Feathered friends of India now homeward bound

IANS | Apr 14, 2013
SHIMLA: They still take the traditional Silk Route. Only, unlike ancient traders and travellers, they take wings.

The feathered guests that descend on various waterbodies across India with the onset of winter, after crossing national and international boundaries to avoid the extreme chill of their native habitats in Tibet, Central Asia, Russia and Siberia, are now set to make their annual return journey.

A migratory bird in the Kangra Valley's Pong wetlands in Himachal Pradesh, which was tagged with a global positioning system (GPS) transmitter last winter, has returned to its native China. A few other bird species are currently in lakes in Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan, after their winter sojourn in Pong's man-made wetlands, in the Himalayan foothills, about 250 km from state capital Shimla.

A few "holidaying" birds remain, though, in Pong.

"A pintail that was tagged with a satellite transmitter in Pong was recorded last week in China. Another bird of the same species has reached Kyrgyzstan," chief wildlife Warden AK Gulati told IANS.

He said the migratory routes of the birds stretched from India to China, with brief stopovers at key wetlands in the Himalayas and the trans-Himalayas.

The state wildlife department, in association with the Mumbai-based Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), under a central government-aided project to track their migratory routes through satellite, tagged 14 migratory birds of different species for the third consecutive year in Pong.

BNHS assistant director S Balachandran, who installed the GPS chips on the birds and monitored their movements, said a common teal, tagged in Pong, was recently recorded in Pakistan.

Two birds - a greylag goose and a shoveller - were recorded in Srinagar and Harike in Punjab, respectively, this month.

"They might be on their return journey from Pong to their native habitats," he said.

Balachandran said a tagged common teal and a shoveller are still roosting in Pong.

"Some common teals and shovellers are still in Pong. They could start their return journey to their native habitats anytime now," he said.

Crossing national and international boundaries, millions of migratory birds of several species descend on various water bodies and wetlands in the region. They start returning by the end of February or the beginning of March.

In the last two years, the BNHS also installed metal bands and red and white neck collars with a serial number, place and date on more than 350 migratory birds in Pong.

The prominent species were the bar-headed geese, pintails, common teals, coots, cormorants, European lapwing, shovellers and wigeons.

Wildlife officials said a common teal that was ringed in Pong last year was shot dead in northeast Russia this year.

Around 123,000 waterfowl of 113 species were recorded in a census conducted by the wildlife wing in the first week of February at Pong Dam wildlife sanctuary spread over 307 sq km.

The largest influx was of the bar-headed goose, a regular visitor from Central Asia, including Tibet and Ladakh. Their number was around 34,000, wildlife officials said.

The other main species found were northern pintail (21,000), common pochard (12,000) and little cormorant (7,700), besides common coot, red-crested pochard, great cormorant, pintail duck, river tern and great-crested grebe.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Feathered-friends-of-India-now-homeward-bound/articleshow/19541384.cms

A flowering outbreak

KANWAR YOGENDRA

The unchecked outgrowth of Lantana weed in Himachal Pradesh’s forests and farmlands is destroying biodiversity and damaging agriculture

The deadly weed:Lantana in full bloom. Photo: G. Karthikeyan

A recent survey of the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department has pointed out that the deadly weed Lantana, called Phool Lakri in local parlance, has affected the mountain bio-diversity in more than 1,800 sq km of forest lands in the State.

The weed which is a flowering exotic shrub is now found in abundance in the State and is seriously threatening the natural regeneration of majority native plant species. Though there are also other weed species found in the hill State like Parthenium (Congress Grass), Ageratum (Neela Phoolnu) and Eupatorium but the invasive Lantana is proving to be the most lethal to the rich forest biodiversity of the region.

Lantana is a genus of about 100 species of perennial flowering plantsin the verbena family, Verbenaceae, said experts. Though native to tropical regions of the Americas and Africa, they now exist as introduced species in numerous areas of Asian and Australian Pacific regions. The genus includes both herbaceous plants and shrubs (found mainly in Himachal) growing as tall as five to six feet. Lantana’s aromatic flower clusters called umbels are a mix of red, orange, yellow, blue or white florets. ‘Wild lantanas’ are plants of theunrelated genus Abronia, usually called ‘sand-verbenas’.

Lantana was introduced in India in 1809 in the Indian Botanic Garden, Kolkata as an ornamental plant due to its beautiful aromatic flowers. Prolific seed production and easy dispersal helped it in escaping cultivation and becoming a pest, with serious dimensions. Present all over Himachal Pradesh, it flowers almost throughout the year. This weed is posing serious problems to plantation forestry as it chokes all other vegetation and becomes the dominant species. In deciduous forests, Lantana is considered as a potential fire hazard and it is combustible even when green. Himachal Pradesh struggles with forest fires every summer and suffers huge losses. This weed is also dangerous in national parks and sanctuaries.

