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

Two smugglers arrested, leopard skin recovered

Dehradun, May 10 (PTI) 
Two alleged smugglers were arrested and three leopard skin recovered from them in Shyampur area of Haridwar district, police said here.

On a tip-off, police found the skin from the smugglers during a checking operation in Teerchapull yesterday, they said.

Police have booked the two accused under the Forest Protection Act and investigations are on.

Source: http://www.ptinews.com/news/3622969_Two-smugglers-arrested--leopard-skin-recovered

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

Leopardess found killed near Mysore

Lawrence Milton, TNN May 5, 2013
MYSORE: A two-year-old leopardess in Mysore appears to be killed and its paws have been removed by miscreants near Hunsur on Sunday.

The leopard was found dead at one Puttamma's land near Pakshirajapura in Hunsur forest range. The cause for its death is not known. Visceral samples have been sent to Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biological in Mysore to establish the cause of death.

The incident came to light early on Sunday of the landlady Puttamma noticed the big cat lying dead.

An official said the leopardess carcass is still fresh and suspect it may have been killed for claws as all its limbs have been cut off with a weapon. There are no external injuries over the body.

Hunsur forest territory DCF Vijaykumar told TOI that three days back we got a complaint from residents of Pakshirajapura that a leopard is on prowl near their village and south forest department's help. We later placed a cage with dog as bait. But we found the leopard dead a few metres away from the cage on Sunday morning. However, the dog is alive.

There is no injury over its body and we believe it could have died of starvation, claims the DCF.

To a query, Vijaykumar said some miscreants may have removed after its death and as of now we have no evidence of poaching the animal. However, we are investigating to go deep into the incident because this is for the first time claws of the leopard have been removed. We have filed a police case, the DCF stated.

Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-05-05/mysore/39042113_1_leopardess-dcf-forest-department

Leopard attack creates panic

The Hindu | April 22, 2013
Killing of a calf by a leopard has made villagers of Bonthapally in Jinnaram mandal of Medak district jittery on Sunday.

According to sources, a farmer Veeraswamy had tied his calf in the farm yard and gone for lunch. When he returned, he found his calf killed by some wild animal.

Forest officer Ravi visited the spot and confirmed that the calf was indeed killed by a leopard. The villagers felt that wild animals have been entering the villages, as there was no drinking water available in the forest areas.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/leopard-attack-creates-panic/article4641836.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

Dawood ‘aide’ gets jail for 1998 wildlife crimes

Aniruddha Ghosal, TNN | Apr 19, 2013
NEW DELHI: Romesh Sharma, a suspected aide of Dawood Ibrahim, was convicted of illegal possession of tiger and leopard skins and sentenced to three years imprisonment by the court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate (special acts) in Delhi. He has also been fined Rs 1 lakh.

The conviction came for a case which dates back to 1998 when the Delhi police, on raiding his south Delhi residence found a tiger skin, a leopard skin and a cheetal skin. At the time of the inspection which was headed by wildlife inspector VB Dasan, the accused failed to produce any documents supporting the possession of the wildlife articles. Dasan was complainant in the case.

Romesh Sharma was found guilty under Section 49 (Purchase of captive animal by a person other than a licensee) and Section 49B (Prohibition of dealings in trophies, animal articles, etc. derived from scheduled animals) read with Section 51 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Dawood-aide-gets-jail-for-1998-wildlife-crimes/articleshow/19624658.cms

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

Beyond The Sugarcane Fields

JAY MAZOOMDAAR

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

Photo: Aditya Singh

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2013 In The Indian Wild

JAY MAZOOMDAAR | 2013-03-23

A red alert from the ministry, a damning report at Bangkok and our killing fields

THE NATIONAL Tiger Conservation Authority sounded a countrywide red alert against poaching last week. On 7 March, a report released at the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species meet in Bangkok extrapolated figures from global seizures to claim more than 100 cases of tiger poaching every year since 2000.

Most of these pelts and bones originate from India, home to more than half of the world’s wild tigers. Leopards are a bigger victim with an estimated 200 poached annually and a large number falling prey to man-animal conflict. Seizures, carcasses and lynch mobs often make headlines, but rarely present the scale of the slaughter that continues despite international attention and domestic initiatives. Barely 10 weeks into 2013, consider the numbers India’s killing fields have to offer this year:

JAN-FEB Uttarakhand Police recover 22 leopard skins and arrest 14 people in different operations.

