Elephants come out in search of water

R. VIMAL KUMAR
With many of the water troughs inside the Anamalai Tiger Reserve getting dried in the summer, elephant moving out of the forests in search of water in Amaravathi Dam area, has become a regular sight.

The herds are providing a visual treat to tourists visiting the place.

An official of the Forest Department said that the elephants need water to quench thirst and for bathing so as to maintain the body heat at requisite levels.

They frequently cross the Udumalpet-Munnar road stretch in search of water. It causes anxious moments both to passersby and Forest Department officials.

The department has strengthened the patrolling in the area to ensure that no motorist provokes the animals or take photographs by getting closer to them.

District Forest Officer M. Dhanaraju told The Hindu that the department was taking steps to fill the five water troughs inside the areas of Anamalai Tiger Reserve.

This would keep the elephants inside the forests itself, he said.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/elephants-come-out-in-search-of-water/article4572002.ece

Diclofenac still a major threat for vultures

PTI
New Delhi: Human formulations of the drug Diclofenac banned for veterinary use are still being illegally used to treat cattle, posing a grave danger to the already critically-endangered vulture population, say experts.

"Till the late 80s vultures could be seen breeding in Talkatora gardens as well in large hoards in various parts of the city. Once they were very common and we were worried about their excessive numbers. But that has changed. The population has witnessed an alarming crash over the past few decades," says environmentalist Ravi Aggarwal.

Almost 99 per cent of the scavenger birds are today on the verge of extinction, he points out.

"The annual mortality of the long living and slow breeding birds is not more than 5 per cent. However by mid 1990s and 2000, the species mortality rate ratcheted up to a high and 90 per cent of the vulture population had already disappeared," says Vibhu Prakash, who heads the vulture conservation programme of the Bombay Natural History Society.

The culprit was found to be use of Diclofenac, a drug which gets ingested into the birds body when they feed on the cattle treated with the drug forming white crystals of uric acid deposits on the vital organs.

Unable to excrete uric acid, the kidneys of the birds fail and eventually the vultures die of dehydration. 

"In India, 76 per cent of the dead vultures when examined showed symptoms of visceral gout. All of them had residues of diclofenac in their body. The drug is 30 to 40 times as toxic to vultures as cyanide is to rats," says Prakash.

Taking into consideration the vulture ecology, Prakash points out that "even less than 1 per cent of the carcass which has the drug can cause the kind of crash in the population which we have seen in the country."

In 2006, the Centre came up with the Vulture Action Plan whose key recommendations included a ban on the use of diclofenac, use of an alternative drug to diclofenac and initiation of a conservation breeding plan. But despite Diclofenac being banned for veterinary use the drug available in multi-dose vials for humans, is used illegally to treat cattle, point out experts.

The vulture conservation programme of BHNS, has bred some 300 birds, including 46 chicks, in three breeding centres- Pinjore in Haryana, Rani in Assam and in West Bengal. "The Society, he says, has set the 2016 as the target year to begin releasing its captive vultures," says Prakash.

Experts point out the significant role vultures play in maintaining equilibrium in the ecology.

The vultures act like scavengers to keep the environment clean by feeding on the carcass dumps. A colony of vultures can finish off a full grown cow within minutes. A dead animal asts as a culture medium of fungus and bacteria which starts growing and multiplying as soon as the animal dies, they form spores and penetrate into the soil and water and spread disease.

Populations of three Asian vulture species (White-rumped Vulture, Long-billed Vulture, and Slender-billed Vulture) have declined by more than 99 per cent in South Asia since the early 1990s. "There is a total number of 1000 slender billed vulture, 44000 round billed vulture and 12000 White vulture," says Prakash.

Talking about the Gyp Species of the vultures, Prakash points that they formed 99 per cent of the vulture population and feed on soft tissues and vital organs which form the bulk of animal body.

The Long Billed vultures nest on the cliffs and is found only in India and some parts of Pakistan and thus if the species disappear, they will become extinct.

"The slender billed vultures, one of the rarest vultures in the world, remain less than thousand today," says the scientist.

Prakash explains that if 600 pairs of each of the three species are released in the wild that will form a genetically viable and self sustainable population.

