Buying land to return it to nature

Ananda Banerjee,  Live Mint

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Imagine helping to build a national treasure.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Land for Project Tiger

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

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

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

Private forests

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Row over dumping of garbage in forest area

A vehicle of the Meppadi grama panchayat
dumping garbage inside the Attamala forest area.
—Photo: E.M. Manoj

The Forest Department and the Meppadi grama panchayat are locking horns over the dumping of garbage in the Attamala reserve forest area of the Meppadi forest range under the South Wayanad forest division.

The panchayat authorities have been dumping garbage after collecting it from Meppadi town and the nearby small towns under the panchayat inside the forest at Attamala for more than a decade, sources in the Forest Department says.

Though forest officials had reasoned with the panchayat authorities for the past many years to stop the practice, they were yet to respond positively, the sources added. The ‘dumping yard’ of the panchayat on the banks of a small stream, a tributary of the Chaliyar river, was posing a serious threat to the wildlife habitats and the waterbodies in the area. Poultry waste, disposable plastic glasses and plates, and rotten vegetables and watermelons were being heaped in the area.

“The panchayat authorities dump waste everyday, except on holidays,” K. Mathew, a villager, said. He added that wild herbivores, including elephants, boars, and sambar deer, could be seen feeding on the garbage and it created many health issues among them. The practice also contaminated the waterbodies in the area, especially during monsoon, and the fumes arising from burning the garbage polluted the serenity of the area, he added. Though the forest officials had erected a billboard prohibiting waste-dumping in the area at the entrance to the forest a few months ago as per the direction of Forest Minister K.B. Ganesh Kumar, the panchayat authorities seemed to have taken no notice of it, the sources added.

‘We are planning to take stringent actions against the authorities to stop the illegal activities, as per the Kerala Forest Act, 1961,” P. Dhaneshkumar, South Wayanad divisional forest officer, told The Hindu . But Ancy Baby, president, Meppadi grama panchayat, said they were forced to continue the practice owing to non-availability of land to dispose of garbage. The panchayat had identified land at Chooralmala, near here, to set up a dumping yard and its acquisition process was under way, she added.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/row-over-dumping-of-garbage-in-forest-area/article4549582.ece

Wild elephants giving their favourite summer haunt a miss

R. KRISHNA KUMAR

Drought has driven many of them away from Kabini backwaters

• Against nearly 800 in a normal year, the number of elephants has dwindled to about 120 this year

Wild elephants are deserting Kabini backwaters, their favourite summer habitat, as it has run out of water and fodder due to drought.

In a normal year, the famed “annual elephant congregation” begins before summer and lasts till the advent of the southwest monsoon. This year, however, only a few elephants can be found near the backwaters and their numbers are fast dwindling. Herds of elephants are migrating elsewhere in search of greener pasture and more hospitable habitat.

Idyllic spot

Known to be an idyllic spot for the wildlife of both Bandipur and Nagarahole national parks, Kabini backwaters plays host to nearly 600 to 800 elephants in a normal year during peak summer as the moisture in the soil (after the evaporation of water) would be supplanted by fresh green grass which lasts through the season.

Elephants need at least 200 kg of fodder apart from plenty of water, and Kabini backwaters was a veritable paradise for them during summer. But drought has left the place relatively desolated this year.

Located at the junction of Bandipur and Nagarahole, and on the migratory path of wild animals treading to Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu and Wayanad in Kerala, Kabini backwaters used to witness one of the largest wildlife congregations in Asia.

Conservator of Forests Kantharaj, who is also Director of the Bandipur Tiger Reserve, told The Hindu that the number of elephants frequenting the Kabini backwaters this year is less compared with the previous years.

Jungle Lodges and Resorts Ltd. suspended boating in the backwaters about 45 days ago due to lack of enough water in the Kabini backwaters, and also because there were fewer elephant sightings than previous years.

The scenario this year is similar to the drought that affected the region in 2003.

D. Rajkumar, Honorary Wildlife Warden for Mysore district, said that against nearly 800 elephants that could be seen during peak summer in a normal year, their numbers had dwindled to about 90 to 120 this year.

