A close encounter with wild elephants near Coonoor

D. RADHAKRISHNAN
Two wild elephants roaming close to the Coonoor-Marappalam stretch of the Metupalayam-Ooty National Highway for the past fortnight created a flutter at the Runneymede Station of the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) on Thursday.

Railway sources told The Hindu that when the Mettupalayam-Ooty steam engine-hauled mountain train, with about 200 passengers including foreign tourists and students, stopped at Runneymede for filling water, the animals were spotted nearby. Unable to resist the photo opportunity and eager to get a closer look, many of them got out of the train. However, this angered the elephants which had started chasing the tourists.

Taken aback by the turn of events, the passengers and the railway staff ran helter-skelter. With the passengers bundling into the coaches the train hurriedly left the station. While they expressed the hope that the animals would be driven back to the forests before anything unfortunate happened, forest officials sought the cooperation of the people in dealing with the situation.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/a-close-encounter-with-wild-elephants-near-coonoor/article4486983.ece

Panel to submit report on private forests by April

P. OPPILI
A high-level committee, comprising officials of the Forest, Agriculture and Revenue Departments, constituted to examine the issues under the provisions of Tamil Nadu Preservation of Private Forests (TNPPF) Act 1949, will submit its report to the government by April.

Forest Department sources said the committee headed by an officer in the rank of Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Forest Conservation Act) visited 11 districts in the State and recorded the grievances of private patta holders.

The farmers wanted amendments to the existing Act whereby they could look at changing the crop for cultivation, get permission for felling trees in their property, and get permission for sale or lease of their land and growing of crops and trees in their land.

A senior Forest Department official said it was for the first time a high-level committee was formed. The State Forest Minister, while moving the demand for grant for the Forest department for 2012-13, made the announcement that the government will constitute a committee to look into the issues under the TNPPF Act of 1949. The government order issued on September 3, 2012 said the committee must submit its report within four months from the date of issue of this order.

Conservationists and nature lovers have, however, requested the Forest Department to uphold the TNPPF Act 1949. Tamil Nadu Green Movement, in a letter to the Chairman of the Committee, said the Act was enacted to prevent indiscriminate destruction of private forests with the customary and prescriptive rights therein and for certain other purposes.

The Act is important especially in the Nilgiris district, which is rich in floral and faunal diversity, which are highly endemic. Protected areas such as Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and Mukuruthy National Park and crucially important reserve forests of Nilgiri North are flanked by private forests, which offered landscape connectivity to the animals. Environmentalists in the district have constantly relied upon this Act from time to time to prevent illegal activities such as tree felling and construction of buildings.

Reviewing the functionality of the Act with a view to reducing its vigour or to repeal the same at the instance of a few persons, who claimed that they were affected due to implementation of this Act, is purely based on personal and vested interests, the letter said. The Act has been useful in preserving and protecting the forests and tree cover in various parts of the State, the letter noted.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/panel-to-submit-report-on-private-forests-by-april/article4486843.ece

Leopard preying on cattle caught by forest officials

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

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

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

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

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

Shifted to Hyderabad

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kovai Coutrallam to remain closed from today

The Forest Department has announced that Kovai Coutrallam waterfalls will remain out of bounds for tourists for a week or 10 days from March 6, in view of the road-laying works.

According to the forest department sources, the Engineering Wing of the Forest Department is laying road from the tribal hamlet after the check post till the parking lot, a little ahead of the waterfalls. In order to facilitate easy and smooth completion of the works, tourists will not be permitted for a week or 10 days.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/kovai-coutrallam-to-remain-closed-from-today/article4480562.ece

Octopuses come calling in Kochi’s saline backwaters

K. S. SUDHI

An octopus that was netted in Kochi recently.

Octopuses were recently spotted in the serene backwaters of Kochi. The octopuses may not drag you down to the ocean depths with their long tentacles and fearsome suckers as depicted in some horror movies. But they have sent marine experts racking their brains with their unusual appearances in Kochi waters.

Scientists strongly believe that the increased salinity of the Kochi coastal waters would have invited them from the Arabian Sea. They also cautioned about the possible presence of more such organisms in the district’s waterbodies, thanks to the increased salinity in the backwaters.

Octopuses have made sudden appearances in the water bodies of Champakkara, Panangad and Kumbalanghi in the district. Fishermen have netted a few octopuses from the coastal waters. Some anglers too succeeded in getting the unusual catch. However, they continue to elude scientists who are eager to learn about them. K. Sunilkumar Muhammad, Head of the Molluscan Fisheries Division of the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi, said octopuses had not been reported from Kochi in the recent past. He identified one netted animal as Amphioctopus neglectus.