"And to get 600 pairs, we need to breed 150 pairs of each of the three species. One of the major problems with these breeding centres is that the birds have to be kept in captivity. This means they cannot soar in the sky. This, in turn, causes problems in the feet. We have already bred 50 birds in the centre under the breeding program," he says.

A lack of implementation, strong lobby and power equation as some of the major reasons which is preventing the drug Diclofenac from being wiped off completely point out experts.

"There are number of companies manufacturing meloxicam, an alternate drug for veterinary use, yet human formulations are being used for treating livestock which is a dangerous situation for vultures which continue to die. Meloxicam, compared to diclofenac, is an expensive drug," says Prakash.

While some activists say targeted advocacy and awareness generation could help in banning Diclofenac completely, others say the side effects of the drug on human body could be used and run as a parallel campaign.

Other experts also suggest the use of films and puppet shows as an effective advocacy tool to ban the drug completely and generate awareness.

The experts were participating in a lecture on "The Magnificent Vulture - End of the Road?" here which was followed by a screening of the "Vanishing vultures" directed by noted wildlife filmmaker Mike Pandey.

Source: http://zeenews.india.com/news/eco-news/diclofenac-still-a-major-threat-for-vultures_839017.html

Big cats vanishing from Satkosia

Siba Mohanty

• The number at present could well be just one or two and unless urgent measures are taken, there would be none left in near future
• The population of wild boar, spotted deer and sambhar has jumped significantly but there has been no sign of an improvement in tiger population.

Shocking as it may sound, Satkosia Tiger Reserve seems headed the Sariska way. Dwindling tiger signs and absence of breeding since two years in the habitat have rung alarm bells for Odisha’s second tiger reserve (TR).

In the 2010 enumeration by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the tiger population was estimated at eight. A host of factors now indicates that the number may have declined drastically. Although the management of the tiger reserve is collecting tiger signs from the prime habitats, they have been declining and are discouraging to say the least.

According to sources, camera traps installed in the tiger reserve have shown signs of existence of large cats, but the population is reported to have hit the nadir. Already designated a low tiger density reserve, the drop in population may push the large cats into extinction in Satkosia soon. The number at present could well be just one or two and unless urgent measures are taken, there would be none left in near future.

‘’Tiger population does not seem to be thriving since there are no signs of cubs with mothers or even juveniles to suggest that breeding is taking place and the cycle is going on. This could be fatal to the population,’’ said a source in Satkosia. Interestingly, prey base in the tiger habitat, which is connected to the tiger habitats of Central and Southern Odisha and onwards to the Central India tiger landscape, has improved over the last few years. The population of wild boar, spotted deer and sambhar has jumped significantly, but there has been no sign of an improvement in tiger population.

 The Satkosia TR management too is aware of the impending crisis. “Prey base has improved and so has the habitat and there is no incident of poaching and no sign of repopulation. It may have to do with the sex ratio of the existing population,” Field Director Pandav Behera told “Express” on Monday.

Sources said skewed the sex ratio could be a major reason behind the crash in the tiger population in Satkosia. “Camera traps had captured an adult male in Labangi about three months back and it suggested existence of the last few. But absence of growth in population indicates that there is either no female and even if there is, it is not in the breeding age anymore,” sources added. Worryingly, all the photographs captured in the reserve area are of the same male tiger.

The tiger that is currently roaming the forests of Chandaka Wildlife Division is believed to have strayed from Satkosia and may have been a key indicator of what is wrong with the latter. Wildlife Wing insiders say the male may have been out on the lookout for a female for mating. Satkosia was declared a TR in 2007 with 524 sq km as core area out of the 963 sq km reserve area. The NTCA in its Management Effectiveness Evaluation Report 2010-11 had categorically pointed out Satkosia had “poor protection, little wildlife orientation and no monitoring,” asking for urgent redressal. But the State has not made any effort yet.

Source: http://newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/article1517783.ece

Can you get a degree in wildlife in India?

Shamala Kittane Subramanyan

Yes, you can, but only in namma Bengaluru! In the second of our 3-part series, look at the NCBS and how it’s innovating on research in the biological sciences.

"We are a pure science research institute that focuses on biological sciences but we are also probably the only institute that recognises the need to diversify. We have students from engineering and technology backgrounds taking up Ph.D courses with us," says Dr. Mukund Thattai, Professor (Computational cell biology) capturing the essence of the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, an offshoot of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).