“Moisture in the area is conducive for the growth of green grass and other fodder to sustain a large population of elephant, gaur, sambar, deer and other herbivores animals. But this year, the water stress is high and the moisture content in the soil is not adequate to facilitate the growth of fresh fodder,” Mr. Rajkumar said. In the absence of fodder and water in the area, the elephants have gone to more habitable portions of the national parks, according to Mr. Rajkumar, who is also the local representative of the National Tiger Conservation Authority.

Meanwhile, the authorities are replenishing waterholes every days using tankers.

But this can only meet the requirements of smaller animals to a certain extent. The larger herbivores such as elephants have moved on to the interiors towards Moolehole range, which has received good rain in the last few days.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/wild-elephants-giving-their-favourite-summer-haunt-a-miss/article4540481.ece

Straying tiger trapped in Wayanad

A tiger which spread panic among the villagers of Moodakkolly, a village adjacent to the Chethalayat range of forest under the South Wayanad forest division, after it attacked two persons, was tranquilized at a coffee plantation on Wednesday.

Those attacked were identified as Binu of Pulimootil, 35, and Vasudevan, 36, of Karthamkalayil at Moodakkolly. They were admitted to the Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, with serious injuries.

‘‘While they tried to locate the animal, without heeding to the warning by forest officials and a mob gathered there, it attacked them,’’ the villagers said.

The tiger, nearly 10-year-old, was spotted by a farmer in his plantain farm near Moodakkolly in the morning. The animal was resting inside the plantation after killing a wild boar and a dog near a paddy field adjacent to the farm. When the farmer sighted the animal, it escaped to a coffee plantation near the farm.

A team of forest officials led by South Wayanad forest division officer P. Dhaneshkumar rushed to the spot .

Meanwhile, a team of veterinary surgeons led by Arun Zachariah reached there around 4 p.m. to tranquilize the animal. The animal was tranquilized around 5.30 p.m.

When the forest officials started to shift the animal to the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary office at Sulthan Bathery in a vehicle, a mob tried to prevent it and detained the forest officials demanding to disclose the location of release.

Later, the police team dispersed the mob by using force. ‘‘The animal will not be released in the forest area of Wayanad district instead we are planning to release it in Parmabikulam or Periyar Tiger Reserve after examining the health condition of the animal,’’ Mr. Gopinath told The Hindu .

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/straying-tiger-trapped-in-wayanad/article4483600.ece

Wildlife sanctuaries closed due to fire risk

K. S. SUDHI
Two wildlife sanctuaries — Silent Valley National Park and Wayanad — have been closed to visitors since Friday following high fire risk.

Scanty summer showers and dried vegetation have heightened the fire risk in most of the protected areas of the State. The restriction on tourism activities and curbs on visitors were enforced at the sanctuaries to minimise risk of fire, said V. Gopinath, Chief Wildlife Warden, Kerala.

Though sporadic incidents of fire were reported from some forest areas in the State, the situation was under control, Mr. Gopinath said.

Fire prevention measures carried out annually, including the clearing of fire tracts and posting of fire watchers, whad been completed. However, shortage of manpower was a major problem. The department had 2,000 regular employees to protect the 11,000 sq.km of forest area in the State, said Mr. Gopinath.

221 incidents

Last year, 221 incidents of forest fire were reported in Kerala between January 1, 2012 and May 31, according to the statistics collected by the Forest Survey of India. Idukki accounted for the most number of incidents last year with 56 fire outbreaks followed by Wayanad (17) and Pathanamthitta (16). Large tracts of withered bamboo have dried up in Wayanad after their recent mass flowering. The dried-up bamboo poses high risk to wildlife as well as human habitations. A recent meeting of the State Wildlife Advisory Board had decided to approach the National Board for cutting down the bamboo. The board has estimated that there would be around 25,000 metric tonne bamboo to be harvested from there which could be sold to agencies like Hindustan Newsprint Ltd. As the bamboo groves are located inside the sanctuary, the permission of the national board is required for cutting them down, said Roy P. Thomas, Divisional Forest Officer, Wayanad.

