for repeated offences, ejected from the national park. Make the tour operators who ferry tourists within the NP accountable for the behavior of these individuals.

When people have no self respect/self discipline, such stringent measures are a must.

[Aditya_V]

The sheer volume is really tough to control, I wish there must be a computerised Quiz( in local language, Hindi and English on enviormental issues) which must be answered before people are allowed to go in tourist spots in NP's. Practically impossible, for some there is nothing better than Play loud music, throw litter, break your Beer Bottle, take a leak and after all this is done, start dancing at the side of the road. For Uber rich PYT's , wear colourful dress with strong Perfume in a NP where Elephants are present, walk into the Jungle for the perfect Photo and then wonder why the P&S in hand did not take the perfect picture in cludy conditions.

The best part, on our visit to Himvad Gopalswamy Betta last week, we saw an elephant about the KM away which disappeared into the bush. Looking through the Nikon DSLR shot taken at 200mm and enlarging it on the LCD, the Elephant looked exactly like the Elephant which entered MYsore City- apprently that elephant was released near the Anti-Poaching Camp in Gopalswamy Betta area of Bandipur. The Forest Department staff realised the danger and pushed people to stay within the Temple Premises. apprently it still charges at Tribals when enter the forest.

The moment they went to the other side of the Temple a PYT crowd immediately deceide that they must go into the Jungle for the Perfect shot. The sheer ignorance of these people was seen to be belived. Apart from that they were littering the Place.

[Lalmohan]

one approach being taken in south africa is to increase the price of entry into national parks and wildlife refuges - it keeps all but the enthusiasts away and gives an opportunity for the ecosystem to recover

i like the idea of mandatory classes before being allowed into the forest - and fines for anyone breaking the rules

[Aditya_V]

one approach being taken in south africa is to increase the price of entry into national parks and wildlife refuges - it keeps all but the enthusiasts away and gives an opportunity for the ecosystem to recover

i like the idea of mandatory classes before being allowed into the forest - and fines for anyone breaking the rules

The problem is that it is near impossible from stopping Public from entering and using the roads that run through National Parks.

[Lalmohan]

well, education is the only long term answer - and television is probably the best medium
lets just hope our wildlife survives till then!

[sanjeevpunj]

one approach being taken in south africa is to increase the price of entry into national parks and wildlife refuges - it keeps all but the enthusiasts away and gives an opportunity for the ecosystem to recover

i like the idea of mandatory classes before being allowed into the forest - and fines for anyone breaking the rules

The problem is that it is near impossible from stopping Public from entering and using the roads that run through National Parks.

And why? unless we educate the public,they won't learn.Cows chew up plastic on raodsides and eventually develop digestion problems and die.We must first of all stop littering our country's roadsides.A proper system of waste disposal is not seen evrywhere in the west, although most of the cities look very slick in photos. I have seen people littering worse than in India, in the UAE. It all depends on how civic society is educated, and a lot of the onus for that goes to the governments. Indian government has to do a lot more too, not excusing anyone, Indian or phoren.Just putting waste bins all over is not enough.People need to be told - hey put the biodegradable stuff here, and the metallic stuff here and the plastic here.UAE has these three compartment bins all over, and sometimes people just stupidly put things in the wrong compartment, reason being that they cannot read English or Arabic!

[disha]

The moment they went to the other side of the Temple a PYT crowd immediately deceide that they must go into the Jungle for the Perfect shot. The sheer ignorance of these people was seen to be belived. Apart from that they were littering the Place.

Did you at least chide the PYT crowd about littering the place? If not, then you are more guilty than them!! Please do not take it personally, just pointing out that societal pressure is the best way to educate and people who know have more responsibility to educate others.

[disha]

...sometimes people just stupidly put things in the wrong compartment, reason being that they cannot read English or Arabic!

Sir, that happens in massaland and Ozland and oirupe too - they cannot read arabic or hindi. But the ones who do care, I have seen, fish out cans from the garbage and put it in recycle. In India, we leave it to ragpickers to sort out this kind of waste - but then ragpickers is an urban phenomenon - what about rural areas?

Another thing I notice, whenever there is a photo of some government meeting - say all police or IAS or PM or even ISRO meetings, I see a water bottle next to it. What is the message we are trying to convey to aam public? That it is okay to take water out of land and put it in bottles and throw that everywhere as plastic trash? Just my 2 cents.