NCBS Campus. Pic courtesy: ncbs.res.in

Students have to appear for an entrance exam held by TIFR which is a common exam for about seven institutes : TIFR, CDFD, NBRC, CCMB, NCCS, TCIS and NCBS.

"The exam is balanced. It's not just knowledge-based but tests students on their logical thinking and problem solving skills. This increases the scope for students from disciplines other than the pure sciences to compete," reveals Thattai.

Out of all the students that appear for the exam to get into TIFR, about 9000 students apply to NCBS alone. 200-250 applications are selected for the next round which comprises a three day intensive interview with the researchers at NCBS. About 35 students are taken into the institute and with a 30 member faculty. it makes for a good research partnership.

Students are exposed to all areas of research on a rotational basis in the first six months. The faculty also help students ramp up by supporting them with study sessions on basics of pure science subjects, so that they are able to cope with the rotation classes. After which the students get to choose the research area and begin work on their thesis. After 1.5 years they appear before a Thesis Committee to present their subjects and scope and need to proceed ahead. Most students complete their research in five and half years. "What we are really looking for are students with an open mind that are ready to experiment" says Dr. Thattai.

Pic courtesy: ncbs.res.in

NCBS also hosts innovative annual events such as Hackteria - an intensive two-week transdisciplinary collaboration amongst international and local artists, hackers, activists, scientists, and even artists and designers.

The Institute recognises the current lack of visibility of research being done in such institutes among undergrads and that such visibility could help them make their next big career move. Thus Thattai points out, "We also have summer programs to encourage undergraduate students to intern with us. This could jump-start their research careers"

Research at NCBS

An autonomous institute has come up in the vicinity of the NCBS campus: The Stem Cell Institute. Stem cell is a new field that is gathering momentum in the field of research. "The interaction between faculty at the Stem Cell Institute and NCBS is a further boost to our research studies," says Thattai about all that is happening in the campus.

Dr Annamma Spudich.
Pic courtesy: ncbs.res.in

He also refers to the new dimensions to science brought in by Dr. Annamma Spudich, Scholar in Residence at NCBS, along with Dr. Indhudharan Menon, Professor at NCBS, by capturing the history and tradition of scientific research.

"Asia in the making of Europe," a book by Prof. Donald F. Lach, is one that Dr. Annamma Spudich refers to as she talks about the Indian ethnobotanical knowledge that made India the nexus of world trade during the colonial period. India being blessed with tropical climate was home to rich flora and fauna. Thus biological sciences were not only documented in our ancient scriptures, there is also extensive documentation by Dutch and Portugal scientists and travellers starting early 16th century.

Along with exhibit "Such Treasure and Rich Merchandize: Indian Botanical knowledge in
16th and 17th Century European Books.”, a herbal garden incorporating
50 medicinal plants described in the Hortus Malabaricus was set up at the NCBS.
Pic:courtesy:ncbs.res.in

Dr. Mukund Thattai
Professor, NCBS.
Pic courtesy: ncbs.res.in

Dr. Spudich says "NCBS has tremendous intellectual breadth and its now home to me". She has made a shift from her research career in the field of experimental sciences at Stanford University and is now dedicated to what's closer to her heart, "History of Indian healing traditions". Her work was exhibited at the Cantor Arts Centre, Stanford University in 2003 and also at NCBS in 2008. The exhibition stimulated scholarly and popular interest and was acquired by the Department of Forests and Environment, Govt. of India. It is on view as a permanent exhibit at the Natural History Museum in Mysore. The catalog of the exhibition is available from the NCBS library. (www.ncbs.res.in).

Dr. Thattai himself acknowledges, "20 years ago publishing a research paper in India was difficult, now we have so many well recognised institutes in India that publishing papers from India is as easy now. In fact our standards are equivalent to good institutes abroad and there is also good money for researchers in the field; the only area in which we are falling short is the number of students in India, and especially in Bangalore, who come forward to take up pure sciences as a career."

Unique programme

NCBS also has an M.Sc. programme in Wildlife - in partnership with WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and CWS (Centre for Wildlife Studies). The course is announced once in every two years. "Almost every university in the US has courses in wildlife and conservation but not a single one in India offers them." is Dr. Ajith Kumar's (Professor and Course Director, Wildlife Conservation Society) concern. The intake of this programme is 15 students (every two years). "This is a passion driven course and people find their way to us" says Kumar, when asked why the course is not advertised more.

