Tiger reserve status for Rajaji Park

C. K. CHANDRAMOHAN | DEHRA DUN, May 26, 2013

The Union government has given the nod to a proposal to grant the Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand the status of a tiger reserve.

It will be the second tiger reserve in the State after the Corbett National Park.

Announcing this here over the weekend, Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) S.S. Sharma said the elevated status would go a long way in conservation of tigers in the region.

There are at present 42 tiger reserves in the country.

Citing a communication received from the Centre in this regard, Mr. Sharma said the tiger reserve at the Rajaji National Park would cover an area of 1,150 sq.km, including Shyampur of the Haridwar forest division, Kotdwar and Laldhang ranges.

Tigers are present in the Chilla and Dhaulkhand ranges of the park, which is spread over 820 sq.km in Haridwar, Dehra Dun and Pauri Garhwal districts. It has the largest elephant population in the State besides tigers, deer and other animals.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tiger-reserve-status-for-rajaji-park/article4751955.ece

Whole village to be moved from elephant corridor in India

Villagers voluntarily relocate from elephant corridor 

The region is home to some 1800 elephants

May 2013. Marking a significant milestone in efforts to secure a crucial elephant corridor in northeast India, residents of an entire village have literally put down in stone their willingness to relocate voluntarily outside the corridor to provide a clear passage for elephants.

Modern traditional houses

The foundation stone for a model ethnic village was laid down, marking the site of relocation of the Ram Terang villagers from the Kalapahar Doigurung Elephant Corridor. The village will have traditional style houses reflecting the culture of the area, but it will also be equipped with modern facilities and necessities such as electricity, health care and education.

Unveiling the foundation stone in the relocated area

Laying the foundation stone, Rechno Haising Ronghang, the 40th King of Karbi Anglong said, "This is a new step that will benefit wildlife as well as people. There should be no barrier when it comes to wildlife conservation. We need to think of it as something that is necessary for human survival too." He congratulated the team for the initiative that will benefit the people of the corridor areas.

People of the village celebrating their impending move

The Kalapahar-Doigurung Elephant Corridor connects Kalapahar with Doigurung-Nambor Wildlife Sanctuary and Kaziranga National Park. For 30 years the village of Ram Terang, named after the head of the village, has been situated in the middle of the corridor. As a result, human-elephant conflicts have been common and with regular loss of property and life for both the elephants and the humans.

1800 elephants

"There are about 1800 elephants in the Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong landscape making it the habitat of about 8% of India's elephants. Securing this corridor is not just about the right of passage for these elephants but also to relieve local people of losses caused due to conflicts", said Dr Bhaskar Choudhury, Regional Head (Assam).

The process of course, reaching up to this milestone was not an easy one. It began about three years ago.

"The villagers were very hesitant at first when we approached them with the idea of relocation, and naturally so, as it involved their complete overhaul of their livelihoods. However, eventually they understood the need and benefits of the efforts for animals as well as themselves. Many individuals and agencies played a very crucial role in achieving this, and we are extremely grateful to all of them," said Dilip Deori, Assistant Manager, WTI, while expressing his appreciation for the support and cooperation being shown by the local community and organisations.

The project was supported by Elephant Family, IUCN - Netherlands and Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund, and implemented by Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), to assist the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council and Assam Forest Department in wildlife conservation in the region.

Source: http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/elephant-village013.html#cr

Panther dies after hit by vehicle in Sariska

Rajendra Sharma, TNN May 20, 2013
ALWAR: A two-year-old male panther died in Sariska reserve after being hit by a speeding vehicle on Sunday morning. The incident took place between Kushalgarh and Bharthari areas.

The animal suffered traumatic shock, cervical fracture and a head injury, says the autopsy report.

Though the state government had come up with a panther conservation committee recently, it still remains on paper, said sources.

Panthers are endangered animals listed under Schedule 1 of Wildlife Protection Act which gives them absolute protection. A separate area was to be developed for them so that they could roam safely. According to the census conducted in 2010, the number of panthers in the reserve was put at 45 but on an average one panther is killed in road accident, poached or attacked after straying into human habitats every two days, says a study.

Concerned over the rise in panther deaths, the state was to constitute a committee for panther conservation and develop a separate territory for them in Sariska Tiger Reserve. Wildlife experts and officials of forest department were to chalk out a plan for their safety in the reserve, but hardly anything has been done so far.

According to honorary wildlife warden Anil Jain, "It is difficult for Sariska to stabilize given the fact that the Ranthambore lobby plays a very predominant role in Rajasthan. They want tourists to be diverted from Sariska and the forest department just does what they want. It has been on record that the every three to six months a divisional forest officer has been transferred from Sariska and similar is the case with the assistant conservator of forests."

Besides since the reserve is big, there is a dire need of more rangers and forest guards. "At the moment there are only six rangers which ideally should be double the number. The number of forest guards is just 110 while it should ideally be nearly 300," said Jain.

Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-05-20/jaipur/39392193_1_sariska-tiger-reserve-forest-guards-panther

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

Kerala forests now have nearly 100 tigers

IANS | May 7, 2013

The monitoring of the tigers that is currently on at the
Periyar tiger reserve is being done with the
use of cameras.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The number of tigers in Kerala's forests has gone up to 100 due to excellent protection measures for the wildlife, an official said Tuesday.

"The tigers in our forests were around 70 and now the number has gone up to around 100, and similar is the increase for other wild animals also," V Gopinath, principal chief conservator of forests in Kerala, said.

The increase in the tiger numbers has been particularly noted because forests in the Western Ghats are continguous and spread into states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. And given the vast expanse of these forests, it was but natural that wildlife often move from one region to another in search of food and habitation.

"The increase in the tiger numbers has been because of the contiguous nature of forests. Another aspect in the increasing numbers is the excellent protection given to the wildlife using funds from both the centre and states," added Gopinath.

