Shrinking Sunderbans threat to Bengal Tiger

Royal Bengal Tiger

IANS
Fast-disappearing mangrove forests of the Sunderbans pose a question mark over the future of the Royal Bengal Tiger, an endangered species, say scientists.

Rapid deterioration in mangrove health is causing as much as 200 metres of the vegetation-rich coast to disappear annually in the Sunderbans, according to zoologists.

Nathalie Pettorelli, from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and senior study author, said: “Our results indicate a rapidly retreating coastline that cannot be accounted for by the regular dynamics of the Sunderbans. Degradation is happening fast, weakening this natural shield for India and Bangladesh.”

Sunderbans is the largest block of continuous mangrove forest in the world, native to nearly 500 species of reptile, fish, bird and mammals, including the world famous Royal Bengal Tiger, the journal Remote Sensing reports.

Thriving human development, rising global temperatures, degradation of natural protection from tidal waves and cyclones is inevitably leading to species loss in this richly biodiverse part of the world, according to a ZSL statement.

Sarah Christie, ZSL’s tiger conservation expert, says: “The Sunderbans is a critical tiger habitat; one of only a handful of remaining forests big enough to hold several hundred tigers. To lose the Sunderbans would be to move a step closer to the extinction of these majestic animals.”

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/shrinking-sunderbans-threat-to-bengal-tiger/article4298468.ece

33 spotted deer found dead in Kanha Tiger Reserve

PTI

Spotted deers

A total of 33 spotted deer were found dead under Ghorela ward in the Kanha Tiger Reserve since last week, forest officials said on Friday.

Kanha Tiger Reserve’s veterinary surgeon Sandeep Agrawal told reporters that 29 spotted deers were found dead between Jan 4-10 and four were found on Friday in the Ghorela ward under the Mukki forest area.

The preliminary cause of their death appears to be malnutrition, infection and severe cold, but the exact reason will be known only after a postmortem and viscera report.

The reserve management has enhanced measures to monitor the health and security of the wild animals. The viscera has been sent to the Jabalpur-based Veterinary College laboratory for testing.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/33-spotted-deer-found-dead-in-kanha-tiger-reserve/article4298503.ece

Afforestation drive to begin soon

V. S. PALANIAPPAN

Tamil Nadu
Coimbatore

Forest officials are busy raising saplings to grow them up to a height of six feet before the exit of summer and the onset of South West Monsoon for the ambitious project to plant 10 crore saplings in 1.43 lakh hectares land spread over 5,000 villages over the next five years.

Tall grown seedlings with tree guards will help protect them from stray cattle.

Forest officials said that the Tamil Nadu Bio-Diversity Conservation and Greening Project, envisaged at an outlay of Rs 84 crore, aims at having 10 crore trees by 2017.

As part of the project, the target for the current year is to have one crore saplings in 1,000 villages at a cost of Rs 15.16 crore.

Officials said 2012 ended with a 45 per cent deficit rainfall, resulting in standing paddy crops in the delta regions of Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Tirupur, Pudukottai and coconut crop in Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Namakkal and Karur bearing the brunt of the dry spell.

Conservative estimates put the extent of drought to 73 per cent in 23,625 sq km.

Officials have identified a number of species for the project including emblica officinalis (Nelli), gmelina arborea (Kumizh), bambuseae (Bamboo), peltophorum pterocarpum (Vaagai), vites negundo (Nochi) and azadirachta indica (Neem).

Plantation is expected to begin when summer exits and traces of South West monsoon begins so as to ensure a high survival rate, the officials said.

The planting of saplings will be done close to wetlands and bird sanctuaries such as Vellode near Erode, Vedanthagal, Vadavur, among others.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Coimbatore/afforestation-drive-to-begin-soon/article4293763.ece

Indian farmers earn forest carbon credits

JANUARY 10, 2013

TIMES OF INDIA

Approximately 1500 farmers owning 1600 hectares in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa became the first lot of farmers in Asia and the second in the world to earn income by selling carbon credits from an AR CDM project. 

The 1,500 farmers of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Rayagada, Koraput and Kalahandi in Odisha earned Rs 85.28 lakh by selling 79,811 carbon credits, for which they received their cheques last month at a programme organised at Gitam University in the city.

According to VCCSL executive director Sai Kishore Nellore, the project was initiated in 2004 with the intention of improving the lives of farmers in rural areas by allowing them to raise tree plantations on highly degraded agricultural lands. Following that, a project idea note was prepared and subsequently a team from the World Bank visited the country for inspection in 2006. 

During the next year, VCCSL entered into an Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA) with the World Bank for sale of carbon credits generated under this project at $4.05 per carbon credit. Each carbon credit is equal to one tonne of carbon dioxide sequestered.

Please click here to read the original news item

Source: http://www.forestcarbonasia.org/in-the-media/indian-farmers-earn-forest-carbon-credits/

Keywords: Andhra Pradesh, AR CDM, Asia, CDM AR, CERs, financing, forest carbon, India, Orissa, Standards