Call of the wild

PU Antony, June 4, 2013

Blooming Biosphere The declaration of two new sanctuaries by the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments comes as a hope for many endangered species. Increased protection and awareness, especially in tiger reserves, has already led to resurgence in tiger numbers in southern India, writes  PU Antony.

World Environment Day being celebrated each year with festivities around the world is primarily meant to invoke political and public action towards issues concerned with the environment.
This year, the day is marked by the creation of corridors that would enable marooned wild life of Nilgiri Biosphere to roam in a larger, more intact ecosystem. The untiring efforts of various green organisations towards this cause in South India resulted in the recent declaration of sanctuary status to two reserve forests and the ban of night traffic on various highways passing through Bandipur, Nagarhole, Mudumalai and Wayanad wildlife sanctuary. These two initiatives from the part of the respective state governments paved way for an unruffled subsistence for wild animals in this belt.

The new Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary (Tamil Nadu) including areas along the River Cauvery in the Hosur and Dharmapuri forest divisions, together with the unique Gutterayan Riverine Forest was first proposed by the noted naturalist, M Krishnan immediately after the promulgation of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. Later, the proposal being put up since then from time to time by various green organisations became a reality when Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced its implementation in the Tamil Nadu assembly on May 2 this year.

In a similar move, the Karnataka government has officially declared a part of the Kollegala Range Forest as Male Mahadeshwara Wildlife Sanctuary on May 16,. Out of the 1,224 sq km of the range forest, 906.18 sq km (90,618.75 hectares) has been declared a sanctuary. The declaration has been welcomed by NGOs and greens who had persistently demanded sanctuary status to these forests.

A crucial habitat

The new Cauvery wildlife sanctuary is a very crucial habitat dotted with a range of hills covered by dry deciduous and semi-evergreen forests on the Eastern Ghats, bound by the River Cauvery on the West. Some stretches of shola forests too are seen on the slopes of the hills. This is the only forest in Tamil Nadu other than Srivilliputhur that harbours the Grizzled Giant Squirrel, ratufa macroura. The ruling monarch of these jungles is the elephant.

This forest range stretches to sanctuaries of BR Hills and Sathyamangalam including the newly installed Male Mahadeshwara Wildlife Sanctuary and joins the tiger reserves of Nilgiri Biosphere. As the meeting point of the Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats, these forests form a vital link in the elephant corridors of South India, connecting the Bannerghatta National Park and the River Cauvery. It borders some of the prominent tiger sanctuaries of the South. Water sources like Cauvery, Dodahalla, Hebbahalla, Chinnar, Ponnaiar, Anaibiddahalla rivers make these ranges a promising habitat for wild life.

A home to the endangered

Both the proposed sanctuaries are home to many endangered wildlife like four-horned antelope  (tetracerus quadricornis),  Indian gaur (bos gaurus), sambar (cervus unicolor), leopard (panthera pardus), smooth-coated otter (lutrogale perspicillata), sloth bear (melursus ursinus), wild dog (cuon alpines), Indian pangolin (manis crassicaudata), rusty spotted cat (prionailurus rubiginosus), Egyptian vulture (neophron percnopterus), painted stork (mycteria leucocephala), grey headed fish eagle (ichthyophaga ichthyaetus), lesser fish eagle (ichthyophaga humilis) etc. whose protection under Wildlife Protection Act needs to be ensured.

The vegetation type

These sanctuaries host mixed vegetation types such as thorn scrub, dry tropical riverine, dry deciduous, mixed deciduous, dry evergreen and semi evergreen. The forests of the hill harbour many rare plants and trees such as giant mangifera indica, garcinia gummigutta, wild balsam, wild jack, etc. Endangered species such as shorea roxburghii also occur in the division. Significant trees such as old growth mutti (terminalia arjuna), hardwickia binata, ippe (madhuca longifolia), diospyros malabarica etc. occur here.

Habitat fragmentation due to settlements, poaching, cattle grazing, forest fire; exodus of elephant herds from fragmented forests; increase in road network into the forest areas etc. can now be effectively managed for better conservation. Allowing the elephants to disperse haphazardly will be disastrous as the landscape has changed vastly due to human activity. The only option is to contain the elephants within the existing forest divisions by protecting the habitat and making it suitable for elephants. To that extent, the setting up of the two sanctuaries is a positive move.

The nature of forest cover in the Eastern Ghats had become more open with extensive scrub patches. It is reasonable to assume that the trend has continued and probably accelerated in the last decade. The seriousness and intensity of the problems need to be acknowledged and corrective measures need to be put in place.

This can only be done by enhancing the status of the important parts of the region to a protected area and re-orienting the management towards wildlife conservation.

