Contour canal for Parambikulam project turns death trap for wildlife

P. OPPILI, The Hindu

Canal runs to a distance of nearly 50 km: naturalists

• The project is maintained by the State Public Works Department

An open contour canal constructed during the 1960s for the Parambikulam Aliyar Project in Coimbatore district has become a death trap for wildlife in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR), Pollachi.

Naturalists and environmentalists say the canal runs to a distance of nearly 50 km, of which a 45-km stretch passes through the ATR.

During seasonal migration and dry periods, elephants, tigers, leopards, sloth bears, wild dogs, Indian Gaur, sambhar deer and spotted deer come to the canal for drinking water. If the animals fall into the canal, it would be difficult to rescue them.

The Project is maintained by the State Public Works Department, which began refurbishing the canal as there were many leaks in it. The work began nearly a year ago.

A. Rangarajan, Secretary, Tamil Nadu Green Movement, said his organisation had sent a letter to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) demanding a joint inspection of the place with representatives from the PWD, Forest Department and the National Board for Wildlife. The CEC had also sent a letter to the Chief Secretary to arrange for a site inspection.

However, nothing has been done in this regard, Mr. Rangarajan charged. He said the canal, apart from fragmenting the forest, leads to death and maiming of wildlife, which will be more than a dozen annually.

The Forest Department had divided the 49-km canal into eight stretches and conducted a survey.

During the survey, officials recorded the presence of at least half a dozen species of wildlife along the stretch.

Making provisions for the wildlife to cross over from one side to the other is the recommendation for the first stretch which begins from the Power House till the entrance of the tunnel 1; the second stretch is the entrance of the tunnel 1 where the recommendation was to erect railings.

The other recommendations included installing scalable slopes and railings to prevent wildlife from falling into the canal and facility for wildlife to access water along the canal.

When contacted, wildlife authorities said they have requested the PWD to provide platforms to facilitate animals to drink water safely from the canal.

Similarly, they have given a few designs to the PWD authorities, which would help the wildlife cross the canal without any problem.

“Wildlife concerns are well taken care of by the department,” a senior official added.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/contour-canal-for-parambikulam-project-turns-death-trap-for-wildlife/article4685389.ece

When the tiger shows us the passageways

While experts dither over corridor viability, big cats from Rajasthan offer some lessons
Jay Mazoomdaar
IT WAS Jaipur, late 2007. A few months before the PMO cleared the plan to fly in tigers to Sariska from Ranthambhore, an IAS officer was holding forth on the subject at a private function. “Let’s build a corridor for tigers; 100-metre wide. How much land (do) we require? It’s not even 200 km between the two forests,” he said, clearly exasperated by the delay. Just 140 km, a colleague assured him, and generously proposed that the width of the passage be doubled: “We will put trees and all. It will be fenced and safe.” The enthusiasm was infectious till a senior forest officer jumped in to play spoilsport.

As forests get fragmented due to rapid incursion of roads, railways, mines, cropland or settlements, maintaining connectivity and therefore healthy gene flow among small wild populations is becoming more challenging than ever. More so, because the popular perception of a wildlife corridor, particularly to those in the corridors of power, is indistinguishable from say, freight corridors.

The term corridor gives an impression of linearity. But animals seldom move like crows fly. The shortest course we chart out for tigers at official meetings and even in research papers may not suit them at all. The route may not have enough water sources or vegetation cover in which they can sneak around. Or it may be just too crowded.

For many years now, experts and officials have been wondering how to make the 2-4 km stretch between Ranthambhore National Park (RNP) and Keladevi Wildlife Sanctuary (KWLS) — both part of the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve (RTR) but separated by the Banas river — a safe animal corridor so that tigers from the park can populate the sanctuary.

The ravine wilderness that connects RNP and KWLS is being flattened for agriculture by local villagers who have established several hamlets to manage their new cropland. Though ecologically vibrant, ravines are classified as wasteland, reclamation of which is officially encouraged. Illegal sand mining on several stretches along the Banas further chokes this passageway. Unsurprisingly, of the 50-odd Ranthambhore tigers, only one is settled in KWLS, crowded by dozens of villages and their livestock.

