Elephant run down by train in Buxa tiger reserve

ANANYA DUTTA
An elephant was run over by a passenger train in broad daylight in the Buxa Tiger Reserve on Tuesday morning, according to officials of the State’s Forest Department.

The incident occurred at about 7.30 a.m. The elephant was crossing the track when the Sampark Kranti Express rammed into the animal, pushing it for about 200 metres before coming to a halt, R.P. Saini, the Field Director of the Buxa Tiger Reserve, told The Hindu over telephone.

Although the incident occurred in an area where speed restrictions are imposed on trains to prevent such occurrences, the restrictions are only imposed in the evening hours when drivers cannot see if any herds are crossing the tracks, he said.

“The driver claims that in this incident, the elephant suddenly appeared and he could not apply the brakes in time, but eye witnesses have said that it [the train] was hurtling down the tracks quite fast,” Mr. Saini said.

It was unusual on one count — a single male elephant crossing the tracks. Usually, herds move across together and can be spotted from afar, he added.  But when elephants cross in groups, the tragedy can be much worse, as the one that occurred in January when a train crashed into five elephants before coming to a halt. In September 2010, a train had run down seven elephants.  Mr. Saini said that he would request the Railway authorities to impose speed restrictions throughout the day.  The gravity of the situation is evident in the fact that 11 elephants have been run over by trains since October last year, he said.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/elephant-run-down-by-train-in-buxa-tiger-reserve/article4480318.ece

Forest Department staff attacked while on duty

The team was in N. Belthur village to rescue a leopard

• Anti-social elements booked by Forest Department suspected to be behind the attack
• Officials dispute ‘delayed response’ as the motive for the attack

A mob assaulted Forest Department staff who had come to rescue a leopard that had strayed into N. Belthur village in H.D. Kote taluk on Tuesday.

The leopard strayed into the village from Antharsanthe range of the Nagarahole National Park and was first sighted in the bathroom of a house around 6.30 a.m. When there was a commotion, it attacked four persons, identified as Rama, Rani, Gundaiah and Krishna, and escaped into another house.

The department staff received information of the leopard attack around 8 a.m. and they reached the village by 10 a.m.

Though the immediate cause for the “unprovoked” attack on the staff is not clear, a section of the village residents said the local people were upset about the “delayed” response from the department team.

Disputing this, the officials said the staff and the veterinary team was mobilised from Mysore and Hunsur and they reached N. Belthur within 2 hours of receiving the complaint.

Terming the attack brazen and unprovoked, the staff suspected that anti-social elements, against whom cases had been booked by the department for violation of various provisions of the forest conservation and wildlife protection Acts, were behind it.

The department team, led by Range Forest Officer A.T. Pooviah, included a veterinarian armed with a tranquilliser gun, and forester Hemanth Kumar. On reaching the village, the officials found that a large number of people had surrounded the house in which the leopard was hiding.

The staff ran for cover when a section of the crowd turned its ire against them. However, they were chased around the village and roughed up. Blows were rained in on some of the guards who tried to escape into the adjoining sugarcane fields, according to a source.

Mr. Poovaiah, Mr. Kumar, and Raje Gowda and Chikkanna, watchers, who were injured in the attack, were taken to a local hospital.

When additional police force and forest staff reached the village, the mob melted away, following which the officials launched the operation to rescue the leopard. The leopard was tranquillised and released at Kaimara in the D.B. Kuppe range.

The Beechanhalli police have registered a case in connection with the attack.

The incident has been condemned by Wildlife First, an NGO, which called for a strong and deterrent action against the “emboldened criminal elements”.

Their modus operandi is to form mobs and attack Forest Department staff on duty when they enter villages either to rescue wild animals or to apprehend wildlife offenders, according to Praveen Bhargav and K.M. Chinnappa of the NGO.

They recounted two similar incidents that were reported in the region in the past and said lack of strong action against the offenders had only emboldened them.

The police should immediately identify and arrest those involved in the incident, they said.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/forest-department-staff-attacked-while-on-duty/article4480458.ece

Huge fire in Mumbai's national park near Film City

Ranjeet Jadhav

A major fire broke in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park a few meters away from the Film City in Goregaon late on Monday. Nobody was reported to have been injured in the blaze.

Mumbai:  A massive fire destroyed a huge tract of the forest cover in Mumbai's Sanjay Gandhi National Park on Monday night. The fire which broke out in the forest area behind Film City was eventually brought under control. No one was hurt in the blaze.

SGNP officials feel some miscreants deliberately set fire in the forest to delay the ongoing demolition of illegal slums in the area.

On Monday evening, at around 7 am, the SGNP control room received a call from Goregaon area that a major forest fire was blazing in the vicinity of the Film City and it was spreading further towards the boundary of SGNP.

The Fire Brigade tankers and engines along with the SGNP team rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.

Speaking to MiD DAY, Assistant Conservator of Forest Santosh Saste said, “It is very early to comment on the exact reason of the fire but I can surely say that this is not a natural fire. Already our demolition drive against the illegal structures on forestland is in progress and we suspect that some miscreants must have deliberately set the forest on fire so that the team carrying our demolition has to go to the fire spot and the demolition of next drive is cancelled. Along with the help of fire department, we have been successful in controlling and dousing the fire.”

Saste informed that a team of 20 forest workers who know how to douse fire are always ready and rush to a location the moment they are notified about a forest fire.

“A team of 20 forest workers is already posted at Loghut hill near Tulsi Lake area in core forest and another team is posted neat Gandhi Hill so that in case if there is fire in the forest area the team can reach the spot without wasting time. We have already finished the fire line work before February 15 and our forest department guards along with forest workers are also patrolling day and night on foot so that such instances can be avoided.” added Saste

According to a report prepared by Forest Department, between 2005-2010, there were more than 350 forest fire incidents reported and around 1000 hectares of forest burnt to cinders due to them.

What Fire Department has to say?

According to a fire department official, “The exact reason for the fire is yet to be known but at around 11 pm we got a call from Goregaon that there is a fire in the forest near Film City. Immediately, two of our fire engines along with forest department reached the spot and the situation was brought under control within a few hours.

Source: http://www.mid-day.com/news/2013/mar/050313-huge-fire-in-mumbais-national-park-near-film-city.htm

PILs against tourism in tiger reserves

Two public interest litigation petitions have been filed in the Madras High Court Bench here — one challenging a notification issued by the Centre on October 15, laying down guidelines for tourism activities around tiger reserves, and another to quash separate proceedings issued by the State Forest Department on February 18, permitting tourism-related activities at Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve in Tirunelveli district.

SWASAM Trust, a non-governmental organisation represented by its managing trustee S. Ramesh, had filed both the petitions through its counsel T. Lajapathi Roy.

The trust claimed that permitting tourism-related activities in and around tiger reserves would defeat the object of ‘Project Tiger,’ a scheme implemented by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests since 1973 for ensuring a viable population of tiger in the country for scientific, economic, aesthetic, cultural and ecological values.

Claiming that he was one among the members of a Local Advisory Committee for Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, Mr. Ramesh said that the Chief Conservator of Forests and Field Director of the Reserve had erred in issuing the February 18 notification permitting tourists to enjoy boating in Karaiyar Dam and drive their vehicles up to upper Kodayar area. He contended that both the activities would prove disastrous to the wildlife and ecosystem in the Reserve.

“Allowing vehicles inside the core area would affect breeding of tiger population.”

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/pils-against-tourism-in-tiger-reserves/article4477495.ece