Radio collars for elephants in forests along rail tracks

Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava
Environment ministry wants to tag jumbos to track their movements and avert rail accidents

In the wake of the recent deaths of elephants on rail tracks in Odisha, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has decided to put radio collars on elephants that are found roaming near rail tracks. The pilot scheme will be started by radio collaring the surviving elephants of the herd that lost five of its members on January 6 after being hit by a moving train.

The elephant herd was traversing in its own corridor when five of its members , including a calf, were mowed down by a speeding Howrah-Chennai Coromandel Express near Rambha railway station in Ganjam district of Odisha. The fatal accident was attributed to lack of coordination between forest department of Odisha and the East Coast Railway.

Environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan called a meeting of forest and railway officials on January 8 to take measures to prevent such accidents. Among several directions she gave to the officials, one was to electronically tag the elephants that use forest patches near railway tracks. “There were reportedly around 20 elephants in the herd that met with the accident. We are planning to electronically tag the remaining 15-16 elephants of the same herd with the help of Wildlife Institute of India and IIT-Delhi.

If the pilot project is successful, then wildlife and forest personnel will be able to keep track of the elephant movements, and warn railway officials well in time to enable them to avoid accident,” said S S Garbyal, director general of forests (wildlife) in MoEF. Often, the time lag between spotting of the elephant, and the information reaching the driver of the train is too little to enable effective action to prevent accidents.

Who will tame speeding trains?

Biswajit Mohanty of non-profit wildlife society of Orissa, however, said the real problem is the speed of the train which has not been addressed yet effectively. “It's difficult to radio collar each and every elephant that may come near the track. What if a new elephant crosses the track other than the ones which are radio-collared. For long, railways officials have been reluctant to slow down the speed of trains which causes the accidents. The patches where wildlife is found near the tracks are just two to three kilometre long. It will not affect the journey time of the trains much,” he added.

It has been reported that the train that mowed down the elephants in Odisha was moving at a speed of nearly 100 km per hour. The impact of the collision was so severe that a mature foetus was pushed out of the womb of a female elephant. This despite the fact that the Indian Railways itself has put up at least 10 display boards, indicating it as elephant corridor.

The minister, in the meeting, pressed upon the railway officials that they should follow the advisory issued by the ministry for the movement of trains in the vulnerable patches where wildlife is found crossing the tracks, which includes slowing down of trains in all such patches. The railway officials, however, emphasized this could be done only for very small stretches, as generally slowing down of trains would be very unviable, both in terms of traffic management and economic implications.

Two rhinos killed by poachers in Assam

PTI

Two adult Rhinos with their horns
chopped off were found dead today in
separate forest areas of central Assam.

Orang National Park, located on the north bank of the Brahmaputra River in Darrang district. GUWAHATI/MORIGAON: Two adult Rhinos with their horns chopped off were found dead today in separate forest areas of central Assam.

Both the male rhinos had been killed by poachers, Forest department officials said.

The carcass of one of the rhinos was recovered from Gopaljaroni area near Gohpur in Sonitpur district. The rhino's horn was chopped off, along with its tail and some other body parts, they said.

It is yet to be ascertained when it was killed, the officials said.

Following the recovery of the carcass, 12 persons were detained in Gohpur while they were engaged in distributing flesh of the rhino.

It is suspected that the rhino had strayed from the Northern Range of Kaziranga National Park. The range is located in the north bank of the Brahmaputra in Sonitpur district, while the other ranges are in the south bank.

The other rhino with its horn removed was found dead in the wetlands near Brahmaputra river in Morigaon district of Assam.

Officials said the animal was killed during the past 48 hours and left at Sheetalmari char under Belguri police station, they said.

The rhino has reportedly strayed from the Orang National Park, located on the north bank of the Brahmaputra River in Darrang district, and crossed to the southern bank in Morigaon through one of the four corridors used by animals during the winter months.

Rhino horn is highly valued across the world for its alleged aphrodisiac qualities and use in traditional medicine.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Two-rhinos-killed-by-poachers-in-Assam/articleshow/17984286.cms

Man-eating tigress shot dead

PTI
GONDIA: A man-eating tigress on prowl in areas adjoining Navegaon Bandh National Park in this east Maharashtra district was shot dead by officials in Dighori forest range today, authorities said.

The big cat had created a fear psychosis in villages, located in the 50-km radius near the national park, as it had preyed upon five persons--all women, between December 15 and January 4.

A joint team comprising forest officials, a C-60 commando squad and STPF ( Special Tiger Protection Force) unit had been chasing the tigress since January 1.

The seven-member team spotted the big cat hiding in the bushes in Dighori range between Malda and Sonjari villages at around 2pm, said a senior official.

"We tried our best to save the life of the tigress and tried to tranquilise it. But due to long distance and dense bushes, we left with no other option but to open fire as not doing so would have meant missing the opportunity to take out the elusive tigress", said Deputy Conservator of Forest (Territorial) S V Ramarao.