In Silent Valley, large tracts of grass have dried up along the forest route from Mukkali to Sairandhri. Heavy dust covers the area as vehicles pass through the parched tracts. The management of the park had also suggested its closure during the summer months. The park will remain closed for two months, a park official said. As the waterholes inside the protected areas have dried up, animals have started leaving the forest area in search of water and foraying into human habitations. An elephant was spotted on a road near the sanctuary last week, the official said.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/wildlife-sanctuaries-closed-due-to-fire-risk/article4473415.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.

The problem with releasing ‘problem’ tigers back in forest

P. VENUGOPAL

Tigress released in Karnataka 71 days ago trapped again in Wayanad last week

Photo-matching done at the Centre for Wildlife Studies - India (CWS) in Bangalore now shows that the tiger trapped in Wayanad this Saturday is a ‘problem tiger’ that had created a conflict situation at a place called Nalkeri on the boundary of the Nagarahole National Park in Karnataka just 71 days ago.

The finding points to need for a re-examination of the capture-release practice followed by the conservation officials in dealing with ‘problem tigers’ that stray into human habitations and cause conflict situations.

This tiger was captured in a box trap by the Karnataka Forest officials on November 23 after two cattle-killing incidents on November 20 and 21 in Nalkeri village outside the western boundary of the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, according to conservation zoologist and director of CWS - India Programme, K. Ullas Karanth.

It was an injured tiger and, after treatment at the Mysore zoo, was released by late evening on the same day near a place called Hidagalapanchi in Karnataka’s Bandipur Tiger Reserve. The place of release is less than 10 km, as the crow flies, from the adjoining Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala.

Dr. Karanth told The Hindu that the CWS had searched its database containing the stripe patterns of over 600 individually identifiable tigers surviving in the Malanad-Mysore landscape — a database that contains camera-trap pictures gathered over the years from the region — and found the match for the stripe pattern of the tiger captured this Saturday in Wayanad from a conflict situation.

The study showed that this tiger—a tigress, in fact—is the same one that was repeatedly captured by camera-traps and even two wildlife photographers during the period from 2007 to 2012 from a particular area in Nagarahole National Park. It was pushed out of this area, which apparently was its home range, due to unknown reasons that could include inability to retain the home range in the face of competition. It started straying into the human habitations outside Nagarahole in November 2012, to be trapped by the Karnataka Forest officials. It returned once again to human settlements in neighbouring Kerala after being released in Bandipur Tiger Reserve. Apparently, the animal could not hunt and survive.

Poor condition

In a report to the Forest Department on Monday, Dr. Karanth and his associates N. Samba Kumar and Narendra Patil said the tigress, now in Thrissur zoo, should not be released back in the wild. It was eight years or more in age and in a very poor condition.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/the-problem-with-releasing-problem-tigers-back-in-forest/article4384653.ece

Forest panels to be reconstituted

Forest minister K.B. Ganesh Kumar has said the constituency level forest committees in the district will be reconstituted to solve the issues related to forests and wildlife.

Speaking to mediapersons here on Tuesday, after attending a meeting of the representatives of political parties, three-tier local administrative bodies, and senior officials of Forest and Revenue Departments, Mr. Ganesh Kumar said the committees would discuss all the welfare activities and protection measures related to the two forest divisions and Wayanad Wild life Sanctuary (WWS) in the district.

The Minister’s meeting with the officials was to form a consensus on various issues relating to forests and wildlife such as a ban on parking of vehicles along National Highway 212 inside the WWS during night and demarcation of the ecological sensitive zone around the sanctuary.

The MLAs of each constituency would be the chairmen of the committees and Divisional Forest Officers or Warden the conveners. Presidents of local bodieswould be the members.


Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/forest-panels-to-be-reconstituted/article4359498.ece

Solar fence to keep wild animals at bay in Wayanad

As part of a project to tackle man-animal conflict in the North Wayanad forest division, villages bordering the forests in the Thirunelly grama panchayat limits have been ringed with a 34-km solar fence to stave off raids by wild animals. The Kerala Forest Development Corporation has installed the fence for the Forest and Wildlife Department. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has financed the work.

Minister for Forests K.B. Ganesh Kumar inaugurated the first phase of the project at Kattikulam, near Mananthavady, on Tuesday.