But while the close proximity of RNP and KWLS makes restoring connectivity look feasible, any prospect of reviving the Ranthambhore-Kuno corridor has long been written off. Tigers from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh mated frequently till the trans-Chambal link snapped three decades ago. While Kuno remained connected to other MP forests, Ranthambhore became an island, hemming in its then population of 14 tigers.

The numbers have multiplied almost four-fold in RNP since. But the only way the Ranthambhore tigers can escape disastrous consequences of inbreeding is through revival of the gene flow from MP. But nobody gave the lost corridor a chance. Once the resident tigers of Kuno were poached, it was readied for lions from Gujarat. When Narendra Modi refused to oblige, the focus shifted to reintroducing cheetahs from Africa.

BETWEEN RTR and Kuno, the Chambal river forms the boundary between Rajasthan and MP. In this stretch, five Rajasthan rivers — Mez, Chakan, Kharad, Kundli and Banas — join the Chambal from the north. Another six tributaries — Kalisindh, Parbati, Seep, Param, Doni and Kuno — reach from the south.

Dispersing tigers prefer to keep to watercourses. Each of these meandering rivers connects RNP to neighbouring forests. Along the Chambal axis, Chakan, Kharad and Kundli lead to Sawai Mansingh sanctuary while Mez offers passage to Ramgarh Bishdhari forests. Kalisindh is the access to Darrah sanctuary while Parbati reaches the forests of Baran district. Kuno and Param rivers pass through the Kuno sanctuary while Doni and Seep flow in the larger Kuno landscape.

In the recent past, Ranthambhore tigers have travelled far and wide — Kota, Bharatpur and Mathura — as the rivers flow. There was no reason why they, if their nerve held, would not reach Kuno in MP. In fact, quite a few floaters — the last one in 2010 — ventured south inside MP across the Chambal, but eventually moved back to Rajasthan.

So, many considered it a fluke when a Ranthambhore male (T38) walked out of RNP’s Sultanpur area in late 2010 and reached Kuno in January 2011. The itinerary is sketchy but T38 walked southeast to cross the Banas and spent two weeks in a patch of ravine forest before crossing the Chambal at its confluence with Param and then followed the river upstream to reach the heart of Kuno. It was a leisurely journey, with many stopovers and kills.

Yet, T38 was merely considered lucky, till a sub-adult tiger decided to match his skills last month. One of the three cubs of T26, the young male left RNP’s Khandar area on 23 January. It reached the Banas the next day and apparently sensing mining activities to its right, turned left along the river, crossed a couple of roads, and climbed atop the hills of KWLS using the only available pass by 26 January. Unimpressed by the mess inside Keladevi, it charted its course down to the Chambal river and across to MP in the next five days.

Here, its intuition took over again and it chose to follow the Kuno river southward. Parallel to the Chambal runs a 12- feet deep irrigation canal that briefly goes inside a tunnel while passing over the Kuno. The tiger reached the other side of the canal walking under this tunnel on 5 February and, as if to reward himself, made its first kill in MP soon after. Then it slowed down in the comfort zone of reserve forests south of Kuno sanctuary that offer ample feral cattle. The tiger has made three more kills since and is not showing any urgency to head southwards along the river. It has already walked at least 80 km, more than the linear distance between RNP and Kuno, without being spotted even once, and is a day’s walk away from joining predecessor T38 inside the sanctuary.

Unlike T38 in 2011, T26 junior is being tracked daily by the forest departments of the two states with the help of TigerWatch, a Ranthambhore NGO, and village wildlife watchers appointed for the task. Tired of waiting for lions, and now cheetahs, the guards at Kuno sound both excited and nervous to be hosting tigers again. Veterans, who still remember Kuno’s last tigers, are wary of poachers even as they pray that the next Ranthambhore crossover is a female.

The remarkable journeys of the Ranthambhore duo have three lessons for us. The wild does not need handholding and knows what it is up to. The river courses, and the surrounding ravines, must be secured and monitored for tiger migration. Every tiger in transit needs rigorous tracking to avoid poaching or conflict.

