Jumbos get new home at Usilampatti?

Express News Service - MADURAI 01st April 2013
The reserve forests of Usilampatti now have a new entrant to its habitat, wild elephants, according a recent census by wildlife activists and environmentalists. The elephants, which till recently were never spotted in the Usilampatti region, have now migrated from their usual habitat in Sattur along the western ghats, said B Ramesh of the Netaji Snake Trust, which was a part of the census. He attributed the migration to the abundant resources, especially natural vegetation, in the region.

“The last survey, done in 2010, only included the endemic species like the spotted deer, the great Indian Sambhar and the common langur. However, this year, the 30-member group, including volunteers from the Nature Conservation Club, conducted an in-depth survey last week and found footprints and dung of elephants,” he added.

Ramesh and his team again then camped in the forest to confirm the movement of wild elephants -- said to be a first in the region. A herd of four elephants would have migrated here searching for water and other resources, Ramesh speculated.  Interestingly, the team also found pug marks of leopards - another species not common to the Usilampatti reserves.

“Though drought is prevailing in the entire district, the Usilampatti reserves have become dense and coarse, thus attracting a number of species. The entire vast expanse is ideal for the elephants,” Ramesh added. However, it was unclear whether the jumbos have made the Usilampatti forests their home.

“The elephants that were spotted might belong to a single herd as elephants are constantly on the move. So, those found in the Usilampatti reserve would have just migrated and could even leave after spending a week or more,” said elephant expert and veterinarian Dr Kalaivanan. The elephants could have migrated from Theni or from other parts along the western ghats, he added.

The census report has been submitted to the Forest Department in Madurai, which now has to  confirm the findings. The census team also requested the Forest Department to place camera traps with heat sensing technology in the reserve forests to further track such data. When contacted, district forest officer A S Marimuthu said that the authorities would soon visit the Usilampatti reserve to confirm the findings.

Source: http://newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/article1525047.ece

Power project stuck as TN fails to constitute wildlife board

K A Shaji, TNN Apr 1, 2013
COIMBATORE: Tamil Nadu's failure to constitute a State Board for Wildlife (SBWL) is posing problems for at least three major projects mooted by the AIADMK government, including the much anticipated 2X500MW Coal-based Thermal Power Plant at Tuticorin.

According to top sources in the Union ministry of environment and forests, three proposals that came up for clearance were turned down at a recent meeting of the standing committee for National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), which said these were submitted directly by the state without getting the mandatory approval of the state board. The committee then found that Tamil Nadu was the only one state in the country that had not constituted the SBWL. Like NBWL, which frames wildlife protection policies at the national level, SBWL is expected to undertake the task at the state level. Any project that could have an impact on a protected wildlife area has to get the clearance of both SBWL and NBWL.

The refusal of NBWL to discuss the Tuticorin power plant mooted jointly by Neyveli Lignite Corporation Limited and the state department of power happens at a time when Tamil Nadu is facing an extraordinary energy crisis. According to NBWL standing committee member and senior wildlife scientist A J T Johnsingh, there is no option left before the state government other than to constitute SBWL at the earliest. The NBWL clearance is mandatory for the Tuticorin project as it comes within the 10 km periphery of Mullakadu range of forests.

Proposals for a bridge on Chennai-Pulicat Road and a fish landing centre at Periyamongagodu near Thiruvallur are similarly stuck as NBWL standing committee has refused clearance. While 1.11 hectare of forest land from Pulicat Bird Sanctuary will have to be transferred for constructing the bridge on Pasiyavaram Road, the fish landing centre needs 0.65 hectare of forest land from the same sanctuary. NBWL will look at the proposals only after these are cleared by its state counterpart. "According to Section-6 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 (amended in 2006), each state government is bound to constitute a state board for wildlife under the chairmanship of the chief minister or administrator in the case of a Union territory. It is a curious case that Tamil Nadu is lacking such a board. It is high time the state government constituted the board as interests of wildlife must be protected while undertaking bigger development projects,'' said K Mohan Raj of Tamil Nadu Green Movement.