JAN-MARCH 13 rhinos poached in Assam. Railway tracks claim six elephants.

6 JANUARY Tiger poached on the outskirts of Pench in Maharashtra.

11, 12 JANUARY Raids in Nepal lead to seizures of seven tiger skins and 53 kg of tiger bones, including 140 canines that amount to 35 tigers. Many believe the consignments were from Uttarakhand.

12 JANUARY A problem tigress shot dead near Navegaon in Maharashtra.

13 JANUARY A leopard trapped for the third time in Mumbai’s Aarey Colony.

17 JANUARY A tiger carcass found in the buffer of Pench in Madhya Pradesh.

21 JANUARY A leopard trapped at a village near Palamu, Jharkhand.

24 JANUARY Leopard caught in a cable wire trap near Shiroda in Goa.

27 JANUARY Man arrested for electrocuting a leopard near Panna in MP.

28 JANUARY A sloth bear killed on NH-6 near Navegaon. The same day, a leopard was found dead in Gujarat’s Junagadh.

29 JANUARY Two arrested with wild boar meat from Panna. The same day, a leopard trapped near Siliguri, West Bengal.

2 FEBRUARY Two poachers held with leopard and deer hides in Similipal, Odisha.

4 FEBRUARY Two held with a leopard pelt, two bear gall bladders and a leopard cat pelt near Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand.

7 FEBRUARY Tiger found poisoned in Rajaji National Park, Uttarakhand.

9 FEBRUARY Villagers hang leopard from a tree in Dibrugarh, Assam.

11 FEBRUARY An elephant carcass, probably poached, found in Saranda, Jharkhand.

13 FEBRUARY 15 freshwater turtles recovered from a smuggler in Chandigarh.

15 FEBRUARY Leopard poisoned near Haldwani in Uttarakhand. A dead lioness dumped inside a walled well in Gujarat’s Amreli district.

20 FEBRUARY Four persons, including family members of forest guards, arrested for killing four leopards inside Mumbai’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

21 FEBRUARY Three men held with five tiger pelts and a porcupine from Chinhat, Uttar Pradesh. Another held in Mumbai with a leopard skin.

23 FEBRUARY About 30 kg of pangolin scales seized from three men in Uttarakhand.

25 FEBRUARY A leopard trapped in Karnataka’s Hassan district.

26 FEBRUARY Ailing leopard cub dies near Nagpur as a range officer let his family pose with the animal for hours before allowing any medical help. A leopard found dead inside Kanha Tiger Reserve.

27 FEBRUARY Villagers lynch a leopard in Poonch, Jammu & Kashmir.

3 MARCH Two poachers arrested while cooking a leopard cub they hunted near Kumbhalgarh sanctuary in Rajasthan.

4 MARCH Four held for poaching a tiger in Melghat.

6 MARCH Female leopard, fifth since 2011, was knocked dead on NH-6 near Nagzira sanctuary. A leopard was captured in a village near Nagarahole Tiger Reserve.

9 MARCH Man held at Mumbai airport with 97 turtles.

11 MARCH Tiger found dead with signs of bleeding from the nose and the rectum in Sunderbans.

Yet, this is only the tip of the iceberg, because for every killing on this laundry list, at least five went unnoticed. For all the alerts and reports, there is little investment in building a workforce trained to investigate, prosecute and, most importantly, gather field intelligence. If laws and guns alone could save the wild, this count would have been different after four decades of the Wildlife (Protection) Act and a ban on hunting.

jaymazoomdaar@gmail.com

(Published in Tehelka Magazine, Volume 10 Issue 12, Dated 23 March 2013)
Source: http://tehelka.com/2013-in-the-indian-wild/

Big leopard numbers in human habitats: Study

Amit Bhattacharya, TNN | Mar 21, 2013

File picture of a leopard in Mumbai's Aarey Milk
Colony in 2011. (TOI photo by Hemant Shirodkar)

NEW DELHI: Most people think of leopards as predators that live in forests except for a few that occasionally stray into human settlements. Breaking that myth, a new study has found that a large number of these big cats may be residing in human habitats, quietly sharing space with people in villages, farmlands and even on the edge of towns.