"A total of nine rounds were fired", he added. Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had last week asked the forest authorities to take a call on killing the tigress to save human lives.

The tigress had escaped by a whisker on Monday when officials nearly trapped it near Salebardi village, and went on to kill three cattle in past two days.

Honorary Wildlife Warden Sawan Bahekar told PTI that the decision to kill the tigress was taken with a heavy heart.

The failure of forest officials to tame the big cat over last one month had triggered an outrage among villagers who had staged a blockade at Navegaon Bandh intersection last Saturday.

The carcass of the tigress was brought at Chulbandh for postmortem.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Man-eating-tigress-shot-dead/articleshow/17998318.cms

Shrinking Sunderbans threat to Bengal Tiger

Royal Bengal Tiger

IANS
Fast-disappearing mangrove forests of the Sunderbans pose a question mark over the future of the Royal Bengal Tiger, an endangered species, say scientists.

Rapid deterioration in mangrove health is causing as much as 200 metres of the vegetation-rich coast to disappear annually in the Sunderbans, according to zoologists.

Nathalie Pettorelli, from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and senior study author, said: “Our results indicate a rapidly retreating coastline that cannot be accounted for by the regular dynamics of the Sunderbans. Degradation is happening fast, weakening this natural shield for India and Bangladesh.”

Sunderbans is the largest block of continuous mangrove forest in the world, native to nearly 500 species of reptile, fish, bird and mammals, including the world famous Royal Bengal Tiger, the journal Remote Sensing reports.

Thriving human development, rising global temperatures, degradation of natural protection from tidal waves and cyclones is inevitably leading to species loss in this richly biodiverse part of the world, according to a ZSL statement.

Sarah Christie, ZSL’s tiger conservation expert, says: “The Sunderbans is a critical tiger habitat; one of only a handful of remaining forests big enough to hold several hundred tigers. To lose the Sunderbans would be to move a step closer to the extinction of these majestic animals.”

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/shrinking-sunderbans-threat-to-bengal-tiger/article4298468.ece

33 spotted deer found dead in Kanha Tiger Reserve

PTI

Spotted deers

A total of 33 spotted deer were found dead under Ghorela ward in the Kanha Tiger Reserve since last week, forest officials said on Friday.

Kanha Tiger Reserve’s veterinary surgeon Sandeep Agrawal told reporters that 29 spotted deers were found dead between Jan 4-10 and four were found on Friday in the Ghorela ward under the Mukki forest area.

The preliminary cause of their death appears to be malnutrition, infection and severe cold, but the exact reason will be known only after a postmortem and viscera report.

The reserve management has enhanced measures to monitor the health and security of the wild animals. The viscera has been sent to the Jabalpur-based Veterinary College laboratory for testing.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/33-spotted-deer-found-dead-in-kanha-tiger-reserve/article4298503.ece

Afforestation drive to begin soon

V. S. PALANIAPPAN

Tamil Nadu
Coimbatore

Forest officials are busy raising saplings to grow them up to a height of six feet before the exit of summer and the onset of South West Monsoon for the ambitious project to plant 10 crore saplings in 1.43 lakh hectares land spread over 5,000 villages over the next five years.

Tall grown seedlings with tree guards will help protect them from stray cattle.

Forest officials said that the Tamil Nadu Bio-Diversity Conservation and Greening Project, envisaged at an outlay of Rs 84 crore, aims at having 10 crore trees by 2017.

As part of the project, the target for the current year is to have one crore saplings in 1,000 villages at a cost of Rs 15.16 crore.

Officials said 2012 ended with a 45 per cent deficit rainfall, resulting in standing paddy crops in the delta regions of Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Tirupur, Pudukottai and coconut crop in Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Namakkal and Karur bearing the brunt of the dry spell.

Conservative estimates put the extent of drought to 73 per cent in 23,625 sq km.

Officials have identified a number of species for the project including emblica officinalis (Nelli), gmelina arborea (Kumizh), bambuseae (Bamboo), peltophorum pterocarpum (Vaagai), vites negundo (Nochi) and azadirachta indica (Neem).

Plantation is expected to begin when summer exits and traces of South West monsoon begins so as to ensure a high survival rate, the officials said.

The planting of saplings will be done close to wetlands and bird sanctuaries such as Vellode near Erode, Vedanthagal, Vadavur, among others.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Coimbatore/afforestation-drive-to-begin-soon/article4293763.ece

Indian farmers earn forest carbon credits

JANUARY 10, 2013

TIMES OF INDIA

Approximately 1500 farmers owning 1600 hectares in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa became the first lot of farmers in Asia and the second in the world to earn income by selling carbon credits from an AR CDM project. 

The 1,500 farmers of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Rayagada, Koraput and Kalahandi in Odisha earned Rs 85.28 lakh by selling 79,811 carbon credits, for which they received their cheques last month at a programme organised at Gitam University in the city.