The declaration of the two sanctuaries will create a large tract of contiguous protected area connecting Bannerghatta National Park to the forests of Sathaymangalam through Kollegal and Kanakpura Forest Divisions and Billigirirangaswamy Tiger Reserve. Increased protection and awareness, especially in tiger reserves, are leading to resurgence in tiger numbers and the tiger range in southern India is increasing. Strict protection of the proposed area will lead to a healthy population of ungulate prey species and the area will once again become habitable for the tiger.

Source: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/336351/call-wild.html

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

Tiger reserves to get full-time wildlife vets

Vijay Pinjarkar, TNN May 11, 2013
NAGPUR: In a bid to tackle man-animal conflict and give conservation a boost, the state government has decided to hire independent wildlife veterinarians in all four tiger reserves in the state.

After recent deliberations over raging man-animal conflict in Chandrapur, principal secretary (forests) Praveen Pardeshi, chief wildlife warden SWH Naqvi and field directors of tiger reserves decided to appoint wildlife vets. Directions to recruit trained vets on contract basis in Tadoba, Melghat and Pench in Vidarbha have been issued on May 7.

Pardeshi has asked field directors to recruit vets from funds under tiger conservation foundations (TCFs) on a honorarium of Rs 30,000. They have been asked to get in touch with deans of veterinary colleges and teachers to get suitable candidates. Help has also been sought from state animal husbandry commissioner.

Presently, the department has only one wildlife vet, Chitra Raut, posted at Nagpur. In case of emergencies, help from senior experts from Nagpur Veterinary College is taken. Although vets in Nagpur respond immediately, on many occasions doctors were not available in case of emergencies, proving fatal for wild animals.

Recently, when a tiger cub was hit by a speeding train and shifted to Nagpur, Raut had gone to Chandrapur to bring the animal back.

"We are making provision in the TCF budget to appoint wildlife vet on contract. There is also plan to redesignate posts of medical officers available with the department," said Virendra Tiwari, chief conservator of forests (CCF) and field director of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve ( TATR) in Chandrapur.

However, Sarjan Bhagat, additional principal chief conservator of forests (subordinate cadre), said there are six posts of medical officers with the forest department but only one from Yavatmal Circle could be made available as officers at other places like Gadchiroli and forest training colleges have said they need posts of medical officers for staff and villagers.

"We will send a proposal in this regard to the government," Bhagat said.

Tourism in TATR has not affected tigers: Forest dept

Vivek Deshpande : Nagpur, Fri May 10 2013
Recent media reports of tourists overcrowding Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) and blocking the movement of tigers seems to have miffed nature lovers but not the forest department. The department sees the issue as increased visitor interest in wildlife.

Principal Secretary (Forest), Pravi Pardeshi, clarified that only 20 per cent of TATR area that has six tigers is open for tourists. "The remaining area has 42 tigers. So it would be a sweeping comment to say that all tigers in TATR are exposed to crowding tourists," he said.

The media reports had raised the hackles of tiger lovers and conservationists. So much so that Rural Development Minister Jayant Patil, himself a nature lover, had written to Forest Minister Patangrao Kadam expressing his anguish.

Asked if these six tigers have to face tourist menace, Pardeshi said, "Not at all. The fact that tigers merrily walk through the crammed tourist vehicles means that the animals are not bothered by their presence. Else it would have shied away from people like most wild tigers in deep interiors do," Pardeshi said. He said these tigers and other wildlife have got used to human beings.

Stressing the importance of tourism, Pardeshi said, "The most important takeaway of tourism ist that tourists are converted into harcore non-systemic conservationists, who plea the tiger's case to outside world."

He said tourists crowding places of tiger sighting is commonplace in all tiger reserves. "In reserves like Pench (MP), Kahna and Bandhavgarh, they had even used elephants to track down tigers and corner it for the tourists to see. In Maharashtra, we never used that method," he said.

He said the earnings from tourist visits are useful for conservation and habitat development. "TATR tourist revenue went up from Rs 48 lakh to Rs 3 crore in the last one year. We have a fixed number of vehicles going in every day. All our days are generally fully booked. The revenue is also used to develop 79 villages in the buffer zone," he said.

However, he averred that unruly or overenthusiastic tourists are always present in the crowd. "We have instructed the guides who are local tribal boys not to stop at the sighting place for than five minutes. Their livelihood depends on making their clients happy," Pardeshi said.

He said in view of problems from tourists, the waterholes for wildlife have been shifted from the roadside to a little inside.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/tourism-in-tatr-has-not-affected-tigers-forest-dept/1113908/0

Uproar over China tiger abuse

AFP
A Chinese tiger park has sought to quell public anger after images of holidaymakers sitting astride a strapped-down cub prompted outrage online, state media said on Tuesday.