The monitoring of the tigers that is currently on at the Periyar tiger reserve is being done with the use of cameras.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Kerala-forests-now-have-nearly-100-tigers/articleshow/19928046.cms

Who started the fire?

M R Manjunath, May 7, 2013, DHNS

Come summer, and State’s reserves face the problem of forest fires. Most of these fires are manmade, and are triggered either by vested interests or by accident. The reasons are many, and so are the methods. 

Dandeli, Nagarhole, Bandipur, Biligirirangana Betta and Kudremukh are the State’s most well-known sanctuaries, which are also tiger reserves. These forest regions are known for their rich biodiversity, from many varieties of trees including sandalwood and honne to a host of medicinal plants. Apart from tigers, the wildlife in these forests include elephants, sambars, deer, bears, langurs, Malabar squirrels, etc.

Come summer, there’s invariably the problem of forest fires. While natural forest fires are part of nature’s cycle, there are other forest fires that are sometimes triggered by man.

Forest fires that occur at a time when the region is already facing drought spells double-trouble for wildlife. The Bandipur region is facing one of its worst droughts ever this year, with all the water bodies having gone dry.

Bamboo, which is present in the forest regions of the State, blooms once in 40 years. Last year and the year before that, bamboo in the State had bloomed. Once the bamboo blooms, it dies. This year, because of the failure of rain, the forest regions in the State are full of dry bamboo. There are elements that misuse such a scenario to trigger a fire. According to forest authorities, the months from February to May call for extra vigil. The reasons for manmade fires are many.

Most forest reserves adjoin agricultural land. Sometimes, farmers trigger fires because they believe that grass growth will improve later, and will provide adequate grazing space for cattle. Then, there is the fear of monkey fever that raises it head during summer. People believe setting fire in the forest could solve that problem. Also, there is the problem of poaching. Poachers and small-time hunters often set fire to leaves because they need to enter the forest stealthily. They try and prevent the rustling of dry leaves when they step on them in the forest, by burning leaves. Tourists inadvertently trigger a forest fire when they throw cigarette stubs. Also, locals looking for honey and non-timber forest produce (NTFP) could set fire in the forest. Then, there are those seeking to avenge punishment meted out to them by the Forest Department, for having chopped trees for firewood. The reasons are many, and the methods are many as well. Forest watchers strive hard to bring the fire under control. The incident of a woman wage worker slipping and falling into the fire when she was trying to douse a fire in the Dandeli forest may be recalled here. The woman succumbed to burns.

It was not too long ago when an incident of some elements triggering a fire in Kulagi range of Dandeli occurred. The Forest Department, on its part, says it is trying its best to create awareness about forest fires and what they do to the ecosystem. Also, to combat drought conditions, the Department has also built percolation pits in the Bandipur region to supply water to wildlife.

Source: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/330710/who-started-fire.html

Trees, wildlife charred in northern Panna forest fire

TNN May 4, 2013
BHOPAL: A fire that broke out in a forest in northern region of Panna district, about 15km from the tiger reserve, on Thursday is threatening the forest cover and wildlife. Plantations in around 35 hectares of forest near Saharia area have reportedly been gutted in the fire that is spreading towards Amanganj area, said forest officials on Friday.

Making matters worse, the fire alert and messaging system (FAMS) developed by the IT wing of the forest department didn't function, sources said. FAMS uses processed remote sensing data of active fire locations and sends instant alerts to concerned field staff through the SMS and e-mail.

More than 80 forest employees and officials have been pressed into service in the area to control the fire, said SK Gupta, DFO North.

A probe has been ordered by the state forest ministry as there are allegations that the it was the handiwork of miscreants to cover up illegal felling of trees over the last few months.

NGOs blame forest officials for the fire terming it as a planned 'incident' to hush up illegal felling and show expenditures of budget allotted for fire protection. "I have moved a PIL seeking investigation on rampant illegal felling of teak woods from the northern range of Panna recently. The fire broke out in the same area. It's intentionally done to destroy the evidences," alleges Shrikant Dixit, who runs an NGO in Panna.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Trees-wildlife-charred-in-northern-Panna-forest-fire/articleshow/19876054.cms

Villagers lynch wild bear that killed 8 persons

• The wild bear started attacking villagers from Saturday
• It may have been lured out of the forest by the smell of cashew apples and mahua flowers: Forest officials

A wild bear that killed eight persons and injured five persons in the past 24 hours was lynched by villagers in the Kotpad area of Koraput district on Sunday.

The injured were first admitted to the Kotpad Community Health Centre. Later they were shifted to the Koraput district hospital.

According to police sources, the deceased included two women.

Forest officials said a team from the Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar was called in to capture the errant bear by using tranquilisers. Before the team could reach Koraput, the bear faced the wrath of angry villagers.

Villagers upset

The villagers had been upset with the killings by the bear. They had even staged a dharna in front of the forest ranger’s office in Kotpad. They blocked roads at several places in Kotpad.

The villagers tracked down the bear near the Girla village before the forest officials could capture it alive. Eyewitnesses said the animal was first hit by a jeep. Then it was beaten to death by the mob. They then carried the carcass in a procession in Kotpad.. Later, the forest officials seized the carcass.

Laxmikant Mishra, Divisional Forest Officer, and sub-collector Birendra Karkara rushed to the area and promised compensation to the families of victims. They also assured proper treatment of the injured.

Forest officials said the bear might have strayed out of the jungle lured by the smell of cashew apples and mahua flower. Consumption of mahua might have intoxicated the bear following which it could have turned violent.

On Saturday, the bear attacked a group of women returning after collecting firewood from the jungle near Amarmunda village. The animal was hiding under a culvert. One woman was killed on the spot. When people gathered in the area, it bear ran away. Later, it attacked and killed two others near Amarmunda and Totiaguda.