This is proved correct from what Bhanu Sridharan (MSc in Wildlife, 2010-2012) has to share: In 2009, Bhanu walked into the NCBS campus to find out more about the controversial road that was to be laid right through the pristine campus of GKVK (Gandhi Krishi Vigyan Kendra) where NCBS is also located. As her interactions with professors and students at NCBS increased, she was convinced that her bonding with the institute was destined to extend beyond just one story. She eventually enrolled for the Wildlife course. Now, even after she has passed out, NCBS remains her work space "I still work from NCBS; they are informal that way. So alumni can come back, use the libraries or work spaces around here and work," she says.

The Masters programme in wildlife is a fully funded course with a fellowship or stipend every month and the course also covers accommodation and food. They have a separate entrance exam that you have to watch out for on their website. "Most of our students who pass out opt for Ph.D or get involved in organisations working on conservation of wildlife in India and abroad." They have many dissertations and papers to their credit.

Bhanu also expresses her deep gratitude for Ullas Karanth and WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society). Karanth is the one who started the course, raised the funds for it and contacted NCBS. He started out as an engineer and is now amongst some of the well known wildlife conservationists in India and abroad.

Life at NCBS

It is not just unique programmes or innovative research that makes NCBS an exciting place to be in, you are made to feel at ease and the campus is actually so much fun.

"The facilities in NCBS are fantastic. As part of my M.Sc. I did a scuba diving course, " says Bhanu enthisiastically, adding "I also used to be very uninterested in sports, but now I am trying to learn to play squash at the sports complex." She is also taking lessons in a new dance form called zumba, which is being taught on campus by a researcher from Germany.

Inclusivity is another aspect that distinguishes this Institute. As Bhanu explains, "NCBS is open to students from varied backgrounds, as in my case itself - I hold a Bachelors degree in communication studies and getting a fully-funded seat abroad in Wildlife studies would have been difficult. But NCBS gave me that opportunity."

Source: http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/4977-know-more-about-the-national-centre-for-biological-sciences

Beyond The Sugarcane Fields

JAY MAZOOMDAAR

A landmark study on reducing man-leopard conflict misses the conservation point

Photo: Aditya Singh

NO ANIMAL, not even the snake, attracts more bad press than the leopard. The worst victim of poaching in India, it is also the biggest killer of people among all large carnivores. The leopard’s prey preference for smaller livestock and dogs draws it close to habitations. The result is nationwide conflict, from Uttarakhand to Kerala and Gujarat to Assam.

Against this background, a recent paper, Big Cats in Our Backyards, published by the Public Library of Science, an open-source scientific publication project, has important clues to co-existence. The study recorded up to six resident leopards per 100 sq km in the Sangamner sub-division of Maharashtra’s Ahmadnagar district. They lounge in the ample cover of sugarcane fields during the day and scout the villages and towns for dogs in the night.

The arrangement is working without significant conflict in this densely populated agricultural belt where people don’t panic at the mere sight of leopards. This is against the conventional practice of trapping every “stray” leopard and releasing them in faraway forests. The study establishes that the cropland leopards are not “stray” animals but residents with cubs and cannot be whisked away.

If trapped and released away from home, leopards, like all cats, try to return and run into people at unfamiliar places. Since trapping is a traumatic experience, such encounters rarely end amicably. The lesson from the study is that leopards among people are not necessarily a threat to human safety as long as they are not disturbed. The study also found a degree of traditional tolerance towards these animals in the rural communities; this, of course, can be enhanced by compensating villagers for livestock losses.

While the findings offer insight into the leopard’s adaptability, judging larger carnivores by the same parameters may backfire. Sugarcane fields also attracted tigers in Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh. Many blame the intolerance of the local residents for the resulting conflict. But tigers need large prey and recurrent loss of cattle cannot be compared to that of chicken. More importantly, an accidental encounter with a leopard usually ends with a deep scratch or two, but a tiger can break the human skull with an irritated swipe.