The study was conducted in a densely populated valley in Akole tehsil of Ahmednagar district in western Maharashtra, where researchers set up camera traps in 40 locations for a month to gather evidence of wildlife in this prosperous sugarcane belt.

The results were startling. A total of 81 leopard images were captured across a sampled area of 179 sq km, in which five distinct adult males and six adult females were identified.

Two females were clicked with cubs and a third gave birth six months later — all in an area with a population density of 357 people per square km.

Using a GIS-based software, the researchers estimated animal density at five leopards (4.8) per 100 sq km. That's not all. As many striped hyaenas (5.03/100sq km) were found in the area, taking the number of large predators in the landscape to 10 per 100 sq km. The findings were published on March 6 in the Public Library of Science journal.

"Nowhere in the world have such large number of big predators been reported in such densely populated human landscape," said Vidya Athreya, a wildlife biologist with Wildlife Conservation Society, India, who is the lead author of the study carried out in collaboration with the Maharashtra forest department.

The big cat's density in Akole tehsil was found to be higher than some national parks. In Rajaji, for instance, distribution of leopards is reported to be just 2.07/100 sq km following an increase in tiger numbers. Overall, leopard density in India's protected forests is 15/100 sq km.

Athreya said with the nearest protected forest some 18km away, there was little doubt that the big cats were living in "human areas", mainly in sugarcane fields. "The leopards were marking their territories on roads and on bunds in sugarcane fields. This was as much their land as it was of the people," she said.

During daytime, the felines would sit very still in the fields, often just a few hundred metres from houses. "However, the night made the leopard king. They even went close to houses to kill dogs, cats and goats," Athreya reported.

Akole tehsil is by no means an isolated example. Athreya said leopards can be found across the sugarcane belts of western Maharashtra, Gujarat and western UP, as well as the tea-growing areas of Bengal, Assam and south India.

Remarkably, no human deaths were reported from the study area. Athreya believes this is so because the leopard population in the area is more or less settled. "Leopards instinctively shun humans. That's particularly true of an animal that has grown up in the same area. We found one of our radio-collared leopards visited a particular house every few days without ever disturbing its residents, who sleep in the open," she said.

In contrast, serious leopard attacks were reported from neighbouring forested areas which happen to be close to administrative borders. Athreya believes most of these attacks were because big cats trapped in human habitats were often released in these areas. "A relocated leopard is disoriented and unpredictable," she added.

The study calls for a shift in the concept of conservation, which is focused solely on protected areas. "The presence of big predators in human landscapes throws up challenges which conservationists haven't yet begun to understand," Athreya said.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Big-leopard-numbers-in-human-habitats-Study/articleshow/19098494.cms

Leopard kills sheep

A leopard killed a sheep at Chinna Nayakana Halli in Srirangapatna taluk. According to sources at the Forest Department, the big cat strayed into a shed belonging to Mahadevu on Sunday night and killed the sheep. It dragged the carcass till Karighatta forest, a few kilometres from the village. residents have requested the Forest Department to trap the animal. — Staff Correspondent

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/leopard-kills-sheep/article4524327.ece

Human intrusion leading to more leopard attacks, says report

ALOK DESHPANDE

Campaign launched across tribal hamlets near sanctuary explaining dos and don’ts

• Engage people and stakeholders in conservation effort, Forest Department told
• Garbage attracts dogs, which in turn attract the big cats

Buildings and infrastructural activities, ill-treatment by authorities and apathy of human encroachers to the animals inside the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), the only wildlife sanctuary in India adjacent to a large metropolis, is leading to increased conflict between people and leopards, a report published after a year-long project has said.

From 2000 to January 2013, there have been 125 leopard attacks on humans in and around the sanctuary.

The SGNP has 21 leopards, while the population density around it is approximately 20,000 people per kilometre.

The forest authorities have launched a campaign across the tribal hamlets in and around the Park explaining dos and don’ts to the people to avoid attacks. In Maroshi Pada, where an attack took place in January, posters alert people to the threat.