Lantana also competes with agricultural crops and has an allelopathic effect — inhibiting the growth of other plants. The Himachal Pradesh government has faced failure in uprooting this enveloping weed which has now entered the fields and orchards of the farmers. The State is yet to have any comprehensive planning to eradicate this problem which has to be done in entirety and requires massive re-plantation of other friendly species like Bamboo, Acacia Catechu (khair) and Phyllanthus Emblica (amla).

The funds allotted by the Centre for the purpose are used in a piecemeal fashion through a campaign suggested by certain environmental NGOs like the Himachal Gyan Vigyan Samiti. The organisation had run a campaign in some panchayats and blocks of the State in the past and had even destroyed the lethal weed with the help of villagers in these areas, said O.P. Bhuraita, a scientist with the organisation. The Samiti had later shifted its focus to the menace of wild animals and monkeys in the countryside, since that has become a foremost threat to the agriculture and fruit growing areas, he said. Agriculture is the mainstay in the hill State and 90 per cent population lives in rural areas.

The previous State government had accepted that the weed species have spread to large areas of forest and wastelands, with the 1999-2000 survey revealing that 136,301 hectares were covered by weeds and Lantana alone had spread to over 130,000 hectares of land. For eradicating the Lantana, the Forest Department has used two methods: mechanical and chemical. Under the mechanical method, the weed is physically removed with tools like ‘monkey jack’. This labour-intensive method has shown good results. However, the chemical methods like spraying glyphosate have environmental and ecological impact.

During 2009-2013, the weed has been removed from 6,305 hectares of forest land and the government has targeted to clear 5,000 hectares of forest land of Lantana weed during 2013-14, State Forest Minister Thakar Singh Bharmouri said. To root out Lantana, a cut-root stock method has been adopted. After clearing the weed, foliage fodder is being replanted, he said. The question as to how to eradicate Lantana and other weeds comes up every time here during the Assembly sessions, with precious little being done to help the small and marginal farmers who are forced to quit agriculture due to this problem.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-miscellaneous/tp-others/a-flowering-outbreak/article4590073.ece

Himachal Pradesh's green activists oppose move to divert forest land

IANS
SHIMLA: Green activists in Himachal Pradesh have strongly opposed the union environment ministry's decision to wave off approval from the locals for diverting forests to projects under the Forest Conservation Act.

In a missive to minister of environment and forests (MoEF) Jayanthi Natarajan Saturday, the activists have objected to the ministry's "unilateral" decision, saying the rights of forest-dwellers should be settled after securing consent from the affected 'gram sabha' (village councils).

"The arbitrary decision is against the provision of the scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers (recognition of Forest Rights) Act of 2006," Rahul Saxena of Himdhara, an environment action group based in Palampur town, told IANS Sunday.

He said it was also violation of the ministry's own circular of August 2009 that made mandatory for project proponents to get non-objection certificates (NoCs) of the affected 'gram sabhas' and compliance with the forest rights act before diversion of forest land for non-forest purposes.

Saxena said the environment ministry, acting on the representations of the state last September, dispensed with the condition for consent from the project-hit as their rights have already been 'settled' under the forest settlement process in 1970s.

"Now the MoEF has decided to accept a certificate by the deputy commissioner stating that there exist no pending claims under the forest rights act as sufficient evidence to meet the procedural requirements. Thus the requirement of the gram sabha's NoC has been done away with," he added.

Himdhara, one of the signatories to the letter to the environment ministry, said the ministry had agreed to such a demand for allowing forest diversion without NoCs without having consulted the ministry of tribal affairs, which is the nodal ministry for the implementation of forest rights act.

Nek Ram Sharma of Satluj Bachao Jan Sangharsh Samiti said: "More than 10,000 hectares of forest land since 1980 have been diverted for hydropower projects, mines, transmission lines and roads."

"The state forest department should have compensated all the forest dwellers whose rights have been compromised by this diversion, if it claims to have already recognised these rights," Sharma said.

"Allowing the deputy commissioner to certify that claims have been settled would directly affect the rights of the affected communities who have individual and community rights on the forest resources," said the letter, signed by various environmental bodies.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/developmental-issues/Himachal-Pradeshs-green-activists-oppose-move-to-divert-forest-land/articleshow/18103680.cms