[Aditya_V]

The moment they went to the other side of the Temple a PYT crowd immediately deceide that they must go into the Jungle for the Perfect shot. The sheer ignorance of these people was seen to be belived. Apart from that they were littering the Place.

Did you at least chide the PYT crowd about littering the place? If not, then you are more guilty than them!! Please do not take it personally, just pointing out that societal pressure is the best way to educate and people who know have more responsibility to educate others.

Yeah Right! they didnt listen to forest department, they will listen to me? For them I would anther Brainlous guy trying to Hit on them. I told the parts of the crowd but none seemed in a mood to listen.

[Airavat]

Chandigarh's Sukhna wildlife sanctuary census reveals 9 mammal, 63 bird species

[Pranay]

http://asiatic-lion.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... ccess.html

While the rise in population of the Asiatic lion in Gir, its last natural habitat, is well-known, the numbers of three other big animals, too, have grown in Gujarat during the past few years.

Apart from the Asiatic lions in Gir, the big wild animals whose populations in Gujarat have grown are leopards, wild ass and sloth bear.

The increase of Asiatic lions in Gir to 411 in 2010 from 359 in 2005 was well publicised, but around the same time, the State's leopard count, too, rose to 1,160 from 1,070 in 2006 and the number of wild ass in the Little Rann of Kutch went up from 3,800 to 4,038 in 2009.

The sloth bear population, found mostly in the eastern tribal belt of the State, grew to 293 in 2011 compared to 270 in 2006.

"While the number of one particular animal might have grown in some State or other, Gujarat is probably the only State where the population of as many as four big wild animals have gone up," Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Pradeep Khanna told The Pioneer.

Khanna attributed the phenomenon mainly to the "animal-friendly nature of the people and the local culture in Gujarat". He also cited the State's conservation efforts and the "dedication of the Forest department field staff" for the flourishing wildlife population.

"People in Gujarat have a lot of respect for wildlife," he said, adding that this positive attitude helps in conservation efforts.

When the growing number of Asiatic lions started to stray out of the designated Gir National Park, the State Government quickly decided to notify new adjoining areas as sanctuaries. Thus, Mitiyala and Girnar areas were notified as new sanctuaries in 2004 and 2008 respectively to accommodate the growing number of the big cats, Khanna said.

The rise in the number of wild ass in the Little Rann of Kutch led to these animals straying into fields with standing crops. "People had to be convinced not to poison them," Khanna said.

Similarly, cattle-lifting by lions led to confrontations with villagers. "The compensation paid in such cases has been much less than the actual price of cattle killed. Villagers want more, but are tolerant enough not to harm the lions," he said.

The number of sloth bears is growing in the sanctuary areas of Surpaneswar (Narmada district), Jambugodha (Vadodara), Ratanmahal (Dahod), Balaram and Jessore (Banaskantha), primarily because these areas have been left unaffected by urbanization. "Good forest areas have not been diverted for industrial use," Khanna said.

[Pranay]

http://asiatic-lion.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... -lion.html

The state government has planned a ring road around Gir sanctuary to divert traffic that trespasses the Asiatic lion kingdom. The proposed 269-km road will connect villages on the periphery of Gir National Park and sanctuary covering 1,412 sq km. About six state highways and some minor roads pass through the sanctuary.Every day, 35-40 light vehicles cross the sanctuary. The heavy vehicular traffic of luxury buses and trucks is mostly along the Talala-Mendarda and Una-Talala state highways.

The last state transport bus enters the sanctuary at 8 pm and gets out around 9.15 pm which is the period when wild animals move about the jungle hunting for food or water. Private vehicles can cross the sanctuary only between sunrise and sunset.

"The state government has sent the proposal to the ministry of forest and environment for the ring road which is estimated to cost around Rs 600 crore. The project is under consideration," said Pradeep Khanna, principal chief conservator of forests. The project was cleared by the state wildlife board.

Khanna said that this ring road will stop movement of vehicles within and on the periphery of the sanctuary. Only those vehicles which belong to villages inside the sanctuary will be permitted, said the forest official. This would be safe for animals and reduce the risk of poaching.He cited an instance where on the Talala-Sasan road, a lion died after it fell off a bridge because it was blinded by the headlight of a speeding vehicle. In 2007 poachers had used the Una-Talala state highway to hunt lions. The proposed ring road will have 14 flyovers and 16 underpasses on specific migratory paths for safe passages to wild life.