Pictures taken at a Siberian tiger park in northwest China's Jilin province showed visitors posing for photos while sitting on top of a tiger cub tied to a wooden table. Video footage has also emerged from another animal park in Zhejiang province in the east, showing a tiger strapped to a bench while a man sat on top of it, bouncing up and down and slapping the tiger's head.

The incidents provoked outrage on China's popular social networking site Sina Weibo. “Humans gradually evolve into beasts,” one user said.

Authorities at the Jilin Park said the abused cub was not among the animals it cares for, according to the Global Times, insisting that it belonged instead to an animal troupe that the park hired to stage performances for visitors.

The park said it had terminated its contract with the troupe and penalised its director 5,000 yuan over the incident, the report said.

China’s cold northeast is home to the rare Siberian tiger, of which only 450 remain in the wild, according to the WWF.

The WWF warned in 2010 that the tiger faced extinction in the wild in China after having been devastated by poaching and the destruction of its natural habitat.

China has no laws specifically against cruelty to animals and endangered species are sometimes kept as trophy pets and the country is widely considered a key destination for the global illegal wildlife trade.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/uproar-over-china-tiger-abuse/article4693990.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

Love-lorn tiger enters zoo

AFP

May have travelled over 100 km in quest of mate

A lonely male tiger that left the jungle and entered a zoo in Nandankanan Zoological Park in Odisha in quest of a mate has been trapped, an official of the state-run park said.

"It seems to have strayed into the zoo attracted by a tigress," Sudarshan Panda, director of the Nandankanan Zoological Park near Bhubaneswar, capital of the eastern state of Orissa.

Panda said foresters kept a lookout for the animal, which had travelled from a protected state forest some 100 kilometres from the zoo and roamed around the facility last weekend. The tiger was captured and is now in the tiger safari area, which has been temporarily closed to visitors due to the presence of the wild cat.

The Nandankanan zoological park has a large number of white tigers as well.

India is home to half of the world's rapidly shrinking wild tiger population and has been struggling to halt the big cat's decline in the face of poachers, international smuggling networks and loss of habitat.

The country has seen its tiger population plummet from an estimated 40,000 animals in 1947, when it gained independence, to just 1,706 in 2011.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/lovelorn-tiger-enters-zoo/article4687447.ece

3 smugglers held, 5 tiger skins recovered

TNN | Feb 21, 2013
LUCKNOW: The network of wildlife poachers seems to have penetrated into the city and is trying to reach the international market via Nepal. The special operations group and district police caught a murder accused and two more smugglers in possession of five tiger hides from Chinhat area on Wednesday. The police also recovered a porcupine from the smugglers.

The trio had got hold of the hides from a Maharashtra-based poacher and was in the middle of finding a prospective buyer, when the police intercepted them. The three smugglers have been identified as Vishal alias Sahil-the murder accused and Rajmal and Rajan, both residents of Barabanki. A resident of Dewa Road, Vishal had been accused of a murder that took place at Matiyari in 2007.

"The trio was in possession of five tiger hides and porcupine (an endangered species), when they were held by the police. We are trying to find out who was interested in dealing with the trio and suspect that the hides were to be smuggled to international market via Nepal," said J Ravinder Goud, senior superintendent of police, Lucknow.

According the police, the trio had bought the tiger hides from a man identified as Vijay. The trio had been in the business of wildlife smuggling and trafficking for past several years and had developed contacts across several states in the country. From preliminary investigations, it was found that the recovered hides have been smuggled from Maharashtra's Aurangabad district to the city. "The cost price of a single hide is Rs 50,000, while the selling price ranges between Rs 4 and 5 lakh," told Brijlal Verma, the sub-inspector of the team that nabbed the trio from a shanty located off Faizabad Road.

The police have pressed various charges under Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 against the trio and have sent them to jail. "We had information of some groups, which were active in smuggling of endangered animals, skins, hides, bones, body parts etc in the city. Following continuous surveillance and help of informers, a notorious group had been held," said a police official.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/3-smugglers-held-5-tiger-skins-recovered/articleshow/18602036.cms

Six suspected poachers arrested near Corbett

D S Kunwar, TNN | Apr 20, 2013
DEHRADUN: A joint team of the Special Operation Group (SOG) and the Special Task Force (STF) on Friday arrested six members of a gang of suspected poachers after raids in the Corbett National Park landscape under the Ramnagar forest division. The gang is thought to be responsible for Thursday's killing of a six-year-old tiger near Choi village in Nainital district.

The raids had followed a tip-off that the gang members were hiding near Choi. An STF officer said the suspected poachers had been operating in the region for the past four months.