According to Johnsingh, Uttarakhand was giving Tamil Nadu company till last year. "But that state constituted the board in 2012 leaving Tamil Nadu as the only one without the board. Setting up the SBWL will help boost conservation and ensure protection of forest wealth. The Supreme Court has stressed the importance of review of projects by such a board on a number of occasions. The nation board can decide on projects only on the basis of the findings of the state board,'' he said.

Sources in the ministry said NBWL members, Kishore Rithe, Prerna Singh Bindra, M K Ranjit Singh and N Madhusudan, expressed concern that Tamil Nadu has approached the national body without even constituting its local board.

Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-04-01/coimbatore/38188792_1_nbwl-sbwl-state-board

Blackbuck count doubles in Vallanadu sanctuary

J Arockiaraj
TUTICORIN: The recent wildlife census conducted in Vallanadu Blackbuck Sanctuary has some good news for wildlife lovers as the number of blackbucks here has almost doubled. While the 2010 wildlife census put the number of blackbucks at 39, it has gone up to 79 during the census organised by the forest department on Wednesday.

Spread over 1,645 hectares in Srivaikundam taluk, the sanctuary is a safe home for blackbuck - an antelope species native to the Indian subcontinent. The graceful animal, which roamed the Indian sub-continent until the 19th and early 20th centuries, is now confined to a few states and sanctuaries due to intense poaching and loss of habitat.

During Wednesday's census 30 volunteers from the Pearl City Nature Society (PCNS) in Tuticorin and 20 forest officials spotted 79 blackbucks. They also found two spotted deer and a barking deer.

Forest officials from Tuticorin forest division said that the census was carried out on the instructions of conservator of forest Rakesh Kumar Dogra and district forest officer (DFO) S Shenbagamurthy.

The officials said that protective measures they took in the sanctuary have yielded good results. "After the 2010 census, the department recruited six anti-poaching watchers and the surveillance was increased. Besides, awareness programmes were held for the villagers near the sanctuary," said U Isakkimuthu, Srivaikundam range officer. As grazing the cattle in the sanctuary exposes the blackbucks to diseases from domestic animals, the department even conducted veterinary camps in the villages for the cattle. "It helped in preventing the spread of contagious diseases to antelopes," Isakkimuthu said.

The wildlife lovers expressed their excitement over the findings, however, they expressed the need to develop pasture lands and water facilities in the sanctuary. "It is indeed good news that the blackbuck nunbers are increasing," said Thomas Mathibalan, census coordinator from PCNS. "During the census, we spotted many blackbucks on the boundaries and private lands adjacent to the sanctuary than in the heart of the sanctuary. They are looking out for pasture lands and water in the private lands," said Naveen Joseph, a census volunteer.

"With the rise in numbers, the sanctuary should be developed with better pasture lands and spraying millets during the monsoons will improve fodder inside the sanctuary. The fences are also broken at many places. Besides, we found feral dogs and cattle inside which is a serious menace for blackbucks," stated K Vijayavel, a PCNS member.

DFO Shenbagamurthy said that the sanctuary has been allotted funds and the works for improving the pasture lands and water facilities will commence in a short period.

Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-03-30/flora-fauna/38144678_1_wildlife-census-blackbucks-pasture-lands

2013 In The Indian Wild

JAY MAZOOMDAAR | 2013-03-23

A red alert from the ministry, a damning report at Bangkok and our killing fields

THE NATIONAL Tiger Conservation Authority sounded a countrywide red alert against poaching last week. On 7 March, a report released at the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species meet in Bangkok extrapolated figures from global seizures to claim more than 100 cases of tiger poaching every year since 2000.