[Gus]

Yeah Right! they didnt listen to forest department, they will listen to me? For them I would anther Brainlous guy trying to Hit on them. I told the parts of the crowd but none seemed in a mood to listen.

Be the change that you want to see in the world.

If you start picking up their trash - at least someone in the group would follow suit.

You should not come off as preachy. Just smile and pick it up. It has worked for me.

[Airavat]

Satellites to track Sariska's tigers

[Pranay]

http://flonnet.com/stories/20110729281506200.htm

Man - Elephant conflict ...

The Frontline team met C. Sivagnanam, Assistant Conservator of Forests, Forest Protection Squad, Tamil Nadu Forest Department, and his team distributing handbills to people on how to protect the forests. Asked why elephants increasingly entered farmland, brick kilns and tea estates and attacked human beings, Sivagnanam gave a simple reply: “We have started living in their territory.”

Testimony to this is the 20-odd institutions that have come up in the foothills of the Western Ghats in Coimbatore district directly in the migratory path of the elephants. These institutions include the Amirtha Vishwa Vidyapeeth University (364 hectares) at Ettimadai village in the Boluvampatti range, the Karunya University (283 ha) surrounded by the Western Ghats on three sides, the Isha Yoga Centre at Velliangiri Hills, the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University's Forest College and Research Institute (200 ha) on reserved forest at the foot of the Nilgiri Hills on Kotagiri Road, the Karl Kubel Institute for Development Education, the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History near Anakatty, the CRPF's Central Training College-II at Sanjeevi Hills, the Sachidananda Jothi Niketan Matriculation School near Mettupalayam, the Chinmaya International Residential School at Sirumugai, the Indus College of Engineering, the V.L.B. Janaki Ammal College of Engineering and Technology, and the ACC Madhukarai Cement Works. All of them have been built on patta land right on the elephants' migratory corridor.

A HERD THAT entered a ravine along a check dam at Kanuvai near Coimbatore, close to the Thadagam valley, which is an active elephant corridor. Constructions, mainly brick kilns, that have come up on this corridor force the elephants to find other routes during their migration. This herd eventually moved to the nearby reserve forest.

Also in the active migratory corridor in the Thadagam valley are 190 brick kilns.

Although there are 32 tribal settlements within the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, not a single death of a tribal person in an encounter with an elephant has been reported from there. “The tribal people know how to behave with elephants. They do not disturb them. They do not burst crackers,” Ananda Kumar said.

[Pranay]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14229381

Leopard attack near Siliguri...some pictures.

[thayilv]

X-Post from Nukkad....

Income tax raid on Mammooty and Mohanlal's home.

During the searches, a pair of elephant tusk was recovered from Mohanlal's home at Thevara, said an income tax official. Officials have got in touch with the forest department to find out if he has the permission to keep it.

[Pranay]

http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/ ... the-people

Project Snow Leopard...

What you probably do not know is that the cat’s natural habitat in India is a 180,000 sq km expanse—nearly the size of Karnataka—of Himalayan desert that spans the above-the-treeline reaches of five states: Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Cold and arid, this region is the source of most north Indian rivers.

And yet, such a vast and critical expanse has rarely drawn the attention of India’s conservation establishment. On paper, there exist more than two dozen Protected Areas (PAs)—sanctuaries and national parks—in this region, covering 32,000 sq km, a figure that equals the combined area of all tiger reserves put together. But in terms of funds, staff and management, these high-altitude PAs are mere markings on a map.

Things were worse in the early 1990s, when, as a young student of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Yash Veer Bhatnagar began studying snow leopards and their species of prey. With sundry forest departments struggling to fill up field staff vacancies in the best of India’s tiger reserves, snow leopards had little hope of being watched over in places far less hospitable to humans. But as Bhatnagar kept tracing the animal’s tracks along Spiti’s snow ridges, he grew increasingly restless thinking up a workable conservation strategy that was proving to be as elusive as the big cat itself.

Nearly two decades on, Dr Bhatnagar and his associates would help shape Project Snow Leopard, a species recovery programme with an innovative plan drafted in 2008 that could, with luck, save the species from extinction.