The fence will be extended to a distance of 300 km through the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary and the North and South Wayanad forest divisions at a cost of Rs. 6 crore, K.J. Varghese, Managing Director of the corporation, told The Hindu .

The corporation has identified 100 locations, each covering 1.5 km to 3.5 km, under the 10 forest ranges of the three forest divisions in the district to erect the fence.

The fence is erected on metal posts at a height of 1.6 metre. A solar panel, a battery and an energiser are the main components of a fence. The energiser is the main apparatus, and 100 of them have been imported from New Zealand. High-voltage electric current (about 10 kW) will pass through the fence, and the wild animals will get an electric shock when they come into contact with it.

A memorandum of understanding with the Forest Department makes the corporation maintain the fence for five years, Mr. Varghese said. A four-member team will be stationed in a base camp on the corporation’s tea estate at Kambamala, near Mananthavady, to carry out the maintenance. The Forest Department will engage local people for day-to-day maintenance in each locality.

The department has submitted proposals to NABARD to execute such projects in Kannur, Kozhikode and Palakkad, he said.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/solar-fence-to-keep-wild-animals-at-bay-in-wayanad/article4363722.ece

Hosing down forest fire threat

E.M. MANOJ

Gruelling summer can touch off blaze in the woods

Fire work:Forest fire watchers making fire lines on the
border of the Chethalayath forest range under the
 South Wayanad forest division in the district.
— Photo: E.M. Manoj.

The dry weather is keeping the Forest and Wildlife Department on its toes as the coming summer can touch off fires in the forests of Wayanad.

The dry bamboo groves are posing a serious threat to the wildlife habitat this year, Roy P. Thomas, Wildlife Warden, says. He has proposed to the State Wildlife Board that the dry bamboo inside the sanctuary be uprooted.

The department has taken steps to prevent forest fires in the State and funds will not be a constraint, V. Gopinath, Chief Wildlife Warden, told The Hindu . Construction of fire lines, engaging fire watchers and campaigns to sensitise the public, especially those in the villages on the fringes of the forest, are among the steps.

Close to 348.55 km of fire lines have been erected at a cost of Rs. 52.72 lakh on the borders of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, where wild animals from all over the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve come to slake their thirst during the summer, sources say.

As many as 234 fire protection watchers, 66 of them on permanent service, have been appointed.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/hosing-down-forest-fire-threat/article4334637.ece

Wildlife Memoirs: Traffic or Tigers? Versus in Deccan Chronicle

Let forest officials escort vehicles at night

I.C.Balakrishnan, MLA, Sulthan Bathery, Kerala

It has been four years since night traffic was banned in Bandipur. Initially, Karnataka agreed to lift the bank during the talks with Kerala government, but then some environmentalists went to court and had the ban enforced again. But it is affecting tourism as people have trouble planning their schedules to avoid going through Bandipur at night. Many, who want to start their journey to Bandipur Friday night and return Monday morning, cannot do so on account of the ban. Students and businessmen from areas on the Karnataka-Kerala border, who study or do business in Bengaluru are also inconvenienced as they need to plan their trips a day in advance now. 

The alternate route suggested through Gundalpet, Hunsur, Kutta and Mananthavadi, is a lot longer and unpleasant as the roads are not in good condition. The government should instead increase the number of forest officials and use them to escort convoys of vehicles through the forest at night.

There have been no proper studies to support the ban on night traffic through Bandipur. In fact, when it was allowed, there were only a few cases of animal road-kills. The issue needs to be studied in depth by a combined team of Kerala and Karnataka.

Wild animals do not understand convoy system

Sanjay Gubbi

The welcome benefits of economic development have come with serious costs to wildlife through loss and fragmentation of habitats, especially for rare and endangered animals. The backbone of country’s infrastructure growth has necessitated the expansion of road network. Coupled with high speed vehicles, roads have turned out to be an important linear fragmentation threat to wildlife. Mortality due to speeding vehicles and acting as barriers for animal movement are the two important impacts of highways.