Mumbaikars for SGNP (MfSGNP), the project carried out by the Forest Department, SGNP and Centre for Wildlife Studies, was aimed at identifying the causes of conflict and measures needed to prevent it.

The report stressed the need for the Forest Department to engage with people and various stakeholders to fulfil its mandate to protect the leopards.

Around 103 sq km of the SGNP is nestled within a larger landscape administered by the Thane Territorial Forest Division. The three adjoining forest divisions to Thane are Junner Forest Division (belonging to Pune Forest Circle), Ahmadnagar and Nashik Forest Division (belonging to Nashik Forest Circle). There have been instances when leopards caught elsewhere were released in the SGNP, increasing the big cat population.

The Film City and Aarey Milk Colony, administered by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), are situated on the fringe of the Park.

“The garbage in Aarey colony is neither picked up by the Municipal Corporation nor by the Aarey management committee. It attracts dogs which are abundant in numbers and easy prey to leopards. When the big cats come to human habitations, naturally conflicts arise, leading to attacks,” said Sunil Limaye, chief conservator of the SGNP.

The leopards have also met with accidents on roads, especially on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway which is close to the forest area. Hotels on the highway dump garbage near the road. This attracts the dogs, which in turn attract leopards. Since 1994, there have been 43 cases of such accidents.

The report mentioned that the landscape of the SGNP was currently spread across several government departments and sub-departments within the Forest Department, which often led to lack of coordination. Vidya Athreya, wildlife expert and one of the contributors to the report, said arbitrary capture and release (of leopards) worsened the problem.

“The conflict was at the peak when the capture was the highest too,” she said.

According to Ms. Athreya, political and public pressure led to more number of capture of leopards.

“People need to understand that they are living in the original habitat of leopards. Unless they accept this reality, the conflict between humans and leopards will continue,” said Mr. Limaye.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/human-intrusion-leading-to-more-leopard-attacks-says-report/article4493482.ece

Leopard preying on cattle caught by forest officials

Hunter becomes hunted:The leopard caught by
forest officials in Kothagattu village on the outskirts of
Hanamkonda on Wednesday.– Photo: M. Murali

A leopard which had been stalking and preying on cattle in the interior parts of Atmakur mandal was caught alive by the Forest Department officials, here on Wednesday.

Following complaints by villagers that their sheep were being killed by wild animals, forest officials lay a trap by placing a sheep in a cage. In the wee hours of Wednesday near Kothagattu village on the outskirts of Hanamkonda, the animal was caught. Soon after it realised it was trapped, the leopard tried to escape by biting on the bone and lost two of its teeth. It also tried to dig up and damaged the wooden floor of the cage and suffered injuries on its limbs.

Forest officials, led by Divisional Forest Officer (wildlife) Ch. Ganga Reddy, rangers Raja Rao and Venugopala Chary, accompanied by veterinary doctor Praveen visited the spot.

Mr. Ganga Reddy said that the shocked leopard in a bid to escape had sustained injuries to its teeth and gums which were bleeding.

Shifted to Hyderabad

Though local forest officials, in consultation with Hyderabad-based Principal Conservator of Forests (wildlife) A.V. Joseph, had initially decided to leave the trapped animal inside the thick forests of Tadwai mandal in Warangal district, they later decided to shift it to Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad on seeing the injury to the leopard’s teeth. The general health of the leopard is said to be normal.

The local zoo, Vana Vignana Kendram, lacked the facilities to accommodate the leopard or any other wild animals.

The villagers said that sometime ago a shepherd from the village had spotted the leopard from a distance and had run back to inform other villagers. But by the time they tried to spot the animal, it had made a good escape.

The leopard had been preying on the sheep, buffaloes and other animals and was successfully escaping the villagers by hiding behind the hillocks abutting the habitation.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/leopard-preying-on-cattle-caught-by-forest-officials/article4483299.ece

Forest Department staff attacked while on duty

The team was in N. Belthur village to rescue a leopard

• Anti-social elements booked by Forest Department suspected to be behind the attack
• Officials dispute ‘delayed response’ as the motive for the attack

A mob assaulted Forest Department staff who had come to rescue a leopard that had strayed into N. Belthur village in H.D. Kote taluk on Tuesday.