A couple sleeping outside their house were attacked by the animal. The husband died on the spot while his wife died in the hospital. Two other persons of the same village were attacked the same night. The body of another person killed by the bear at Girla was found on Sunday morning.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/villagers-lynch-wild-bear-that-killed-8-persons/article4687577.ece

Herd of wild elephants kills one, destroys houses in Assam

PTI | May 5, 2013

The jumbos entered a village in Numaligarh area
creating panic among the people by trampling
one person to death and going on a rampage
pulling down the thatch houses on Saturday night.

GUWAHATI: A man was trampled to death and 15 houses damaged by a herd of wild elephants in upper Assam's Golaghat district, official sources said today.

The jumbos entered a village in Numaligarh area creating panic among the people by trampling one person to death and going on a rampage pulling down the thatch houses last night, the sources said.

The deceased has been identified as Durga Koya. Forest department personnel rushed to the village and were making efforts to guide the pachyderms to a nearby forest, they said.

With panic prevailing in the area as the elephants were still roaming about freely, the local people have urged the forest department to provide them security from the animals.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Herd-of-wild-elephants-kills-one-destroys-houses-in-Assam/articleshow/19897138.cms

Buying land to return it to nature

Ananda Banerjee,  Live Mint

Some government, non-government bodies, individuals are trying to push back against relentless development

WTI purchased 26 acres of land along the Thirunelli-Kudrakote corridor in Kerala to restore the degraded habitat
and protect wildlife. Photo courtesy WTI

Given the relentless pace at which wildlife habitat is being devoured by the march of development, some government agencies, non-governmental organizations and individuals have been trying to push back—by buying land and letting nature reclaim it.

The past decade has seen a conscious effort to secure wildlife habitats to protect forests.
A recent exercise involved the purchase of 26 acres along the Thirunelli-Kudrakote wildlife corridor in the Wayanad district of Kerala that comes under the watch of the non-profit Wildlife Trust of India (WTI). In the past few months, camera traps have recorded three tigers crossing the corridor.

The land was purchased by WTI with the help of the World Land Trust (WTL), IUCN-Netherlands and the Elephant Family to restore the degraded habitat and protect wildlife along the stretch. The 38 families in four villages in the area were relocated to an alternative site. The exercise cost in excess of Rs.2 crore.

Corridors between two sanctuaries (protected areas) are absolutely critical to wildlife for species dispersal, allowing exchange of individuals between populations and preventing inbreeding, among other ecosystem linkages. The land bought by WTI is gradually being handed over to the Kerala forest department for incorporating it as part of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary.

The Thirunelli-Kudrakote corridor connects the Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary (18,100 hectares) bordering Karnataka and Kerala, with the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (11,000 hectares) and the Wayanad north division (21,400 hectares) in Kerala. The stretch is part of a larger swathe of about 12,000 sq. km, with an elephant population of more than 6,300. This by itself constitutes one-third of India’s endangered Asian elephant population, which keeps moving up and down the corridor for food and social bonding.

Buying land back from the villagers has not only secured the corridor for the safe passage of elephants and other wild animals, but also helped reduce human-elephant conflict in the area.

“The people are able to harvest and are spared sleepless nights guarding their crop and houses from elephants,” said Sandeep Tiwari, deputy director, WTI. “The initiatives have also helped in improving the lives of these families as they now have access to education and healthcare centres and opening up employment opportunities.”

How much forest is cut down for development needs? The government’s 11th Plan (2007-12) was particularly severe in terms of loss of forest cover, according to a report by research and activist group Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). Land was diverted for development projects with scant consideration for wildlife, water and rural communities, it said.

The CSE study looked at five key sectors—thermal power, hydropower, cement, iron and steel, and mining—that have impacted forests. The report said 8,284 projects were granted forest clearance and 197,907.61 hectares of forest land diverted between 2007 and 2011. In the past three decades, 815,534.48 hectares of forest have been cleared for 23,404 projects (see graphic).

India is urbanizing rapidly, and there is heavy pressure on land and natural resources as the population increases. According to a study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), the number of towns has grown from 5,161 to 7,935 in the decade ended 2011, and this may near 10,000 by 2030. Demographic projections show that by then, the proportion of people in urban areas may swell to more than double that in rural areas.

The loss of forest habitat is a reason for declining wildlife populations across the planet. In this scenario, buying land to secure wildlife habitats has given conservationists a method to arrest habitat loss. As renowned conservation biologist Richard Cowling said: “Conservation is 10% science and 90% negotiation.”

Acquiring land for conservation is not new. In the book Buying Nature, authors Sally K. Fairfax, Lauren Gwin, Mary Ann King, Leigh Raymond and Laura A. Watt document the process of land acquisition as a conservation strategy in the US in the last 200 years.
One such current initiative is the American Prairie Reserve, a collaborative effort involving conservation agencies such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the National Geographic Society that aims to acquire land in north-eastern Montana in the US to create a seamless protected area.

“Imagine a grassland reserve of three million acres—a wildlife spectacle that rivals the Serengeti and an awe-inspiring place for you and your children to explore,” says the American Prairie Reserve website.

“Imagine helping to build a national treasure.”

Eric Dinerstein, lead scientist and vice-president, conservation science, WWF, said: “By 2022, I dream of 10,000 bison thundering across 1,000,000 acres with wolves in hot pursuit.”

Back in India, between 2001 and 2003, WTI managed to secure the Kollegal or Edayarhalli–Doddasampige elephant corridor for about Rs.70 lakh. The elephant range to the east of the Biligirirangan Hills had been divided by a long strip of cultivation that cut off the Biligiriranga Swamy Temple (BRT) Wildlife Sanctuary from the forests of the Kollegal division. A narrow corridor now exists between the villages of Kurubaradoddi and Aandipalya along the Kollegal-Satyamangalam highway.