According to VCCSL executive director Sai Kishore Nellore, the project was initiated in 2004 with the intention of improving the lives of farmers in rural areas by allowing them to raise tree plantations on highly degraded agricultural lands. Following that, a project idea note was prepared and subsequently a team from the World Bank visited the country for inspection in 2006. 

During the next year, VCCSL entered into an Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA) with the World Bank for sale of carbon credits generated under this project at $4.05 per carbon credit. Each carbon credit is equal to one tonne of carbon dioxide sequestered.

Please click here to read the original news item

Source: http://www.forestcarbonasia.org/in-the-media/indian-farmers-earn-forest-carbon-credits/

Keywords: Andhra Pradesh, AR CDM, Asia, CDM AR, CERs, financing, forest carbon, India, Orissa, Standards

Monkey feeders in Melghat tiger reserve to face action

Vijay Pinjarkar, TNN
NAGPUR: The Melghat Tiger Reserve (MTR) in Amravati district has decided to act tough against those feeding monkeys along the tar road passing through the reserve.

Though feeding monkeys is illegal, it has become a common practice at many places in India. In Maharashtra's oldest tiger reserve it has now become a costly affair. One private and one state transport buses were detained and drivers booked under the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) 1972.

Just three days ago, the state highway passing through the core area of MTR recorded the death of a sloth bear near Semadoh on Harisal-Semadoh stretch of the highway. However, the same patch has been known for accidental deaths of wild animals. A leopard, sambar, porcupine and even a Dharni-based resident have lost their life on the stretch, the last when his bike hit a sambar recently.

On Sunday, Kishor Rithe, president of Satpuda Foundation and member of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), was travelling through the same patch when he saw a bus driver and passengers of Shriram Travels bus feeding bananas to monkeys.

Rithe warned the driver and was just 50 metres away when the driver started feeding the langurs again. He asked the driver to park the vehicle at Semadoh chowki and informed the staff about the offence.

However, the driver defied the forest staff and proceeded towards Paratwada. Rithe rushed to the gate after Semadoh village and stopped the vehicle. Range forest officer (RFO) MS Pachare and his squad immediately rushed to the gate and booked the vehicle and driver under WPA and conducted the spot panchnama.

In the second case, a ST bus from Burhanpur to Amravati stopped at the same spot in the core area and driver Yuvraj Sonune, who had specially bought bananas from Dharni for the monkeys, started feeding them.

The squad along with Rithe caught the ST driver red-handed while feeding the monkeys. The driver was booked under the WPA.

Rithe told TOI that many vehicles stop in this stretch and throw foodgrains and bananas for monkeys. Many wild animals including monkeys get attracted to the roadside. This has led to many accidents of wild animals, besides increase in monkey bites to passers-by.

"The issue has become very serious. We have put up display boards and signages but people fail to understand the problem," said K P Singh, chief conservator of forests (CCF) and field director of MTR.

The forest department's action has created sensation among the people who think that it is good to feed the monkeys. However, they have to understand that it amounts to hurting the animals as per the WPA and there is a provision for seven years imprisonment along with heavy penalty.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Monkey-feeders-in-Melghat-tiger-reserve-to-face-action/articleshow/17941303.cms

Six injured in leopard attack in Nilambur

By T P Nijeesh, TNN 

Six persons, including a woman, were injured in the
leopard attack.

MALAPURRAM: A straying leopard disrupted normal life in Konnampotti region of Chunghathara in Nilambur for over five hours before it was successfully tranquilized and caged on Wednesday evening. Six persons, including a woman, were injured in the leopard attack.

The animal was first seen in a rubber plantation at Vadakkekkara, Konnampotti around 1.30pm. Suni (35) of Mangedath, who was collecting firewood from the plantation, was attacked by the leopard and she suffered minor injuries. Natives Raju of Pandakashala and Sahil of Thottassery were also attacked by the leopard while they were searching for it.

Later, forest, police and revenue officials along with veterinarians arrived at the spot. After an hour-long search, the leopard was found near a trench. When the traumatized animal was provoked by over-enthusiastic onlookers, it climbed on a coconut tree to evade the crowd.

Finally, a team of tranquilizing experts, who arrived from Kozhikode around 5pm, successfully tranquilized the leopard. But when the veterinary surgeon gave the tranquilizing shot, the animal fell asleep on top of the tree. Following this, members of the New Star Club, Palenkara carried the animal in a net and caged it.

Nilambur North DFO Rajan said the leopard was a full-grown male and it has shifted to Thrissur zoo. "It is for the first time such an incident has been reported in the area," said Mujeeb Palenkara, a resident in the area.


Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Six-injured-in-leopard-attack-in-Nilambur/articleshow/17966118.cms

Herd of 32 elephants chased into forests near Krishnagiri

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

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

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

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

Damaged trenches

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

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

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

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

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

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

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