The leopard strayed into the village from Antharsanthe range of the Nagarahole National Park and was first sighted in the bathroom of a house around 6.30 a.m. When there was a commotion, it attacked four persons, identified as Rama, Rani, Gundaiah and Krishna, and escaped into another house.

The department staff received information of the leopard attack around 8 a.m. and they reached the village by 10 a.m.

Though the immediate cause for the “unprovoked” attack on the staff is not clear, a section of the village residents said the local people were upset about the “delayed” response from the department team.

Disputing this, the officials said the staff and the veterinary team was mobilised from Mysore and Hunsur and they reached N. Belthur within 2 hours of receiving the complaint.

Terming the attack brazen and unprovoked, the staff suspected that anti-social elements, against whom cases had been booked by the department for violation of various provisions of the forest conservation and wildlife protection Acts, were behind it.

The department team, led by Range Forest Officer A.T. Pooviah, included a veterinarian armed with a tranquilliser gun, and forester Hemanth Kumar. On reaching the village, the officials found that a large number of people had surrounded the house in which the leopard was hiding.

The staff ran for cover when a section of the crowd turned its ire against them. However, they were chased around the village and roughed up. Blows were rained in on some of the guards who tried to escape into the adjoining sugarcane fields, according to a source.

Mr. Poovaiah, Mr. Kumar, and Raje Gowda and Chikkanna, watchers, who were injured in the attack, were taken to a local hospital.

When additional police force and forest staff reached the village, the mob melted away, following which the officials launched the operation to rescue the leopard. The leopard was tranquillised and released at Kaimara in the D.B. Kuppe range.

The Beechanhalli police have registered a case in connection with the attack.

The incident has been condemned by Wildlife First, an NGO, which called for a strong and deterrent action against the “emboldened criminal elements”.

Their modus operandi is to form mobs and attack Forest Department staff on duty when they enter villages either to rescue wild animals or to apprehend wildlife offenders, according to Praveen Bhargav and K.M. Chinnappa of the NGO.

They recounted two similar incidents that were reported in the region in the past and said lack of strong action against the offenders had only emboldened them.

The police should immediately identify and arrest those involved in the incident, they said.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/forest-department-staff-attacked-while-on-duty/article4480458.ece

Leopard found shot dead on Malankara coffee estate

Leopard found shot dead

The carcass of a leopard was found in a private coffee estate at Malankara near Sulthan Bathery in the district on Thursday morning.

The estate workers found the carcass of the male leopard, aged about six years, and informed the forest officials. The animal appeared to have been shot dead.

Officials target poaching by forest staff kin

MUMBAI: The forest officials at Sanjay Gandhi National Park are set to kick off a sensitization programme that will help stop poaching by staffers' kin. This initative comes on the back of the involvement of two forest guards' sons in a leopard poaching case that came to light on Monday., has left the forest officials at Sanjay Gandhi National Park with the need to sensitize their staffers' kin as well toward poaching.

Families of several forest officials live on the premises and have the best access to the forest, which makes the crime easier to commit. The need is to make their kin more sensitive to avoid such instances, officials say.

A senior forest official said that increasing surveillance is only one half of the partly the solution to the problem of poaching. It is also the families of as well as staffers who need to be made aware not just of the need to preserve wildlife but also of the seriousness of the crime and the punishment that which follows it.

"This case should serve as an example. Most staffers of those who work in the forest are usually well-aware of their responsibilities,and role but their families should also be involved or made aware of in the effort to preserve wildlife," he said. Officials said there are many staffers who live with their families in quarters within the park. Another official said that even though this was a rare case, "the effort of speaking to families should start now It can be more of an awareness measure to avoid involvement of kin in wildlife crimes". Officials also said families should be made aware of the penalties that come along with poaching to further discourage them.

Krishna Tiwari from City Forest Initiative said the idea to speak to families is a novel one and may make a difference when it is finally implemented.

The need to sensitize has arisen after the crime branch have arrested four persons in connection to leopard poaching. They include Alok Khaire (27), Prashant Patel (25), Tushar Bagwe (29) and Abhishek Rane (26). They were arrested on Monday while trying to sell a leopard skin for Rs 4 lakh.