Most of these pelts and bones originate from India, home to more than half of the world’s wild tigers. Leopards are a bigger victim with an estimated 200 poached annually and a large number falling prey to man-animal conflict. Seizures, carcasses and lynch mobs often make headlines, but rarely present the scale of the slaughter that continues despite international attention and domestic initiatives. Barely 10 weeks into 2013, consider the numbers India’s killing fields have to offer this year:

JAN-FEB Uttarakhand Police recover 22 leopard skins and arrest 14 people in different operations.

JAN-MARCH 13 rhinos poached in Assam. Railway tracks claim six elephants.

6 JANUARY Tiger poached on the outskirts of Pench in Maharashtra.

11, 12 JANUARY Raids in Nepal lead to seizures of seven tiger skins and 53 kg of tiger bones, including 140 canines that amount to 35 tigers. Many believe the consignments were from Uttarakhand.

12 JANUARY A problem tigress shot dead near Navegaon in Maharashtra.

13 JANUARY A leopard trapped for the third time in Mumbai’s Aarey Colony.

17 JANUARY A tiger carcass found in the buffer of Pench in Madhya Pradesh.

21 JANUARY A leopard trapped at a village near Palamu, Jharkhand.

24 JANUARY Leopard caught in a cable wire trap near Shiroda in Goa.

27 JANUARY Man arrested for electrocuting a leopard near Panna in MP.

28 JANUARY A sloth bear killed on NH-6 near Navegaon. The same day, a leopard was found dead in Gujarat’s Junagadh.

29 JANUARY Two arrested with wild boar meat from Panna. The same day, a leopard trapped near Siliguri, West Bengal.

2 FEBRUARY Two poachers held with leopard and deer hides in Similipal, Odisha.

4 FEBRUARY Two held with a leopard pelt, two bear gall bladders and a leopard cat pelt near Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand.

7 FEBRUARY Tiger found poisoned in Rajaji National Park, Uttarakhand.

9 FEBRUARY Villagers hang leopard from a tree in Dibrugarh, Assam.

11 FEBRUARY An elephant carcass, probably poached, found in Saranda, Jharkhand.

13 FEBRUARY 15 freshwater turtles recovered from a smuggler in Chandigarh.

15 FEBRUARY Leopard poisoned near Haldwani in Uttarakhand. A dead lioness dumped inside a walled well in Gujarat’s Amreli district.

20 FEBRUARY Four persons, including family members of forest guards, arrested for killing four leopards inside Mumbai’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

21 FEBRUARY Three men held with five tiger pelts and a porcupine from Chinhat, Uttar Pradesh. Another held in Mumbai with a leopard skin.

23 FEBRUARY About 30 kg of pangolin scales seized from three men in Uttarakhand.

25 FEBRUARY A leopard trapped in Karnataka’s Hassan district.

26 FEBRUARY Ailing leopard cub dies near Nagpur as a range officer let his family pose with the animal for hours before allowing any medical help. A leopard found dead inside Kanha Tiger Reserve.

27 FEBRUARY Villagers lynch a leopard in Poonch, Jammu & Kashmir.

3 MARCH Two poachers arrested while cooking a leopard cub they hunted near Kumbhalgarh sanctuary in Rajasthan.

4 MARCH Four held for poaching a tiger in Melghat.

6 MARCH Female leopard, fifth since 2011, was knocked dead on NH-6 near Nagzira sanctuary. A leopard was captured in a village near Nagarahole Tiger Reserve.

9 MARCH Man held at Mumbai airport with 97 turtles.

11 MARCH Tiger found dead with signs of bleeding from the nose and the rectum in Sunderbans.

Yet, this is only the tip of the iceberg, because for every killing on this laundry list, at least five went unnoticed. For all the alerts and reports, there is little investment in building a workforce trained to investigate, prosecute and, most importantly, gather field intelligence. If laws and guns alone could save the wild, this count would have been different after four decades of the Wildlife (Protection) Act and a ban on hunting.

jaymazoomdaar@gmail.com

(Published in Tehelka Magazine, Volume 10 Issue 12, Dated 23 March 2013)
Source: http://tehelka.com/2013-in-the-indian-wild/