WTI acquired 25.4 acres for the corridor in Aandipalya village from 17 landowners. The land has been transferred to the Karnataka forest department through a formal memorandum of understanding (MoU) to maintain it as an elephant corridor, ensuring connectivity and incorporating it as part of the BRT Wildlife Sanctuary. This is the first ever privately bought corridor to be added to a protected areas in Asia.

In the North-East, with financial support from WLT, which pioneered the buy-an-acre concept of acquiring land for conservation, WTI is working with the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC), the Meghalaya state forest department and the local community to secure wildlife corridors and the restore wildlife habitat.

As much as “4,150 acres have been secured with notification of 10 Village Reserve Forests,” said WTI’s Tiwari.

WWF-India is keen to follow the model, but rocketing land prices are a stumbling block.
“We are looking across various landscapes to acquire land and hand it over to the forest department,” said Ravi Singh, WWF-India’s secretary general. “Whatever we are doing to get forest land back is being done discreetly as any overt signs may send the land prices spiralling.”

Land for Project Tiger

Project Tiger, the government’s flagship conservation programme that turns 40 years old this month, has secured 2% of the country’s geographical area as tiger reserves. The area under the project gets the highest legal protection under the Wildlife Act. The central government’s programme not only secures the existence of the tiger, but also a gamut of species that thrives in those areas.

Launched in April 1973 in nine reserves across an area of approximately 14,000 sq. km, the project has expanded, especially in the past decade, from 25 tiger reserves in 2001 to 43 now. Project Tiger has secured an area of 66,274.68 sq. km across 17 states in the country.

Under the project, the central government provides 100% monetary assistance to states for strengthening protection; creating basic infrastructure for management; habitat development and restoration; water resources; eco-development programmes; village relocation; use of information technology (IT) in crime detection; monitoring of tiger populations; and carrying out estimations of tigers, co-predators and prey animals among others.

Private forests

Apart from government and non-government initiatives, a few individuals too have acquired land adjoining wildlife sanctuaries across the country and then allowed natural forest regrowth to take place as part of conservation. Most of them refused to speak on record.

One of them is Romulus Whitaker, popularly known as the Snake Man of India for his specialization in reptiles.

Whitaker set up the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS) in Karnataka as a field station for the study of rainforest ecology in 2005 on a four-acre plot surrounded by forests. The land was bought with money willed to him by his mother, Doris Norden Chattopadhyaya.

Agumbe is a village in the Western Ghats in Shimoga where, in 1971, Whitaker spotted his first king cobra. He’d always wanted to set up a research base in the area.

In 2005, Whitaker also received the prestigious Whitley Fund for Nature award, which helped him set up basic infrastructure and convert an old farmhouse into a full-fledged forest research base.
“During the setting up of the field station, we had visits from leopards as well as a couple of king cobras, which to us ‘certified’ the place as the ideal field station,” he recalled.
Today, ARRS has 10 acres of land thanks to additional acquisitions and recently came under the administration of the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, which Whitaker set up in the 1980s to study reptiles.

Wildernest, in the Chorla Ghat area of Goa, has secured 450 acres and is perhaps one of the largest private reserve corridors for forests across two sanctuaries as well as two states—between the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary in Goa and Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka. The Wildernest team runs two independent research stations like ARRS, one in the Chorla ghats and the other at Kuveshi near Castle Rock.

The Sai Sanctuary located in the Western Ghats is another example of a private forest reserve. It’s home to large carnivores such as tigers and leopards, along with elephants and 300 species of birds.

From the initial purchase of 55 acres of private forested lands in 1991, the reserve managed by the Sai Sanctuary Trust has grown to more than 300 acres and today offers a buffer to the National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries along its borders—Brahmagiri, Nagarhole and Bandipur.

Securing land, especially degraded forests and leaving them for nature to reclaim, is a sustainable model to restore forests and protect biodiversity. But it’s an uphill task with land costs surging the moment there’s a hint of demand. Also, in a burgeoning economy in which development is the buzzword, it can be a struggle to find the right balance between conservation and economic growth imperatives.

Source: http://www.livemint.com/Politics/df1ep278rRHJ7JaeI6ohrL/Buying-land-to-return-it-to-nature.html

Forest Rights Act a bane or boon?

S. HARPAL SINGH, The Hindu | April 27, 2013

An estimated two lakh hectares of reserve forests illegally denuded between 2008 and 2011

• FRA intended to provide relief to tribal people by recognising their rights on lands tilled by them
• ‘57,000 individual and community claims received for recognition of rights over two lakh hectares’

Disappearing forests:A stretch of agriculture fields which
were once part of the dense Mangi forests in Sirpur (U)
mandal of Adilabad district.
-  PHOTO: S. HARPAL SINGH

With hardly any greenery to camouflage the loss, the dry summer months have exposed a massive scale of destruction of forests in the backward tribal district of Adilabad in Andhra Pradesh. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, (FRA) has emerged as a major factor having generated, paradoxically, decimation of forests on an unprecedented scale.

While the Union government intended to provide relief to tribal people by way of recognising rights on lands being tilled by them in the reserve forests through the FRA, a wrong message got percolated to grass roots level. In the absence of proper awareness on its provisions, people began clearing new wooded areas to convert them into agriculture fields with the hope that the government will eventually ‘regularise’ them.

It has confirmed the fears of conservationists and pristine forests began dwindling at an alarming rate reducing the 43 per cent forest cover in Adilabad to below 20 per cent of its 16,000 sq km of area.

Trees in an estimated two lakh hectares of reserve forest were illegally felled between 2008 and 2011 putting Adilabad among the districts where worst kind of tree felling has taken place.