An IPS officer told TOI that the arrested men were taken inside the forest for their interrogation in connection with the recent poaching. "Since these poachers had used firearms and sharp-edged weapons in poaching the tiger, we hope to recover these weapons from there after the interrogation is over," said the officer. He said cases would be registered against the six men after their interrogation.

An Uttarakhand STF officer said the government had entrusted the responsibility of nabbing poachers to the joint SOG and STF team since it was upset over the way state forest department officials had virtually failed in protecting tigers and other endangered species.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Six-suspected-poachers-arrested-near-Corbett/articleshow/19642413.cms

Making space for the tiger a reality

PRAVEEN BHARGAV

WAY OUT: A participatory community-based tourism plan can help reduce pressure on core areas.
Photo: Special Arrangement

Promoters of development projects in forest areas can be made to compensate by creating buffer zones around sanctuaries through minor modifications to the Forest Conservation Act guidelines
The contentious issue of notifying buffer areas around tiger reserves came under sharp debate when the Supreme Court issued interim directions to stop tourism in core or Critical Tiger Habitats (CTHs) and notify buffer areas. However, after the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) filed comprehensive guidelines on tiger conservation and tourism on October 15, 2012, the Supreme Court permitted the reopening of tourism strictly in accordance with the guidelines. Visitation is now permissible in existing tourism zones subject to a maximum of 20 per cent of core areas being used. But the important issue of creating viable buffers around a core area lost focus even though the NTCA guidelines harp on its importance to sustain tiger populations.

In most tiger reserves, core areas comprise notified sanctuaries and/or national parks, which are to be managed as areas free of incompatible human activity. Reserved forests, deemed forests and other unencumbered government land with some vegetation immediately abutting the CTHs are to be notified as buffer areas, which can act as “shock absorbers” for core areas.

Viable buffers

While notifying such contiguous forests as buffer areas may be relatively easy, the real challenge is in creating viable buffers wherever private agricultural lands abut core areas. Merely notifying such areas as buffer or peripheral areas without any viable habitat, as is being done now, may not only fail to deliver the imagined benefits for tiger conservation but also lead to hostility and loss of support from the local community.

Yet, acquiring large extent of private land abutting tiger reserves, to insulate the entire core area with a complete “wrap around” buffer that can support wildlife might be impractical. So is there a way forward to resolve this important issue?

An innovative mechanism can be created within the current legal framework with some very minor modifications to the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 Guidelines. This could greatly contribute to creating additional areas as viable forested buffers around tiger reserves.

Presently, most development project promoters seeking diversion of forest land for a non-forestry purpose have to identify an equivalent area of non-forest land. This has to be transferred and mutated in favour of the forest department for declaration as reserved forest/Protected Forest (PF). The project must also deposit funds for taking up compensatory afforestation in such lands. Stage II clearance under the Forest Act is to be granted only after compliance of this important condition. As far as possible, such areas should be contiguous with reserved forests for effective management. This is mandated under Chapter 3 of the Act’s guidelines.

Legal loophole

Unfortunately, in most cases, this important condition is relaxed based on certification by the State that sufficient/appropriate non-forest land is not available. In such cases a simpler condition of compensatory afforestation in degraded forest land twice the area diverted is insisted upon. This legal loophole has meant the loss of an excellent opportunity to create viable buffer areas as State governments routinely provide this exemption to most projects.

To facilitate the creation of viable forested buffers, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) must first revise the current guidelines appropriately to plug this loophole. A new mechanism must then be created whereby the Tiger Reserve Authority in each tiger reserve State identifies private (non-forest) land immediately abutting a reserve, based on scientific and objective criteria, to be developed as ecologically viable buffers.

Private enclosures within contiguous reserve forests can also be identified. This data must be shared with development project promoters to explore the possibility of them privately acquiring the lands to comply with the Forest Act guidelines.

There could be two possible scenarios under which this idea could be enabled:

1. The owner(s) of such identified farm land may be willing to sell the land at prevailing market prices (which the project proponent /owner mutually agree upon as in any private land transaction). The project promoter has to then transfer and mutate the land in favour of the Forest Department for notification as a reserve forest/PF, as mandated by existing guidelines or even as a conservation reserve under Section 36-A of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 under the proposed new mechanism or;
2. The owner(s) may not be willing to sell but may be agreeable — with suitable benefits — to develop it as a private/community reserve based on an appropriate management plan. There are enabling provisions in the Wildlife Act, which allow for any individual/group of individuals or community volunteering to conserve wildlife and its habitat to approach the government for a notification. While the land will continue to be owned by the individual/community, the land use will be agreed upon jointly with the Forest Department based on a management plan.