In 2001, the NCF’s Mishra had done some groundwork in Spiti’s Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary. Human communities, he found, could be negotiated with to leave wildlife pastures untouched. To look after this area, a few villagers could be hired—picked by locals from among themselves. This model has been in operation in Spiti for several years now, and so far, over 15 sq km has been freed of livestock grazing around Kibber, and the population of bharals (blue sheep), staple prey for snow leopards, has almost trebled since.

Another coexistence success has been Ladakh’s 3,000 sq km Hemis National Park, which is home to around 100 families that live in 17 small villages within it. Their relocation was impossible without subjecting them to destitution, since all the other land of Ladakh was already occupied by either monasteries or local communities. Today, despite the human presence, Hemis has one of the country’s highest snow leopard densities. The park’s villagers, urged by the Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust (SLC-IT), an NGO, regulate livestock grazing in pastures used by small Tibetan argali (a prime prey species for snow leopards). According to Radhika Kothari of SLC-IT, this was achieved by the NGO in coordination with the forest department. They launched a sustained awareness drive and offered families incentives such as home-stay tourism and improved corrals for the protection of their livestock.

The basic strategy of engaging local communities remains simple: help protect livestock (by ensuring better herding methods, constructing corrals, offering vaccinations and so on), compensate for losses (via insurance, for example), create income opportunities (community tourism, handicrafts, etcetera), restore traditional values of tolerance towards wildlife, and promote ecological awareness. This story repeats itself in other range countries; livestock insurance and micro-credit schemes are big successes in Mongolia, handicraft in Kyrgyzstan, and livestock vaccination in Pakistan.

Encouraged by early success stories in engaging local communities in J&K and Himachal, the NCF backed a conservation model in the context of the three-decade-old Sloss debate (single large or several small, that is). “The idea of wildlife ‘islands’ surrounded by a ‘sea’ of people does not work in high-altitude areas, where wildlife presence is almost continuous,” explains Dr Bhatnagar, “Instead, communities can voluntarily secure many small patches of very high wildlife value—small cores or breeding grounds spanning 10–100 sq km each—if they have the incentive of escaping exclusionary laws across larger areas [big PAs].”

[Pranay]

http://asiatic-lion.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... alpur.html

Project Cheetah coming along, along with some hiccups...

"If all goes well as per the plan, then Cheetah would be introduced in the Palpur-Kuno habitat by the end of December or early January next year," Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister, Sartaj Singh told PTI. "The Cheetahs will be brought from Namibia for the revival of the now-extinct animal in the country," he said. "Surveys have been done in this regard and opinion of the experts are in favour of the re-introduction of Cheetah at Palpur-Kuno," the minister said. Recently, a team of experts from Namibia including Lorrie Marker, conservationist and senior forest department officials visited Palpur-Kuno to workout the strategy for reintroduction of Cheetah in the Palpur-Kuno sanctuary spread in an area of nearly 344.686 square kilometer, the department sources said.

[Vasu]

Freeing a lake from plastic fetters

The rest of the world might have forgotten the Punnamada Lake as soon as its waters became calm after the Nehru Trophy Boat Race on Saturday. But a group of 60 students, assisted by their teachers, and other concerned citizens, went back to the venue of the boat race on Monday, joining hands on Independence Day, to remove whatever plastic they could from the lake. And by evening, they had a few boatloads full of what spectators had dumped in the waters during the daylong race.

The cleaning drive, which was inaugurated by district panchayat president Prathiba Hari, had students from the Jalapadam Wetland clubs of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Environment and the Ecology (ATREE) and from the Government High School, Kuppapuram; St. Michael's School, Thathampally; and St. Thomas College, Alappuzha. A Kudumbasree team led by District Tourism Promotion Council officials too helped them in the arduous task.

The heaps of plastic bottles were handed over to rag-pickers who would take them for recycling, according to ATREE Coordinator Latha Bhaskar.

Most ignorant Indians don't even realize they are chronic litterers. Took my friends from college to Elephanta Caves here in Mumbai and an idiot young father dumped his beer can into the sea without any second thought.

Then was driving from Delhi to Jaipur and out comes an empty water bottle from a BMW up ahead on the road.

Hope they all choke on the trash they throw out like that.

[Aditya_V]

Tribals feel their forest rights are not recognized

These type of political outfits who eye forest resources try to use Tribal rights as back door to perform thier nefarious activites. They must be nipped in the bud.

