Road mishap kills bear near Navegaon

Vijay Pinjarkar, TNN | May 9, 2013
NAGPUR: With National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) reluctant to take wildlife protection measures while widening NH-6, a speeding vehicle knocked dead an adult sloth bear close to Shashikiran hills near Dongargaon early Wednesday morning.

"The spot where the bear was crushed falls in Sadak Arjuni range and borders Navegaon wildlife sanctuary. It is single road and a corridor patch. I suspect the animal must be moving towards Navegaon when it was hit," said S V Ramarao, deputy conservator of forests (DyCF), Gondia. Wild animals dying in road hits has become common on NH6, which has been widened from two lanes to four lanes. However, there is not a single patch where NHAI has taken mitigation measures.

On patches between Sakoli and Deori, Wildlife Institute of India ( WII), Dehradun, has suggested mitigation measures like constructing underpasses but this is not acceptable to NHAI, leading to accidents. On January 28, a honey badger (chandi aswal), a rare animal, was knocked dead at the same spot. The Supreme Court has already taken serious view of high mortality of wildlife on roads passing around protected areas (PAs) due to lack of mitigation measures. NHAI is yet to wake up.

Ramarao said the mishap occurred in the wee hours. There is a blind turn at the spot and the speeding vehicle must have hit the bear when it suddenly came out of the bushes to cross the road. The carcass was shifted the Dongargaon forest depot where a post-mortem was performed. Sawan Bahekar, honorary district wildlife warden of Gondia, demanded signboards at vulnerable spots and speed restrictions. "How many more wild animals will keep dying like this," he asked.

Initially officials felt it might be case of poaching but Ramarao said the bear died due to severe internal injuries. The head of the animal was crushed completely and it died on the spot.

Death Dance On NH6

January 7, 2011: A leopard died after being hit by a vehicle near Talegaon ghat under Wardha forest division

May 15, 2011: A full grown leopard knocked dead near Baghnadi between Deori and Rajnandgaon by an unidentified speeding vehicle

Sept 18, 2011: A sambar knocked dead in Duggipar beat under Sadak Arjuni range in Kohmara in Navegaon-Nagzira corridor

On Nov 23, 2011: A full grown leopard knocked dead in the evening near Bazargaon paper mill near Nagpur in Kalmeshwar forest range

Dec 22, 2011: An adult leopard died in road hit near Dongargaon

Jan 6, 2013: A jungle cat found dead near Hardoli, 35km from Nagpur on Amravati Road. The carnivore was hit on its head and died due to excessive bleeding

Jan 28, 2013: A honey badger knocked dead near Dongargaon of Sadak Arjuni forest range in Gondia

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Nagpur/Road-mishap-kills-bear-near-Navegaon/articleshow/19959473.cms

Fearing cruelty, environment ministry says no to dolphin parks

Chetan Chauhan, Hindustan Times  New Delhi, May 08, 2013
A dolphin kiss or their playful nature in man-made water holes would remain elusive for the Indian audience.

The environment ministry rejected the plan to develop dolphinariums in different locations in India, including Delhi's neighbourhood of Noida, Kochi in Kerala and Mumbai.

Dolphinarium is an artificial, commercial facility where the aquatic animals are kept in captivity and displayed for amusement of audience at a high price by taking away their right to live in their natural habitat. India's only brush with dolphinarium was in 1990s with a park in Chennai, which closed soon after the death of all captive mammals.

Places such as United States and Dubai have big dolphin parks and are branded as an effort to create awareness about recluse creature. But, Brazil, United Kingdom and Chile have banned dolphins in captivity.

"We will not allow dolphinariums," environment and forest minister Jayanthi Natarajan told Hindustan Times.

The ministry would soon come out with a ban on dolphin parks, some of which were proposed in collaboration with foreign players. The reason is that the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, and the Wildlife Protection Act prohibits display of animals and birds for amusement, a reason for them vanishing from circuses in India.

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Fearing-cruelty-environment-ministry-says-no-to-dolphin-parks/Article1-1056519.aspx

After Mhadei find, tiger expert on big cat trail in Cotigao

TNN | May 8, 2013
PANAJI: A team of experts led by noted conservation zoologist Kota Ullas Karanth has commenced work on a comprehensive tiger survey in the Cotigao wildlife sanctuary and other protected areas after the recent success of the camera trap method.