Participatory plan

This will enable appropriate development of the private/community reserve or the land mutated in favour of the Forest Department, by creating suitable vegetation with mixed plantation/bamboo/grassy patches/salt licks, etc to attract wildlife. The funding for this can come from money deposited by the project promoter for compensatory afforestation. The individual or community could then be encouraged and assisted to develop a participatory community-based tourism plan with benefit sharing as envisaged in the new NTCA guidelines. The tourism pressure on core areas can thus be reduced progressively.

All that is required are some minor modifications in the Forest Act Guidelines to include the terms “Core or Critical Tiger Habitat,” “Protected Area” and “Community Reserve” to enable identification and transfer of lands adjacent to these areas to the Forest Department by the project promoter. But for this idea to work, the MoEF must issue a proper clarification to States that, henceforth, transfer of non-forest land will not ordinarily be condoned.

This innovative mechanism, which is within the framework of existing laws, could open up tremendous opportunities for increasing viable buffers and creating additional habitats for wildlife where it is most needed — around tiger reserves/protected areas. It will not only help in achieving the true objective of compensatory afforestation, but also deliver benefits to local communities from the increasing economic opportunities of non-consumptive tourism outside core areas.

(Praveen Bhargav is a trustee of Wildlife First and has served on the National Board for Wildlife.)

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/making-space-for-the-tiger-a-reality/article4630903.ece

Tigers moving from Rajasthan to Madhya Pradesh, officials concerned

P Naveen, TNN | Apr 19, 2013
GWALIOR: Movement of tigers from Rajasthan's Ranthambore to the Chambal range in Madhya Pradesh has become a cause for concerned of the two states.

Three tigers who went missing from Ranthambore have been located in Madhya Pradesh including one in Seoda range in Datia district - a mix of reserve and protected forest area and two in Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, selected for relocating lions from Gir in Gujarat.

After writing to the Madhya Pradesh forest officials to check whereabouts of the missing tigers, a team of officers from Ranthambore visited Datia district last week. They installed camera traps to check its movements. The tiger was finally caught in the camera traps of Madhya Pradesh forest department.

"Our team followed the tiger all the way to MP. We are happy that it's safe there and the officers were very cooperative. We cannot stop dispersal, only concern is its safety," said Y K Sahu, district forest officer Ranthambore.

The tiger in Datia is said to be a 3-year-old cub of Ranthambore's T-26 tigress. Information collected from the forest officials and the GPS tracking by WWF India- Western India Tiger landscape team indicates this cub travelled more than 220 km to reach the Seoda range.

On March 14, 2013 the tiger was found in Seoda range of Datia territorial forest division, which is a forest patch of 55km in length and width of 11-12 km. The range has both reserve and protected forests with the Sindh river flowing in the middle and the Vindhya hill ranges on the western side. There are many villages on both sides

From March 14 till date several samples and pugmarks have been recorded while following the tiger. There was no tiger sightings reported from Datia till one was shot dead by poachers in 1998. Prior to that one was hunted 'legally' by member of a Royal family in 1960, said sources.

"We are very concerned about the tiger's safety. Additional patrolling is being done to keep tab on its movement," said chief conservator of forest (Gwalior circle) S P Rayal.

Kuno is now a house to two Ranthambore tigers, T-38 that was spotted there since last year and other one that moved in recently. Officers had been visiting the place to track the tigers. "We have not received any pictures of the tiger so far. Search is on," Sahu said.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Tigers-moving-from-Rajasthan-to-Madhya-Pradesh-officials-concerned/articleshow/19624981.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

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/

Speeding train knocks dead tiger cub, injures another

Vijay Pinjarkar & Mazhar Ali, TNN Apr 16, 2013
NAGPUR/CHANDRAPUR: In a big blow to tiger conservation, a 10-month-old tiger cub was knocked dead and another critically injured by a speeding train near Kelzar on Gondia-Chandrapur railway line late Sunday night. This is the sixth tiger death in the state this year but perhaps the first ever in which a train was involved.

The tragedy took place around 10.30pm on Sunday when the Gondia-Chanda Fort passenger was approaching Chandrapur at a speed of 80 kmph. The driver of the train saw the tiger family, which included a tigress and three cubs. Locals say they knew about presence of a tigress with four cubs in the area.

Officials suspect that while the tigress and one cub crossed the railway line, the remaining two, both females, were hit in an attempt to follow them.

Sources say the driver blew the whistle after which the tigress and a cub jumped across the track. However, two cubs were slow to react and were knocked by the speeding train. The incident took place in compartment number 430 under Chichpalli range. The injured cub has been shifted to Nagpur at Seminary Hills nursery at 10pm.