The paper also paints the cropland model as an alternative approach to conservation. That claim is suspect. First, the so-called “backyard leopards” live in a modified habitat. A cropland is a monoculture plantation which, compared to natural forests, performs little or no ecosystem services, such as hosting biodiversity or acting as carbon sinks or watersheds. No matter how many leopards find shelter in cropland, no amount of plantation can compensate the loss of a forest.

Secondly, sugarcane is being promoted across large areas in certain states for purely economic reasons. The presence of leopards in these fields is incidental and a change in crop selection or land use may expel them rapidly in the not so distant future.

Thirdly, having resident populations on cropland does not necessarily help genetic exchange. When wild animals disperse from a forest, they don’t search for another forest. They merely look for a suitable habitat with good cover and prey, which usually happens to be another forest, where they settle down and join a new population.

If leopards find sufficient artificial cover and domestic prey base to settle down in cropland outside the parent forest, it results in an expansion, and not dispersal, of a wild population. When two neighbouring populations expand, they draw closer. But the extension of a forest population in a sugarcane field, in fact, creates two sub-populations.

Cropland leopards are known for their obesity. Animals thriving on easy domestic prey are unlikely to disperse to forests where they would have to hunt in the wild. But resource-rich cropland may keep drawing more individuals from forests, creating a dense sub-population buffer between two diminishing wilder populations. Does this affect gene flow? Unlikely. Will this alter population distribution and dynamics? That calls for another study.

jaymazoomdaar@gmail.com
Source: http://tehelka.com/beyond-the-sugarcane-fields/

Ten Sunderbans tigers to get collars

Krishnendu Mukherjee, TNN | Apr 1, 2013
The forest department has decided to radio-collar ten tigers in the Sunderbans where population dynamics of the big cats has al ways remained a mystery. And this time, an advanced set of radio collars, which helped scientists track tigers in Nepal and lions in Gir, will be used in the mangroves.

A team of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) officials, led by senior scientist Y V Jhala, is likely to visit the mangroves in April for the first leg of the exercise. However, a forest department official said the number of tigers to be collared during their first visit will only be decided after consulting the WII scientists. "The dates for their visit is yet to be finalized," said the official.

It may be noted that a total of five tigers, two adult females and three adult males, were radio-collared by the WII scientists in the Sunderbans in 2010. Satellite collars were used for this purpose. Sources said radio-collaring helps experts gauge the home range of tigers , which in the long run comes handy in establishing the density of the big cats in a forest. The study had then revealed that the tigers' home ranges hovered between 190 to 200 square kilometres.

Though large home range indicates lesser density, as a tiger's home range depends on prey base and territory of other tigers, in Sunderbans the exercise didn't yield the desired result then as several collars stopped working within a few days of its deployment.

WII's Y V Jhala said that some data on the tigers' home range and territory could not be established then. "But this time, we have made some changes in the circuitry of the satellite collars to make these robust ones. We have used these collars on lions at Gir and they have even functioned at a stretch for a year. So, this time we expect to get a more reliable data," he said, adding that they are hoping to collar all the ten tigers in a year's time.

However, the exercise then managed to establish the fact that there is tiger movement between the Indian and Bangladesh Sunderbans. "The Khatuajhuri male, which was a stray animal, had crossed the Harinbhanga river to enter the Talpati island of Bangladesh Sunderbans," revealed a WII scientist.

Tracking of the radio-collared tigers had also revealed that there was a general trend of higher movement rate by the mangroves tigers during the day time. However, soon after this study the WII scientists decided to radio collar a minimum of 10 tigers, of which 4-6 in a contagious area of 300-400 square kilometres, to understand home range overlap and territoriality. "The exercise to be conducted now will help the scientists understand whether and how Sunderbans tigers protect their territory," said an official.

Meanwhile, the camera trapping exercise, being done jointly by the forest department and WWF-India, is complete in two ranges of the mangrove's — Sajnekhali and National Park East. "The exercise is on at the Basirhat range. We will start withdrawing the cameras laid at Basirhat from April 11 and hope to give a density for the entire tiger reserve area by the end of April," said WWF-India's Sunderbans chapter head Anurag Danda. After identification, the photographs will be sent to the National Tiger Conservation Authority, so that the Sunderbans tigers can be counted in the UID-type databank.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Ten-Sunderbans-tigers-to-get-collars/articleshow/19315987.cms