The police said they had formed several teams and were still looking for the gang leader, Pankaj, Patel's elder brother.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Officials-target-poaching-by-forest-staff-kin/articleshow/18602261.cms

Man arrested trying to sell leopard skin

A 48-year-old man was arrested in Kurla (West) Tuesday night for allegedly attempting to sell a leopard skin. He was carrying the skin worth Rs 1.5 lakh in a haversack, police said.

The accused, booked under Wildlife (Protection) Act, has allegedly confessed to acquiring the skin from a relative in Pune. Forest officials suspect the leopard to be from the forest in Sahyadri Hills.

Police said Bhagwan Sanas was seen loitering suspiciously around GSK Lodge on LBS Marg at 9 pm Tuesday. When he did not answer questions regarding his presence confidently, patrolling police demanded to check his haversack and found the skin.

Sanas was immediately arrested and taken to Kurla police station. An examination at Sanjay Gandhi National Park confirmed the 89-centimetre-long skin belonged to a leopard.

Sanas is a contract labourer with Larsen and Toubro and lives in Kurla. He told police he acquired the skin a few days ago at his native Karanji village in Pune district.

"It appears the leopard was skinned after it was killed. I do not think it was killed in Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Sanas said the leopard is from the Sahyadri Hills near his village. We have charged him with killing an endangered species," said DCP (zone V) Dhananjay Kulkarni.

Sanas has been booked under sections 9 (prohibition of hunting), 39 (confiscation) and 51 (penalties imposed by the forest department) of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and remanded in police custody till February 23.

"We arrested him after a tip-off. He has not yet disclosed who he was trying to sell the skin to," Kulkarni said.

The arrest comes two days after four youth were held by the crime branch trying to sell a leopard skin worth Rs 4 lakh. Two of the youths are sons of forest officials and stay in quarters inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/man-arrested-trying-to-sell-leopard-skin/1077288/0

Leopard rescued from Sinhasa village near Indore, forest department doubt poaching attempt

Bagish K Jha

A leopard resting in a cage after being rescued
near Sinhasa village in Indore.

INDORE: After two days of rescue operation, eight injuries including six forest guards forest department managed to catch leopard at Sinhasa village near airport. Forest department believes that leopard might have strayed near village after a failed poaching attempt in which his right hand was injured. Leopard was sent to Indore zoo for treatment.

Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF) P C Dubey said it was very risky, dangerous and adventurous rescue operation. "It would have been taken very long time to catch the leopard. We managed to complete the rescue operation in such a short time mainly because we took quick decision, dared to take risk and were ready to take responsibility," Dubey said adding that entire operation was completed with help of around 150 forest officials, four rescue teams-one from Bhopal and villagers.

He further said entire operation was very risky but they took calculated risk. "Any mistake, lapse in coordination and any frightened move would have proved to be very dangerous and deadly. But we took a risk and to ensure coordination and success rehearsal of rescue operation was carried before actual operation," Dubey said adding that all the people involved in operation were briefed and trained about his particular role.

Last night two cages with prey were installed at field but it failed to catch leopard. In the morning hours four separate rescue teams were formed each team armed with tranquiliser, gun and other necessary equipments. Every rescue teams had three backup teams-front, middle and rear. After briefing and training all four rescue teams went ahead together and soon spotted leopard near a cage. In twenty minute long operation leopard injured five forest guards, but they managed to put nets over leopard but that was not enough then dozen of forest officials overpower wildcat to tranquilise. Later it sent to Indore zoo for treatment and injured forest guards were sent to Syush Hospital for treatment, all of them are said to be safe.

After the operation forest officials noticed injury in right hand of leopard, which was possibly because of poaching attempt. Following teams were sent in different directions in range of 15 to 20 km to find out any traces of poaching. Three people of Kalbelia tribe of Pardhi community were detained from bank of Gambhir River. Forest officials are interrogating detainees.

Dubey said that it is possible that leopard might have forced to stray out of forest area by poachers but their poaching attempt failed and wildcat came close to village. Injury on leopard right hand might be because of trap.

CCF said injured leopard will be under treatment at Indore zoo for a week or two after which they will release him in Satpura National Park.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Leopard-rescued-from-Sinhasa-village-near-Indore-forest-department-doubt-poaching-attempt/articleshow/18527681.cms