That the scale of deforestation is mind-boggling and can be seen from the numerous roads that criss-cross the terrain. For example, clearings as deep as 500 metres which can be seen on either side of the 35-km long Nirmal bypass of the NH 7, provide an inkling into the severity of the problem.

“We were simply unable to stop the large scale decimation of forests just because we were outnumbered by raiding villagers. In hindsight, I think the FRA ought to have been delayed until an implementation mechanism was put in place,” observes a Forest officer who recalls his stint here when the FRA got implemented.

As many as 57,000 individual and community claims for recognition of rights were received covering an extent of over two lakh hectares of land being tilled or in use of tribal farmers at that point of time.

“We continue to receive fresh claims but, we are not entertaining those in the absence of guidelines for second phase implementation of the FRA,” says the Project Officer of Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), Utnoor, the agency which settles the claims.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/forest-rights-act-a-bane-or-boon/article4659253.ece

Collector warns against violating elephant guidelines

District Collector M.C. Mohandas has warned against the violation of official guidelines when displaying elephants during temple festivals and other public functions.

The Collector said on Wednesday that new temple festivals or poorams would not be given permission to display elephants. An order issued by the Forest and Wild Life Department say only those festivals where elephants were used till 2012 will be allowed to display elephants from this year.

Also, permission would not be granted for more elephants than those used in festivals in 2012, the Collector said. Elephant race too would not be permitted in any case. The officials of the Forest, Revenue and Police Departments should examine the copies of the data book before the parade of elephants. Fitness certificate for elephants was compulsory, he said.

Mr. Mohandas said elephants would not be allowed to parade between 11 a.m. and 3.30 p.m. “In unavoidable cases, elephants should be displayed under shade of a canopy, and drinking water should be given frequently,” he said. The Collector has the discriminatory powers to give permission for elephant display between 11 a.m. and 3.30 p.m.

Not more than 6 hours

The guidelines also say that a single elephant should not be used for more than six hours continuously a day. An elephant can be used for a maximum of eight hours in two sessions of four hours a day. Mr. Mohandas said an elephant used for display at night should not be used again during the next day. He asked festival organisers to ensure that elephants were given water and food before and after the parade.

He also asked the organisers to ensure that people were kept at least three metres away from the elephants. “Mahouts should not be allowed to work after consuming alcohol at any cost.”

Festival committees should secure an insurance of at least Rs.25 lakh for 72 hours when elephants are used, the guidelines say. Elephants should be bound with knee chain and cross chain during display.

District-level monitoring committee should examine the availability of enough space if more than 15 elephants are used for display. The Collector said Divisional Forest Officers should enter in the data book all incidents caused by the elephants, including problems and damage to property. “The district monitoring panel should prepare a list of problematic elephants, and such elephants should not be allowed to be used for festivals.” Mr. Mohandas said.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/collector-warns-against-violating-elephant-guidelines/article4652680.ece

Unruly nilgais on dangerous bull run

Shobha John, TNN | Apr 20, 2013

Nilgais come under Schedule III of the Wildlife Act.

NEW DELHI: Gujarat is still smarting over the loss of some of its Gir lions to Madhya Pradesh. But many states would gladly give away an animal whose burgeoning population is causing havoc in farms, airforce stations and on national highways — the blue bull or nilgai. So fraught has this man-animal face-off become that Bihar issued an order on February 19 for culling these animals in a restricted way.

For Rahul Gupta (name changed), a nilgai will always evoke trepidation. Recently, as he was driving down a national highway at 9 pm, a blue apparition suddenly jumped in front of his luxurious car. It was a nilgai -- big, agile and just as bewildered as Gupta. The car crashed, the bonnet crumpled. Fortunately, the airbags saved him. "But it will cost me Rs 22 lakh to repair the car," says Gupta. He was lucky. Last April, a toddler and his father were killed when their Santro turned turtle on ramming into a nilgai in Gurgaon.

Nilgais also raid farms and damage crops. "Poor farmers existing on subsistence agriculture can ill-afford this and are increasingly hostile to them," says Dr N P S Chauhan, head of population management, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. "After introduction of the Wildlife Protection Act (1972), many wildlife species, including nilgais, have increased considerably outside protected areas," says Chauhan in a research paper. This leaves crops as the only food available to them, says Bittu Sahgal, editor, Sanctuary Asia. Also, the decrease in predators -- wolves and jackals -- has further increased their numbers.

Nilgais, incidentally, come under Schedule III of the Wildlife Act. "Basically, this means that if a state government, under political pressure, wants to issue permissions to shoot nilgais, they can," says Sahgal. Constant skirmishes led the chief wildlife warden in Bihar to constitute a committee to issue licenses to kill them in a restricted way. The February 19 order states that the license to use stipulated firearms for culling will be valid for four weeks, that Rs 500 will be paid for each killing and Rs 1,000 for disposal of the body. Culling has also taken place in other states such as HP, MP and Gujarat.

Air force stations, too, are frequented by nilgai herds and use choppers to scare them away. Former group captain Pankaj Chopra says, "When I was the chief commanding officer of a forward station, I saw a nilgai and a MiG colliding on the runway. The plane turned turtle. We had a tough time extricating the pilot. The plane was written off." In 2008, an AI flight hit a nilgai at Chakeri airport in Kanpur. All escaped unhurt.

So what's the solution? "One should restore ecosystems so that the predator-prey ratio gets balanced," says Sahgal. "In the US where virtually every predator has been shot, humans have taken on this role and are turning the guns on animals." How about fencing highways or relocating them like the Gir lions, asks Gupta.

Easier said than done.