The incident was reported by train guard R M Lohar to Chanda Fort station master who informed forest officials at 11.15pm. RFO VW Morey with his team launched search along the tracks during the wee hours and the trackers traced the carcass. The injured tiger cub was hiding in the bushes around 50 meters from the track and was traced in the morning.

"The cub that was hit died of head injury. Another cub suffered a fracture in its right hind leg," said BSK Reddy, CCF, Chandrapur Circle.

Pradeep Kumar, senior divisional commercial manager (SrDCM) of South East Central Railway (SECR), said the Gondia-Chanda Fort line was converted into broad gauge in 1999 after getting necessary environment clearances.

The mishap underlines the lack of vision and callousness on part of the then forest officials who gave forest clearances to the project without seeking any mitigation measures. ""We were not asked for any mitigation measures then. However, if forest authorities make a request, we will consider restraining speed of passing trains in forest patches,"" Kumar told TOI.

The railway line passes through the corridor between Tadoba and Chaprala sanctuary at Kelzar. "It further passes through forests touching Nagzira sanctuary in Gondia," said Kishor Rithe, member, National Board for Wildlife (NBWL).

Reddy said he will write to the railway officials to limit speed of trains which they pass through wildlife rich forest areas.

"There have been many incidents of sloth bears, leopards, Indian gaurs, and wild boars dying due to train hits in the past," said Bandu Dhotre, honorary district wildlife warden.

The injured cub that sat in the thickets was tranquillized Tadoba divisional forest officer (DFO) G K Vashisht. It was later shifted for treatment to Nagpur late night under the supervision of Dr Chitra Raut and Dr P D Kadukar. Head of forest force (HoFF) AK Joshi, APCCF SS Mishra, Tadoba field director Virendra Tiwari and others visited the spot. They said search operations to track the tigress and other cubs will continue.

Greens express shock

Greens are dismayed over the death of tiger. Harshawardhan and Poonam Dhanwatey of Tiger Research and Conservation Trust (TRACT) said the railway track is becoming a death trap for wildlife. Suresh Chopne of Green Planet said MP Hansraj Ahir will be urged to take up the issue with the environment ministry.

"Last month, a sloth bear was killed near the same spot. In this case, was the tigers' mother missing? This could have led the cubs to cross the track by mistake," said Kishor Rithe of Satpuda Foundation. Prafulla Bhamburkar of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) wanted railway ministry to make budgetary provision for wildlife in such areas.

Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-04-16/nagpur/38585770_1_tiger-cub-injured-cub-tigress

Rajasthan gets third tiger reserve

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan government has notified the Mukundra hills sanctuary as the third tiger reserve in the state.

The reserve area will be over 759 sq km spread between
 four districts of Kota, Bundi, Chittorgarh and Jhalawar
 near the Ranthambore tiger reserve.

The reserve area will be over 759 sq km spread between four districts of Kota, Bundi, Chittorgarh and Jhalawar near the Ranthambore tiger reserve. "Nearly 417 sq km have been earmarked as the core tiger habitat, while 342.82 sq km has been notified as the buffer zone," senior a forest official. The other two tiger reserves of Ranthambore and Sariska have a core area nearly thrice this size.

"With powers bestowed under Section 38 V of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, we have declared Mukundra hills national park as a tiger reserve. When the budget announcement was made last financial year, we had taken the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) into confidence. Now that we have declared it as a reserve, we will be forwarding the notification to them," said A S Brar, head of forest forces and chief wildlife warden, Rajasthan.

The Section 38V of the Wildlife Protection Act says that the state government shall, on the recommendation of the Tiger Conservation Authority, notify an area as a tiger reserve. The state government has received an in-principle nod from the NTCA.

According to Brar, a three-member expert committee had been constituted under the then chief wildlife warden A Choubey which included a member from the state wildlife board and the chief conservator of forests, Kota, which surveyed the area and consulted the gram sabha. Consultation with the gram sabha is necessary, as under the law, the core area of the reserve is to be an inviolate space and all villages have to be relocated. However, the law permits man and animal to co-exist with some restriction on commercial activities.

The core area of the Mukundra reserve currently has six villages, two of which are uninhabited. Eventually all these villages will have to be relocated funded by the NTCA. The sanctuary currently has wolves, sloth bear, chinkaras and leopards.

"After the declaration of the area as a tiger reserve, NTCA will also give funds for developing the forest area," said an official.

The Mukundra hill sanctuary was already declared as the satellite core area of Ranthambore reserve by the NTCA and Tigers often stray into the area. "The objective was always to link this to Ranthambore so as to let the tigers that stray from the park come and breed here. It was the next best forest after Ranthambore for rehabilitation of tigers. But we have went a step ahead and declared it as a reserve itself," said the official.