Meanwhile, with RNP finally having surplus tigers and habitats not improving in KWLS, dispersal of cats outside the reserve will continue. As a bunch of cubs get ready to break free in the coming months, Kuno is likely to welcome a few more tigers, hopefully females this time, from Ranthambhore.

Once the settlers start breeding in Kuno, young tigers will eventually venture further south inside MP to find partners or perhaps individuals from MP’s northernmost tiger pockets will come checking at Kuno. With time, the reverse wild traffic will hit Ranthambhore, carrying fresh genes to Rajasthan in many decades.

If only we take cue from the tiger instead of deciding for it.

Source: http://tehelka.com/when-the-tiger-shows-us-the-passageways/

Herd of 32 elephants chased into forests near Krishnagiri

The elephant herd that was driven back to 
Udedurgam Reserve Forests on Tuesday.
 —Photo: Special Arrangement

A herd of 32 wild elephants that entered a mango orchard near Kelamangalam were driven back to the Udedurgam Reserve Forests by the forest officials after a four-hour exercise, on Tuesday night.

Sources in the Forest Department told The Hindu that over a hundred elephants, in different groups, had entered into the forest from Bennarghatta RF via the Jawalagiri RF two months ago.

This despite elephant proof trenches being dug for a distance of about 89 km.

Damaged trenches

However, these trenches were breached by the farmers who wanted to take their cattle inside the forest for fodder. These damaged trenches helped the elephants enter into human habitations as well.

The elephants damaged crops like sugarcane, banana, ragi, paddy as well as vegetables in and around Denkanikottai, Royakottai, Uthanapalli, Kelamangalam and Anchetty.

When people saw the herd of 32 elephants wandering near Nilagiri village in Uthanapalli they informed the forest officials.

On instructions from the District Forest Officer A.K. Ulaganathan, a team of forest officials and employees headed by Assistant Conservator of Forests Mr. Soundararajan and Royakottai Ranger Vinobaji chased the herd into the Udedurgam Reserve Forests bursting crackers and using powerful search lights.

Police officials headed by the Assistant Superintendent of Police Vijaykumar prevented the locals from getting near the herd during the operations, sources said.

While crossing over to the Reserve Forests, the herd trampled to death a calf near Yupuram.

Before undertaking the elephant eviction drive, the forest officials warned the public not to venture out of their homes through the public address system, the sources added.

Not as green as they first appear

Gautam Pandey

In Kerala, as elsewhere, pristine forests are being fragmented and destroyed by activities like plantation, mining and farming. The needs of development have to be balanced with the importance of protecting the endangered green cover. Without the latter, nothing will remain

With an opportunity to travel through Kerala for over 20 days by road for work was more than a dream come true. My first trip to ‘God’s own country’ was due and I couldn’t wait to explore the backwaters and rainforests of Kerala. To make up for lost time I decided to drive through the State starting from the southern tip and fly to Thiruvanathapuram, a sea of green stretch below me. I planned to drive through the State zig-zagging my way and heading north.

I was a little unprepared as my ‘first impressions’ hit me. It was hard to tell when exactly I crossed the city and when a town began. The entire stretch seemed urbanised with villages and towns merging into one and other.

After a couple of hours of driving, I reached greener areas with old growth mixed forests on both sides of the road. These were the primal rainforests I had been waiting for. As I drove on and my eyes got used to the explosion of green all around me, I gradually realised that while there was prime forest, it was fragmented — stitched together by plantations. After I saw one plantation, I kept seeing them everywhere. Rubber, spices, tea, and coconut plantations were seamlessly interwoven with the forest. This was an illusion. What seemed green and healthy was actually a heavily fragmented and stressed environment.

I reached Munnar where entire hills as far as the eye could see had been shaved off prime forest and had tea planted on them. How ironic it was to see people getting their photographs taken with the Munnar hills as a backdrop. The whole situation felt more like a ticking bomb than ‘God’s own country’.