(Inputs from Madan Kumar in Patna)
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Unruly-nilgais-on-dangerous-bull-run/articleshow/19642514.cms

Export the pride

The Hindu EDITORIAL | April 19, 2013
The last lions of Asia found in Gir have been nurtured with great care by Gujarat. The protective hand of the government and people there enables an estimated 400 members of Panthera leo persica to survive today, overcoming a variety of challenges. This is an achievement that the State can be justifiably proud of. It is now time for Gujarat to build on its success and help improve the long-term survival prospects of these magnificent animals. Rather than stand on prestige, it must wholeheartedly accept the Supreme Court’s decision directing that lions be translocated to create a second population in Kuno, Madhya Pradesh. Providing new habitat for the cats is important for several reasons. There is scientific consensus, for one, that Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary and its surrounding areas cannot support many more lions. More significantly, the existing isolated population could face annihilation in the event of a disease outbreak, or a natural disaster. These key questions were considered by experts at the Wildlife Institute of India and elsewhere two decades ago, before arriving at the conclusion that Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, among three locations, is best suited for translocation. Gujarat can easily identify a pride of five to eight lions to be moved, since they are now found even outside the protected area of Gir.

The fundamental test that the plan must satisfy is scientific. Happily, conservation science has matured considerably since a failed attempt was made over five decades ago to create a second home for lions in Chandraprabha Wildlife Sanctuary, Uttar Pradesh. The one significant issue to be addressed in Kuno is that of poaching. A reduction in the major prey base including large animals such as nilgai and spotted deer due to hunting automatically depresses big cat populations. The Madhya Pradesh government, which has spent large sums to relocate villagers and prepare the sanctuary for lions, should curb poaching effectively. Together with the Ministry of Environment and Forests, it must also double the protected area to 700 sq km and upgrade it to National Park status for viability. For Gujarat, there is much to gain from the rise of a second population. After all, the species is now emblematic of its home and commonly referred to as the ‘Gir lion,’ even if it comes to exist at a new location. Historically, Asiatic lions were free-ranging over a large area that included parts of central India and much of the northwest, and thrived in climates as varied as hot desert in Palestine and cold forests in Iran. As an experiment in species survival, the Kuno project must be actively pursued by Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and the Centre.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/export-the-pride/article4634184.ece

PM urged to announce special package to address man-animal conflict

TNN | Apr 19, 2013
NAGPUR: Following unprecedented rise in man-animal conflict in which eight villagers were mauled by a problem leopard in 25 days, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been urged to announce a special package to implement 'alternate livelihood programme' for minor forest produce (MFP) and livestock dependent families living in Tadoba landscape and wildlife corridors.

Satpuda Foundation, which is a member of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), has demanded a special package from the Prime Minister, who is also the chairman of NBWL. In a letter to the PMO on Wednesday, the Satpuda Foundation chief Kishor Rithe said that there are at least 189 spots in TATR landscape where there is presence of big cats.

Explaining the problem, Rithe said that communities living in Tadoba's buffer villages and wildlife corridors mostly depend on MFP like bamboo, mahua flowers and tendu leaves for livelihood. Wild animals, who are not so familiar with humans, tend to attack villagers who enter the forest to collect these forest produce or to graze livestock.

From 2007 to 2013, around 83 human deaths and around 5,861 cattle kill cases have been recorded in Chandrapur district alone, as against 223 human and 21,775 cattle kills in the entire state.

The Satpuda Foundation has sought PMO's intervention to implement preventive steps rather than simply paying compensation.

"It is high time, that a special package to solve man-animal conflict is implemented under alternate livelihood programme for MFP," said Rithe. The Satpuda Foundation will also write to MLAs and MPs in Vidarbha to gather support to design and implement such package.

The copy of the letter has also been sent to Jayanthi Natarajan, Union environment and forest minister, and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of Planning Commission.

Trail of death

* March 24: Anusaya Shende, Usrala Chak (Saoli)
* April 6: Dhrupada Madavi, Sadagad (Saoli)
* Leopard caged and released in Girghat (TATR)
* April 10: Tukaram Dharne and Malan Munghate ((Adegaon)
* April 10: (Wrong leopard caged)
* April 11: Lalita Pendam (Pathri)
* April 12: Nileema Kotrange (Chorgaon)
* April 17: Kirti Katkar (Payali)
* April 18: Gopika Kalsarpe (Kitali)

(Six deaths after release of problem leopard in TATR. On April 16 Laijabai Fukat was killed by a tiger in Ranbodi in Umred-Karhandla)

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/PM-urged-to-announce-special-package-to-address-man-animal-conflict/articleshow/19623792.cms

Brow-antlered deer flourish in Manipur national park

IBOYAIMA LAITHANGBAM | IMPHAL, April 18, 2013

Threat to endangered species from hydel plant and poaching remains

• Politicians instigated villagers to demand closure of the national park and convert it into a paddy field
• There are suggestions to keep some deer in national parks in Assam

A brow-antlered deer cools off in a water tub in its
open-air enclosure at the Alipore Zoo in Kolkata.
- File photo

Wildlife lovers are overjoyed by the recent report that the population of the brow-antlered deer in its natural habitat at the Keibul Lamjao National Park, located within the Loktak Lake in Manipur, has increased from 180 a few years back to 200 now. However, the big question is how long this deer, listed in the Red Book, will survive.

The deer has been facing a two-pronged threat. The first blow was the commissioning of the 105 MW Loktak project in 1983 by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation. As the three turbines are draining water round the clock, the floating biomass on which the deer live, has been ravaged. The second threat is from poachers.

Local newspapers have been regularly publishing reports and photographs on poaching and sale of venison.

This rare deer was first discovered in 1839. Because of extensive poaching by the British and others, it was feared that it had become extinct in 1951. However, just six deer were sighted at the natural habitat in 1953. A flurry of activity was galvanised to save it. The population increased to 14 in 1975 and 155 in 1995. The official census conducted in 2000 counted 162 deer – 54 stags, 76 hinds and 32 fawns. The Manipur Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 was also enforced. The sanctuary created in 1966 was declared a national park in 1977.