Officials added that at a later stage, tigers will be relocated from Ranthambore reserve so as to provide optimum space to the big cats. Before that the annual working plan for the development and management of the reserve will have to be approved by the NTCA.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Rajasthan-gets-third-tiger-reserve/articleshow/19503766.cms

Paradise destroyed and devastated

Rajendra P Kerkar, TNN | Apr 8, 2013
KERI: Though, today Lamgao situated two km away from Bicholim town, is one of the wards of Bicholim municipality, once upon a time it was an independent village predominantly dependant upon agriculture and horticulture and blessed by rich sources of perennial water bodies like springs, streams and lakes.

The onset of mining activities on a massive scale in Mayem and Lamgao areas have caused serious degradation of the rich forest in the area thereby destroying the ground water table inherited by the town. Lamgao was known during ancient times as 'Lamhagram', meaning village of Buddhist monks. The rock-cut caves carved out for meditation by the Buddhist monks stand testimony to this era.

The decoration found on the moulded plinth in the second cave of Lamgao indicates influence of Buddhism as Chaitya windows have been chiselled out and archaeologist V R Mitragotri has mentioned that this cave's origin traces back to 600 AD.

Near the cave, there is a perennial spring which earlier used to quench the thirst of the Buddhist monks, villagers and irrigate horticultural fields along with agriculture. Today, spring water is used mainly for washing clothes and utensils. The well-known Marathi novelist Subhash Bhende, through his novel, 'Udhawast' has brought to light upheaval in the form of destruction and degradation caused to horticultural fields locally known as 'Kulaghars' and 'Bhats', a quarter of a century ago in Lamgao.

Pratap Govekar, a local from Lamgao says, "Our area was forested and was rich in perennial water bodies. Vaghpet in Lamgao and worship of Vaghrodev tells us that the land was known for tigers. Today, the natural heritage is on the verge of extinction. The lake of Mhatrai is heavily silted, streams are degraded."

The many springs and streams originating in Lamgao, Bordem and Valshi used to feed water to the Bicholim river. Today, the huge lakes irrigating agriculture and horticulture in these areas have already been degraded. The horticulture fields have experienced a gradual death.

Environmental activist Ramesh Gauns, who resides at Pazwada in Bicholim, said "Agriculture and horticulture was the backbone of Lamgao. Worship of Vaghrodev at Lamgao tells us that the tiger was a resident of the area. Numerous springs and lakes of Lamgao were continuously providing water for drinking and irrigation. But, today mining activities have forced us to depend totally on the Sankhali and Padocem water treatment plants."

Today, lakes and springs of Lamgao are on their way to oblivion. Near the government primary school, there is a shrine dedicated to Kajreshwar with a huge sacred tree of Kajro. In the past, this was the area of the sacred grove. Now, except for one tree, all vegetation has been destroyed. A lake which was full with crystal clear water is silted and has muddy water.

The new temple of Mhatrai is built near the settlement since the old temple was buried long ago under a collapsed mining dump, said Govekar. The lake of Mhatrai is heavily silted. The wildlife habitat has been totally destroyed. Narayan Gad, deputy collector of Bicholim, said, "We have given directives to the mining company concerned to undertake work to prevent siltation and degradation of lakes and streams before the onset of monsoon in the area."

Narayan Betkikar, deputy chairman of Bicholim municipality, said, "We are aware about the situation and necessary steps will be taken at the earliest for protecting lakes and springs of Lamgao."

Gauns, the environmentalist, said "I have already brought to the notice of government authorities concerned about the pathetic condition of Mhatrai lake and other lakes of Lamgao caused by the mining companies. But, no concrete efforts have been done to protect and conserve the water bodies of Lamgao. If systematic steps are taken to rejuvenate the lakes, our areas will never experience paucity of water."

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Paradise-destroyed-and-devastated/articleshow/19434432.cms

Environment Ministry rejects proposal to expand Bhopal-Nagpur highway

PTI | 7 Apr, 2013
NEW DELHI: The Environment Ministry has rejected a National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) proposal seeking expansion of a road connecting Bhopal and Nagpur that cuts through a proposed tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh.

The Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife, chaired by Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, has accepted an expert panel report which said that four-laning of NH-69 within the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary "cannot be permitted currently" as tigers and other wild animals will be "more vulnerable" to be killed on the road, MoEF sources said.

The decision came amid tussle between the two sides over highway projects through forest areas.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had earlier endorsed the report prepared by NBWL Standing Committee Member Prerna Singh Bindra and NTCA official Rajeev Sharma.

The NHAI had sought denotification of 58.5 hectares of forest land in Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary to upgrade the two-lane NH-69 to four lanes to facilitate "higher, faster and night time" traffic between the cities of Bhopal and Nagpur.