The majority of the world’s biodiversity hotspots are located in tropical forests. The Western Ghats are a prime example of a tropical biodiversity hot spot which is home to numerous endemic species. Unfortunately what has happened in Kerala is evident through out the entire Western Ghats. Plantations, mining and construction have fragmented and split our forests like a piece of shattered glass. While some patches can be large and sustain a degree of biodiversity, the majority gradually become degraded with some forests altogether disappearing.

India has had a long tradition of conservation and the sacred groves were one such method of conservation. A forested area often with streams and lakes was believed to have a resident deity and considered sacred. No one was permitted to cut, kill, or take anything from a scared grove. Some groves are even out of bounds for humans. Sacred groves are like banks of bio-diversity left untouched and pure. In some areas so strong is the belief that people passing through and exiting a grove would dust their body and clothes just incase they don’t carry anything out of the forest.

With big money backing the mining industry, these groves aren’t spared either. Recently while filming in Goa we visited a sacred grove which was on the list to be mined. The forest was unspoiled with a pristine stream flowing out from under the roots of a gigantic tree. We drank the water and rested there. It was hard to imagine that in a matter everything here would just be scraped away leaving the red earth exposed like a big open wound. The mining industry was destroying prime forests and fresh water sources. While announcements to control the mining have been made and some mines closed down, the reality is quite different. A few weeks back our crew was attacked by mining mafia goons and it was forced to destroy all the footage. The situation in Goa’s forests is so bad that experts foresee a huge freshwater crisis in the State within the next few years.

What is a little confusing is, that while experts and researchers raise alarm bells about the state of forests the Forest Survey of India has actually declared that India’s forest cover has been increasing for the last 13 years, with a net addition of 1,128 sq km, or 0.16 per cent, in the last two years. This was indeed good news, what with all the carbon credits, global warming and climate change issues, except for one little fact.

The very definition of ‘forest cover’ by the FSI is that if tree canopy covers more than 10 per cent of a one hectare plot, it can be classified as a forest. Since satellite images are used to determine ‘forest cover’ all mono culture plantations including tea, coffee, rubber, timber etc qualify as a forest.

Recently, researchers Priya Davidar, Jean-Philippe Puyravaud  and William F Laurance argued in a paper they presented that the FSI used computer software that couldn’t distinguish between natural forests and plantations. Based on their ground research what has now been revealed is truly frightening. Rather than expanding, India’s forests have been shrinking by 1.5 per cent to 2.7 per cent per year since the last two decades.

This is a very high rate of forest loss and India is at risk of losing the majority of her forests within the next few decades. With rapidly shrinking and fragmented forests diversity and number of species will continuously reduce.

Fragmented forests result in a large number of wild animal deaths every year. Animals, both large and small, move and migrate between forests and many are run over, killed, separated and sometimes poached as they leave the forest and cross inhabited areas. Not only are the animals directly affected, but it is also the health of the forest itself which suffers. Animals are natural seed dispersers and with restricted movement plant species are also affected. In tropical forests this movement of plants and animals plays a crucial role and maintains a high level of biodiversity. It has been observed that in isolated forests biodiversity degrades over time with some species becoming extinct locally.

With roads, railway lines, fields and plantations separating forest areas, animals have no choice but to cross these man-made barriers. The result is road deaths and often man-animal conflicts, with casualties on both sides. Moreover, as a fragmented forest gets smaller and further fragmented, the population of animals and insects falls, resulting at times even in the extinction of a species locally.

On the upside, what we have now is a lot of comprehensive and conclusive research. The time for action is now. Driving through Kerala I eventually landed up at The Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary where a committed and passionate group of residents, gardeners, naturalists and educators with love for nature have been working towards habitat restoration in degraded areas of the Western Ghats. The sanctuary itself is on the border of a large rainforest reserve and was actually a reclaimed plantation. Through some planning, but with most of the healing left to nature the forest over 30 years has come back, and along with it so have the insects, birds, reptiles and mammals.

Hopefully, with just a little foresight and common sense, we just might be able to save what was never really ours to destroy.

(The writer is a wildlife filmmaker)

Source: http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/item/53040-not-as-green-as-they-first-appear.html