Apart from the damage done by the Loktak project, human disturbance is also a great threat to the deer. Large scale use of poison to catch fish has also killed grass in the bio mass.

Some local politicians instigated the villagers to demand closure of the park so that it could be converted to a paddy field. Poachers and villagers beat up the skeleton staff of the wildlife wing guarding the park and even torched their personal belongings. The government deployed a detachment of Manipur Rifles troopers there. This was effective since the forest guards could chase away the poachers and other anti-social elements. However, the troopers were later recalled for unexplained reasons.

There were suggestions to keep some deer in the national parks in Assam. This attracted strong objections as the parks there do not have floating biomass.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/browantlered-deer-flourish-in-manipur-national-park/article4628483.ece

Tiger kills another woman near Nagpur

Express news service : Nagpur, Wed Apr 17 2013
A woman was killed and partly eaten by a tiger near Ranbodi village, about 50 km from here, in the newly-carved-out Umred-Karandla sanctuary in Nagpur district.

Home to at least 12 tigers, the sanctuary declared last year has only one village - Ranbodi.

Villager Layjabai Fukat (65) had gone to the forest to collect mahua flowers. When she did not return home at regular time, a search began. Forest staff and villagers later found her partly eaten body.

"A hand, a breast and part of her neck had been eaten," said Nagpur honorary wildlife warden Roheet Karu.

With this, the human toll in Vidarbha's man-animal conflict this year has gone up to ten — four attributed to tigers, four to leopards and two to wild boars.

Raj gives Rs 5 lakh

MNS chief Raj Thackeray has released the Rs 5 lakh he promised for detection of tiger poaching case in Chandrapur. The case pertained to a tiger whose body was found cut into pieces near Borda village in Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve last year.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/tiger-kills-another-woman-near-nagpur/1103672/

Why New Home Can Save India’s Lions

By Saptarishi Dutta

Asiatic Lions, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh

Conservationists say splitting India’s small population of Asiatic lions will help prevent the endangered animal from being wiped out.

India’s Supreme Court on Monday ruled that some of the 411 Asiatic lions that live exclusively in Gir Forest in Gujarat state will be moved to Kuno Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh.

“I am all in favor of it,” said M. K. Ranjitsinh, chairman of the Wildlife Trust of India, a non-governmental organization. “They should have a second home,” he added.

Experts argue restricting the lions to a single geographical area puts them at greater risk of extinction.

“If they are hit by a disease, there is a possibility that the entire population could be wiped out,” said Belinda Wright, founder of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

“It is best for the species that a second and third location is established,” Ms. Wright added, warning of the risk of extinction.

“India would be a devastated place without this incredible cultural and heritage symbol,” she said.

The court said the lions will move to Madhya Pradesh within the next six months. A special panel comprising wildlife experts will decide how many lions will be move to Kuno Palpur, one of the most suitable habitats in India for Asiatic lions, according to a study by the Wildlife Institute of India.

The court’s ruling puts an end to a long-running interstate dispute. Gujarat has been reluctant to let go of a share of its lion population, a major tourist attraction in the state.

Around 460,000 tourists visited the Gir Forest in 2012 generating revenues of 50 million rupees ($914,745) for Gujarat’s forest department, according to Sandeep Kumar, a forest official at Gir.

The government of Gujarat had opposed the relocation of any of its lions to Madhya Pradesh, citing rampant poaching there.

According to Madhya Pradesh’s forest department, there are between 250 and 300 cases of poaching of all types of animals in Madhya Pradesh every year.

Asiatic lions are smaller than their African counterparts, and have visible ears and a thinner mane. Asiatic lions also have a thicker elbow tufts and a longer tail tuft.

While dividing the lion population between two states will likely help conservation efforts, experts say other worries remain.

Lions have difficulty finding enough to eat, as their prey – mainly deer and antelopes – is frequently killed by humans. “This is an overriding problem throughout India,” Ms. Wright said.

The loss of natural habitat through deforestation caused by a rising human population is also detrimental to the lion population, said Naresh Kadyan, Indian representative of International Organization for Animal Protection, a body affiliated to the United Nations.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan welcomed the court’s decision: “I welcome Supreme Court’s verdict on Asiatic Lions. We are well-equipped to welcome them in their new home. #MP,” he wrote on Twitter on Monday.

Follow Saptarishi and India Real Time on Twitter @saptarishidutta and @indiarealtime.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2013/04/16/why-new-home-can-save-indias-lions/

Villagers set leopard cubs ablaze, one dead

CHANDRAPUR: A five-month-old leopard cub was killed, while one other was critically injured, as miscreants set the two ablaze alive near Nifandra village in Saolitehsil on Tuesday afternoon. Forest officers initially tried to cover up the incident by claiming that it was a road accident.

The brutal killing comes just a day after a tiger cub was killed and another injured after being hit by a train on Gondia-Chandrapur route.

Tuesday's incident could be a case of revenge killing as leopards recently mauled to death two persons in Saoli tehsil recently.

Sources claimed that unidentified miscreants found two leopard cubs in a pipe laid in the farm of one Prakash Deshmukh located close to the village bus stop. The villagers sealed one end of the pipe with stones, put cow-dung cakes on the other end and set ablaze the inflammable material, used in villages as domestic fuel.

A leopard cub died of suffocation inside the pipe. The other cub somehow managed to force its way out of pipe and fell unconscious at the scene. Nobody came to its rescue till Pathri police reached the spot.

Forest officials on the spot reportedly kept their distance from the fragile cub, whose condition appeared to be critical. Police officers took the injured cub to Pathri police station and gave it some water. It was later dispatched to Chandrapur for emergency treatment with forest staffers.