Rejecting the proposal, the report had said the impact of roads went beyond wild animals ending up as road kill.

"Forests on the sides of the roads become heavily degraded and over time, their usage by wild animals diminishes. Besides, they allow access into wilderness areas, bringing with them ancillary development. Further expansion of the road will only accelerate these," it had said.

National Highway-69 goes through 44.6 km of forest area including 12.44 km through Ratapani sanctuary which is very close to Bhopal.

Admitting that the condition of the road is "very bad", the report has said the best alternative was to repair the road and strengthen it.

The sanctuary has been proposed as a tiger reserve and accorded in-principle approval by the NTCA. The last census indicates presence of 16 tigers in the sanctuary.

The team headed by Bindra has recommended that notifying of Ratapani Tiger Reserve be expedited for more focused wildlife management and conservation of wild cat.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/infrastructure/environment-ministry-rejects-proposal-to-expand-bhopal-nagpur-highway/articleshow/19425279.cms

Centre rejects Satpura tiger reserve denotification proposal

PTI | Apr 6, 2013

NEW DELHI: The Environment Ministry has rejected a proposal seeking denotification of land inside Satpura tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh for religious functions and roads, officials said here.

The Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) chaired by Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan has rejected the proposal citing that the proposed area is an "important source site" for tigers, they said.

"The area proposed to be denotified is within the core tiger habitat of a reserve that functions as an important source site for tigers," NBWL Standing Committee member Prerna Singh Bindra said.

"Besides, Satpura is a botanically important 'relict' site and a faunal bridge representing unique floral species common to Western Ghats and the Himalayas. Such a denotification is unacceptable," she said.

Mahadev Mela Samiti Pachmarhi, which had demanded denotification of the land, said the annual religious fair is attended by lakhs of people every year and basic amenities like drinking water, sanitation and medical facilities have to be provided to them in the forests in case of emergency.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Centre-rejects-Satpura-tiger-reserve-denotification-proposal/articleshow/19407436.cms

Big cats vanishing from Satkosia

Siba Mohanty

• The number at present could well be just one or two and unless urgent measures are taken, there would be none left in near future
• The population of wild boar, spotted deer and sambhar has jumped significantly but there has been no sign of an improvement in tiger population.

Shocking as it may sound, Satkosia Tiger Reserve seems headed the Sariska way. Dwindling tiger signs and absence of breeding since two years in the habitat have rung alarm bells for Odisha’s second tiger reserve (TR).

In the 2010 enumeration by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the tiger population was estimated at eight. A host of factors now indicates that the number may have declined drastically. Although the management of the tiger reserve is collecting tiger signs from the prime habitats, they have been declining and are discouraging to say the least.

According to sources, camera traps installed in the tiger reserve have shown signs of existence of large cats, but the population is reported to have hit the nadir. Already designated a low tiger density reserve, the drop in population may push the large cats into extinction in Satkosia soon. The number at present could well be just one or two and unless urgent measures are taken, there would be none left in near future.

‘’Tiger population does not seem to be thriving since there are no signs of cubs with mothers or even juveniles to suggest that breeding is taking place and the cycle is going on. This could be fatal to the population,’’ said a source in Satkosia. Interestingly, prey base in the tiger habitat, which is connected to the tiger habitats of Central and Southern Odisha and onwards to the Central India tiger landscape, has improved over the last few years. The population of wild boar, spotted deer and sambhar has jumped significantly, but there has been no sign of an improvement in tiger population.

 The Satkosia TR management too is aware of the impending crisis. “Prey base has improved and so has the habitat and there is no incident of poaching and no sign of repopulation. It may have to do with the sex ratio of the existing population,” Field Director Pandav Behera told “Express” on Monday.

Sources said skewed the sex ratio could be a major reason behind the crash in the tiger population in Satkosia. “Camera traps had captured an adult male in Labangi about three months back and it suggested existence of the last few. But absence of growth in population indicates that there is either no female and even if there is, it is not in the breeding age anymore,” sources added. Worryingly, all the photographs captured in the reserve area are of the same male tiger.

The tiger that is currently roaming the forests of Chandaka Wildlife Division is believed to have strayed from Satkosia and may have been a key indicator of what is wrong with the latter. Wildlife Wing insiders say the male may have been out on the lookout for a female for mating. Satkosia was declared a TR in 2007 with 524 sq km as core area out of the 963 sq km reserve area. The NTCA in its Management Effectiveness Evaluation Report 2010-11 had categorically pointed out Satkosia had “poor protection, little wildlife orientation and no monitoring,” asking for urgent redressal. But the State has not made any effort yet.

Source: http://newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/article1517783.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/