[KrishG]

Revised cost estimates for Project Tiger

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today approved an upward revision of the cost estimates for the ongoing centrally sponsored scheme of Project Tiger (PT) during the Xlth plan period from Rs.650 crore to Rs.1216.86 crore of central assistance. The upward revision has been necessitated due to increased action for relocation of villages from the notified core/critical tiger habitats as also inclusion of additional components.

Details of approval obtained are as below:

(i) The Revised Cost Estimate (RCE) of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger at Rs.1369.56 crore with central assistance of Rs.1216.86 crore for the XIth Plan period against the earlier sanctioned central assistance of Rs.650 crore. The Ministry would identify matching savings or alternate source of funding to the tune of Rs.440.29 crore in order to bridge the deficit.

(ii) Change in the funding pattern in respect of North Eastern States by increasing the central share from the existing 50% to 90% for Recurring Expenditure, with the States' share becoming 10%. The ongoing support for Non-Recurring Expenditure would continue to be 100%.

(iii) Raising compensation for man-animal conflict to Rs.2 lakhs in case of loss of human life, 30 per cent of the same for grievous injury and cost of treatment for minor injury.

(iv) Acquisition of private land for making the core/critical tiger habitat inviolate.

(v) Establishment of Tiger Safari, interpretation/awareness centres under the existing component of 'co-existence agenda in buffer/fringe areas', and management of such centres through the respective Panchayati Raj Institutions.

(vi) Re-introduction of Cheetah in the States of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan under the Scheme at a cost of Rs.50 crore after ensuring the historical co-existence of Cheetah with other carnivores, especially the tiger.

This would benefit all the 40 tiger reserves falling in 17 tiger States, besides the people living in the fringe areas (buffer), as well as communities opting for voluntary relocation from the core/critical tiger habitats (4052 families).

In all, approximately 24 lakh mandays are generated annually with 50% central assistance amounting to around Rs.24 crore (excluding matching 50% share given by States) under Project Tiger. Many local tribes constitute such local workforce (besides non-tribals), e.g. Baigas, Gonds in Madhya Pradesh, Gonds in Maharashtra, Chenchus in Andhra Pradesh, Sholigas in Karnataka, Gujjars in Uttarakhand and Irulas in Tamil Nadu to name a few. The deployment of such local tribals has been fostered /encouraged in the last two years.

The tiger population in the country has registered an increase from 1411 in 2006 to 1706 in 2010.

India has the maximum number of wild tigers and tiger habitats in the world conserved due to Project Tiger. The National Tiger Conservation Authority provides a statutory basis to Project Tiger and has an overarching role as provided in the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972..

The implementation of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger would be done through the respective States in designated tiger reserves.

[nithish]

Disguised US diplomat investigates China tiger farm

A US diplomat disguised himself as a Korean tourist to probe a tiger farm in China where he voiced alarm at conditions that included whippings of the endangered big cats, a leaked memo said.

An internal US diplomatic cable, released by the activist anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, questioned the intentions behind the Xiongsen Mountain Village but was unable to substantiate reports that tiger meat was on sale.

In sometimes colourful language, the 2007 cable narrated how an unidentified officer at the US consulate in Guangzhou overcame the suspicions of Xiongsen's staff by convincing them he was a Korean tourist.

"The staff stated that up to three tour groups of Koreans came a day, numbering more than 30 in each group. The Koreans were among the most enthusiastic purchasers of both the black bear bile and the tiger wine, according to store staff," the cable said.

The officer described a "circus-like environment" in which he saw "several tigers being struck with a metal pole, while other tigers were whipped".

China says it has nearly 6000 tigers in captivity, but just 50 to 60 are left in the wild. In the 1980s, China set up tiger farms to try to preserve the big cats.

But conservationists have criticised the farms, accusing them of seeking primarily to produce tiger products, which some Asians regard as aphrodisiacs.

The diplomat "was unable to confirm allegations that tiger meat was available" at Xiongsen but "the commercial nature of the farm was troubling", the memo said.

"The large number of endangered tigers and bears present with no current plans to reintroduce ... them into the wild raises concern regarding the motivation of such a farm," it said.

The diplomat also visited the Longyan Tiger Reserve where he said he saw tiger wine for sale. He said the staff told him no other tiger products were on sale, but also that they did not know of plans to reintroduce tigers to the wild.