The closure of highways for night traffic through Bandipur Tiger Reserve is one vital step to minimise the impacts of highways on tigers and other species. An alternate road that is 35 km longer acts as a mode of transport for night travel and the state has recently taken up repairs of this road. This rare 48 crore investment for infrastructure to save tigers, is a unique highly laudable gesture.

The state of Kerala has proposed alternatives such as allowing vehicles in convoy system under close supervision, building flyover and barriers along the highways. Wild animals clearly do not understand convoy system and their movements are based on their biological and ecological needs. Any supervision cannot dictate the movement patterns of wild animals. The other civil engineering solutions are neither economically or ecologically viable.  A flyover through Bandipur would cost a horrendous 4,000 crore not to forget the enormous disturbance during the construction phase, and barriers such as walls will wholly stop the movement of wildlife.

As the country moves forward with its ambition of 8% economic growth, more land is taken for the rapid expansion of its infrastructure. Places like Bandipur are one of the last strongholds for tigers and we need to support alternatives rather than continue to pursue ecologically destructive options that are largely driven by deceitful economic interests.

Source: Wildlife Memoirs: Traffic or Tigers? Versus in Deccan Chronicle

Community restraint helped save a tiger

Dr Ullas Karanth

Two incidents in the first week of December — first on the fringes of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala, followed by the other on the edge of the Nagarahole National Park in Karnataka — have brought the focus back on conflict management in tiger conservation. While in Wayanad, the tiger was shot dead, in North Kodagu, an injured tiger stuck in a barbed wire fence was rescued. These provide contrasting scenarios in conservation. In this interview to Sharath S. Srivatsa, tiger scientist and Director for Science-Asia of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) K. Ullas Karanth shares his thoughts on conservation and conflict management in the contiguous forests comprising Bandipur-Nagarahole, Mudu malai and Wayanad, that supports an estimated 150-180 tigers (WCS estimate).

What worked against conservation in Wayanad and in its favour in Nagarahole?

I would not pose it that way. In the next incident, the situation could well get reversed. The key point is, in this case, in Wayanad whipping up of public sentiment based on inflated tiger numbers put out by government, the media frenzy over a few cattle kills which were compensated, and the inability to handle a mob situation led to shooting of a tiger. The information that was available from our scientific data in terms of the “problem” tigers history was ignored, a photo of a tiger already in Mysore Zoo was released to the media as a different problem tiger etc. In the Kodagu case, the village leadership showed restraint and the forest department acted swiftly.

With more effort on tiger conservation, which could result in an increase in the population, do you think such conflicts could occur more often in forest fringes?

Yes, such conflicts on the fringe are in a sense the price we pay for successful tiger population recoveries. You do not have such conflicts in the vast forests of Northeastern hill states, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh etc. because tigers are almost gone or not producing much surplus annually to disperse. With a good prey base, tiger populations produce surpluses regularly. Annual losses in such surplus populations are as high as 20 per cent without reducing densities or numbers. So rational conservation involves such population recoveries as well as dealing with the consequences using the best of science and data — and not just feeling sentimental towards an individual tiger and its fate.

What would be a successful conservation and conflict reduction model in the Bandipur-Nagarahole-Mudumalai-Wayanad block in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve?

Basically that model would include

1. ensuring strict protection of tigers and prey inside the reserves; 
2. using best possible science to monitor individual tigers and the population status; 
3. when conflicts occur, promptly compensating livestock losses; 
4. if human life is threatened removing the problem tigers either through chemical capture or if circumstances warrant it lethal removal; and 
5. depending on health, age and other objective factors the captured animals should be retained in captivity, or in rare cases released or in specific cases euthanized painlessly. 

The central point is to ensure that tiger populations thrive even if individuals are lost and secondly public support is essential to having core tiger habitats that are strictly protected and support thriving tiger populations.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-miscellaneous/tp-others/community-restraint-helped-save-a-tiger/article4278475.ece

Tribal families reoccupy forestland in Wayanad

E.M. MANOJ

Seek compensation for land given up by them

Sixteen families, including 12 tribal families, which left the Kottamkara hamlet in June, a settlement inside the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS), reoccupied the place on Saturday under the aegis of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary Rehabilitation Action Council.

(The council had been seeking compensation for the land abandoned by the tribespeople).