The Goa government had recently cleared the decks for an intensive survey and within a few weeks of the go-ahead the forest department had captured a tigress on camera within the limits of the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary.

The extensive study, which will extend for four years till 2017, will rely on refined protocols such as camera trap findings to assess the presence of the big cat and the prey base in Goa's forests.

"He (Karanth) has given a list of 45 spots in different sanctuaries to lay camera traps and line transects for the survey," said Richard D'Souza, principal chief conservator of forests. While the expert will conduct the study, the forest department will also independently do its work, especially in Mhadei.

The protected areas of Cotigao, Neturlim, Molem national park, Bondla and Mhadei form a contiguous corridor with tiger areas in Karnataka.

The tiger estimation done by the forest department in the past has shown the presence of tigers. Three had been counted in 1993, five in 1997 and 2002.

Though the forest department had been in a denial syndrome for a long time earlier, things have changed recently with significant findings.

"This vindicates the stand taken by some officials and animal lovers who have claimed the big cats' existence here for more than a decade and a half," a source said.

Referring to the work being done in the protected areas over the last few days D'Souza said, "This is the actual groundwork for the survey."

Goa's protected areas have been identified as a tiger conservation unit (TCU) along with the contiguous forest areas of Karnataka and Maharashtra in a study by international organizations.

The World Wide Fund International, US Fish and Wildlife Services and Wild Life Conservation Society, New York, in a study had categorized the Western Ghats as the second best tiger habitat in India after the Sunderbans in West Bengal.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/After-Mhadei-find-tiger-expert-on-big-cat-trail-in-Cotigao/articleshow/19942067.cms

Wildlife wing unable to control Bear

Siba Mohanty - BHUBANESWAR | 07th May 2013
The death of eight tribals at the hands of a bear that was later lynched by angry villagers in Kotpad has exposed all that is ailing with Wildlife Wing and  also its callous attitude. The precious lives of the villagers as well as that of the wild animal could have been saved had Koraput Circle, under which Kotpad comes, possessed a tranquilliser gun.

 Even as the crisis broke out on Saturday, the Wildlife officials had no clue how to control the situation as the rabid bear went on attacking residents of villages located in a radius of 5 to 6 km. A tranquilliser team from Bhawanipatna Circle had to be summoned, but by the time it reached on Sunday, it was too late.

 Of the eight Forest Circles in the State, Berhampur and Koraput Circles do not possess tranquilliser guns. On Monday, a day after the shocking incident, the Wildlife Wing woke up to the problem and began measures to address the situation.

 Queer as it may sound, every time such a problem crops up, the Chief Wildlife Warden pulls out the tranquilliser team from Nandankanan Zoological Park since striking teams in other divisions are not in a state of preparedness.

 Interestingly, a bear from Nandankanan Zoo, which escaped from its enclosure about a week back, is yet to be traced. If the animal resurfaces, there will be no expert hand in the zoo to immobilise it immediately. Similarly, if  the wild tiger housed in the zoo’s safari needs urgent tranquillisation, there is none at hand to do the job. And the Wildlife Wing simply does not have a Plan B.

 In fact, Nandankanan, which has men specialised in tranquillisation, has  imparted training to over 100 wildlife personnel in the last three years, but absence of tranquilliser guns has posed a serious problem. Despite the procurement process being time consuming and tedious, barely about half a dozen guns have been procured so far, that too, through the central purchase system of the zoo and supplied to other divisions.

 The guns, which require a technology different from firearms, are imported from Dist Inject, a French company with facilities in Switzerland and Germany.

To purchase the equipment, the zoo has to apply to the Director-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Office at Cuttack for an import licence. The Centre gives a no- objection certificate (NOC) for the import and seeks a similar certificate from the State Wildlife Wing.

 “Since tranquilliser guns are vulnerable to fall in the hands of terrorists, there is heavy restriction on its procurement and genuineness of use is verified too. Procurement of guns takes anything from six months to one year which is why forest divisions find it hard to go through the elaborate paperwork.

This is precisely the reason why Wildlife Wing should have made the procurements well in advance given the rising man-animal conflict in the State,” said an insider.

Source: http://newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/Wildlife-wing-unable-to-control-Bear/2013/05/07/article1578473.ece