CCF, Chandrapur circle, BSK Reddy confirmed that a leopard cub was killed, while another was injured in the blaze. He, however, refrained from blaming the villagers for cruel act. "We are investigating into the cause of fire. Possibility of accidental fire cannot be ruled out," he said.

As the news broke out, forest officers initially tried to cover the incident by terming it as road accident. ACF Rajiv Pawar claimed that an unidentified vehicle knocked the two cubs, killing one and injuring the other. RFO, Saoli range, VC Pattiwar maintained that he failed to reach the spot as the tyre of his vehicle got punctured.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Villagers-set-leopard-cubs-ablaze-one-dead/articleshow/19587347.cms

An eye on the Hangul

AHMED ALI FAYYAZ, The Hindu  | April 14, 2013

Gathering: This sub-specie of the European red deer is endangered. Photo: Rashid Naqash

A first-ever satellite telemetry tracking of Hanguls in Kashmir’s Dachigam National Park to study the deer’s behaviour and the reasons behind its falling numbers

The Dachigam National Park, habitat of the majestic Hangul, near Srinagar is these days in for an activity never witnessed in the Valley. Technology has ultimately changed what Harwan’s legendary wildlife guard Qasim Wani did for decades before his death at the age of 100 with his empty hands and naked eyes: studying the behaviour of the dreaded Himalayan black bear, leopard, shy musk deer and Hangul.

The multi-terrain expanse of 141 sq km, spread over the plains, dense forest and barren hills from the picturesque Zabarvan range to the high-altitude ridges of Tral, is under the radar to track the Hangul alone. The other inmates in this landscape are musk deer, leopard, Himalayan grey langur, Himalayan black bear, Himalayan brown bear, hill fox, Himalayan weasel, yellow-throated marten, long-tailed marmot and otter.

Hangul, or cervus ellaphus hanglu, a sub-specie of the European red deer known to be existing only in Kashmir, has been for the first time chemically captured and fitted with a state-of-the-art satellite collar by a dedicated team of 30-odd officials and experts from the State government’s Department of Wildlife Protection, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kashmir (SKUAST) and the Dehra Dun-based Wildlife Institute of India [WII]. It is a Rs. 40 lakh research initiative and is being supported by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF).

“It was literally an uphill task,” says Dr. Parag Nigam, wildlife health management scientist at WII, “to habituate and chemically capture the animal. It took us three months before we hit success on March 16.” Never before had the Hangul been captured and fitted with a satellite collar, Dr. Nigam claimed. He narrated how arduously one of these fastest running big deer had been lured into the Oak Patch of the national park, habituated for weeks and finally immobilised with a remote drug delivery system, called the syringe projector or a ‘dot gun’. It was hit from a distance of 30 metres by Dr. Nigam.

Candid shot: A Hangul in Dachigam National Park.
Photo: Rashid Naqash

The only Asiatic survivor of the red deer, Hangul, has been declared (the locally) critically engendered wildlife specie in the Red List of The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) in 1996. It has similar categorisation in the list of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) which has India as a signatory. It has been incorporated in Schedule-1 of both the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 as well as the Jammu and Kashmir Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1978.

A.K. Singh, Chief Wildlife Warden of Jammu and Kashmir, puts Hangul’s population at 175 in March 2009 and 218 in March 2011. The department conducts a census every two years with technical support from WII. Findings of a recent census are still under formulation. The 1989 census puts the number of Hangul at 900, indicating its fall towards the verge of extinction in the last 23 years of the armed insurgency and counterterrorism in Kashmir. However, some people like the retired Range Officer Mohammad Ashraf Mir insist that the numbers should be higher as armed poaching came down to zero due to thick concentration of security forces.

The leopard alone had been the killer since 1990, many residents at Harwan and Moolnar villages believe. According to them, the only incident of armed poaching in last several years happened in January 2013 when six poachers were found to have killed a male Hangul. They were accordingly booked and arrested. In the pre-militancy era, organised gangs of local hunters used to fell scores of the deer every year. The male is killed mainly for its 11 to 16 pointed majestic antler that fetches the hunter Rs. 3 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh in international market.

As the census team is said to have spotted antlers at several places — an evidence of the presence of the male — at several places, some like Assistant Project Officer of Wildlife Trust of India, Mansoor Nabi, believe that the numbers may be higher this year. “Not necessarily,” says Mr. Singh though, with a word of caution. “Let us wait for the findings.”

Conservator of Forest Farooq Gilani, formerly Kashmir’s Regional Wildlife Warden, believes that over-grazing of cattle and wild fires in Upper Dachigam and existence of infrastructure of 12 government departments in Lower Dachigam could be a major factor behind the dwindling population of Hangul. Biotic interference, according to him, could be the bigger killer than the poacher and the predator.

Principal investigator and Dr. Nigam’s partner, Dr. Khursheed, who works as the scientist in-charge of the Centre for Mountain Wildlife Science at SKUAST told The Hindu that four of the animals were being captured and fitted with the satellite collars under the Hangul research project. He sounded confident that three more would be seized soon. Black bear and some other animals have been previously tracked through a Global Positioning System and VHF/UHF-fitted ground tracking system.

“Radio collars have been used recently here on black bear and leopard but the satellite telemetry and Global Positioning System on Hangul is in operation for the first time. This will enable us access critical data through a dedicated satellite channel and particular software to observe the animal’s behaviour and activity, including hibernation, mating, conceiving and delivery besides mortality and the ground temperature on a 24x7 basis for two years of the unit’s battery life.”

Germany-based Vectronics Aerospace, which has provided four satellite collars at Rs 2.70 lakh each, has equipped the units with multi-function sensors and implants. These are hooked to the European Iridium satellite which in turn processes and supplies data to the German firm. A particular amount is charged for each downloading of the data, normally with frequency of three hours.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/an-eye-on-the-hangul/article4614448.ece