The flaws in implementing the voluntary relocation project of the government left the tribespeople with no choice but to reoccupy the land, council convener S. Shobhankumar said.

Under the project, 40 families had been relocated on June 24. Only 24 of the families got the promised compensation of Rs.10 lakh each, he said.

When the project was announced on April 9, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had assured the tribespeople that they would get compensation as per the guidelines of the Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitat Scheme in three months. But the Chief Minister could not keep his word, Mr. Shobhankumar said.

The guidelines said male children over 18 years of age; unmarried female children above the age of 18; physically and mentally challenged persons irrespective of their age and sex; minor orphans; and widows or women divorcees would be treated as ‘separate families.’

A survey conducted by the Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi, a few years ago had identified 96 eligible families in the hamlet. But many families were excluded from the final list prepared by the Forest Department, Krishnan Kottamkara, 57, a tribal farmer of the hamlet said.

Krishanan Kottamkara was born and brought up in the hamlet and he had 520 acres of leased land there.

The authorities failed to include him on the final list as he was hospitalised following cardiac arrest. Many others who were not present at the hamlet during an inspection by the authorities had also been excluded, Mr. Shobhankumar said.

There were six ‘eligible families’ in his house according to the KFRI list, he added. “When the forest officials prepared the final list, I was undergoing eye surgery in a Coimbatore hospital,” Elias, another resident of the hamlet, said.

He was later included on the list after he could convince the officials about the issue but, was yet to get any compensation, he added.

They had left the hamlet in June expecting that they would get the compensation soon, Mariyil Kuriakose, who had been living outside the forest since, said.

“Hence, we decided to live in our land till we get compensation,” he added. As many as 12 tribesmen had got possession certificates for their land under the Forest Rights Act in 2010.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tribal-families-reoccupy-forestland-in-wayanad/article4278845.ece

Looks like mistrust, greed, lies & unfulfilled promises has lead to this situation. There are many who encourage them to occupy forest land.
- Mac Mohan

Collector issues stop-memo against chopper joy-ride over Wayanad

By Aadharsh | ENS - KALPETTA 24th December 2012 08:10 AM
District Collector K Gopalakrishna Bhat on Sunday issued a memo stopping the ‘joy-ride’ helicopter service offered by the Boby Chemmanur Airlines.

Acting on a complaint filed by South Wayanad DFO O P Dhaneshkumar, alleging that the helicopter service, over the skies of the Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary, has been a concern of ‘habitat distraction’, the Collector served the notice on the operator.

The DFO had submitted a plea to the District Collector, Additional District Magistrate and the Sulthan Bathery Tahsildar, seeking stop-memo against the ‘distracting service’. He has also asked the district authorities not to grant clearance for any such activities in the district in compliance with the Wildlife Protection Act. Reportedly, the Boby Chemmanur Airlines would move the court against the Collector’s order.

“The clearance granted to the Boby Chemmanur Airlines to undertake commercial activities in Wayanad has been dismissed.

“The operator has already grounded the chopper,” District Collector K Gopalakrishna Bhat told Express.

“There was one more proposal from another tour operator seeking clearance for similar operations, but it has been withdrawn in view of the latest development,” the Collector said.

According to N Badusha of Wayanad Prakruthi Samrakshana Samithi, the unmindful commercial activity has left the wild animals in the area panicky.

“Even the domestic animals showed signs of restlessness due to the deafening noise of the low-flying chopper,” he said, adding that the district authorities should have shown discretion while giving the nod to such an activity.

“The helicopter service was launched around 9am on Saturday from the helipad at St Mary’s College in Sulthan Bathery.

And after about an hour, a tiger attack on a man was reported from Kattayad, about 2kms away from the town. I strongly believe that the booming noise of the chopper might have driven the tiger out of its territory,” he said.

The Boby Chemmanur Airlines had acquired no-objection certificates from the Revenue Department and the Police Department before launching the operation.

The air tour, a first-of-its-kind in Wayanad, was offered from 9.30 am to 5 pm at a cost of `2,700 per person for a 10-minute ride. The chopper service was scheduled till December 25.

Source: http://newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/article1391919.ece