“The presence of the marine species in coastal waters is due to the increased salinity of the area, which would be similar to the marine environment. The level of salinity would have reached 35 ppt (parts per thousand) by now, equivalent to seawater. Sardines, another marine fish, were earlier reported from Champakkara,” said Dr. Sunilkumar.

B. Madhusoodana Kurup, the Vice-Chancellor of the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, Panangad, said the salinity of the Kochi backwaters could be on par with Arabian Sea these days. Strong tidal action, absence of rain and freshwater influx results in increased salinity and the environment would be transformed into one similar to the sea. Salinity is one of the crucial factors that trigger migration in aquatic animals. However the migration of octopuses was something unheard of in Kerala, Dr. Kurup said.

Mr. Sunilkumar also felt that a possible increase in the population of octopuses in sea and increased competition for food too might have forced the expedition. Such a possibility can be confirmed by conducting stomach content analysis, he said.

According to Dr. Kurup, the backwaters are excellent feeding grounds for marine organisms when compared to the sea.

Usually, the salinity variation in water between high and low tides deter marine organisms from coming to backwaters for feeding. The changed situation would invite more marine organisms hitherto unreported from here during the rest of summer months, he said.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/octopuses-come-calling-in-kochis-saline-backwaters/article4482516.ece

Elephant run down by train in Buxa tiger reserve

ANANYA DUTTA
An elephant was run over by a passenger train in broad daylight in the Buxa Tiger Reserve on Tuesday morning, according to officials of the State’s Forest Department.

The incident occurred at about 7.30 a.m. The elephant was crossing the track when the Sampark Kranti Express rammed into the animal, pushing it for about 200 metres before coming to a halt, R.P. Saini, the Field Director of the Buxa Tiger Reserve, told The Hindu over telephone.

Although the incident occurred in an area where speed restrictions are imposed on trains to prevent such occurrences, the restrictions are only imposed in the evening hours when drivers cannot see if any herds are crossing the tracks, he said.

“The driver claims that in this incident, the elephant suddenly appeared and he could not apply the brakes in time, but eye witnesses have said that it [the train] was hurtling down the tracks quite fast,” Mr. Saini said.

It was unusual on one count — a single male elephant crossing the tracks. Usually, herds move across together and can be spotted from afar, he added.  But when elephants cross in groups, the tragedy can be much worse, as the one that occurred in January when a train crashed into five elephants before coming to a halt. In September 2010, a train had run down seven elephants.  Mr. Saini said that he would request the Railway authorities to impose speed restrictions throughout the day.  The gravity of the situation is evident in the fact that 11 elephants have been run over by trains since October last year, he said.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/elephant-run-down-by-train-in-buxa-tiger-reserve/article4480318.ece

Forest Department staff attacked while on duty

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Huge fire in Mumbai's national park near Film City

Ranjeet Jadhav

A major fire broke in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park a few meters away from the Film City in Goregaon late on Monday. Nobody was reported to have been injured in the blaze.

Mumbai:  A massive fire destroyed a huge tract of the forest cover in Mumbai's Sanjay Gandhi National Park on Monday night. The fire which broke out in the forest area behind Film City was eventually brought under control. No one was hurt in the blaze.

SGNP officials feel some miscreants deliberately set fire in the forest to delay the ongoing demolition of illegal slums in the area.

On Monday evening, at around 7 am, the SGNP control room received a call from Goregaon area that a major forest fire was blazing in the vicinity of the Film City and it was spreading further towards the boundary of SGNP.

The Fire Brigade tankers and engines along with the SGNP team rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.

Speaking to MiD DAY, Assistant Conservator of Forest Santosh Saste said, “It is very early to comment on the exact reason of the fire but I can surely say that this is not a natural fire. Already our demolition drive against the illegal structures on forestland is in progress and we suspect that some miscreants must have deliberately set the forest on fire so that the team carrying our demolition has to go to the fire spot and the demolition of next drive is cancelled. Along with the help of fire department, we have been successful in controlling and dousing the fire.”

Saste informed that a team of 20 forest workers who know how to douse fire are always ready and rush to a location the moment they are notified about a forest fire.

“A team of 20 forest workers is already posted at Loghut hill near Tulsi Lake area in core forest and another team is posted neat Gandhi Hill so that in case if there is fire in the forest area the team can reach the spot without wasting time. We have already finished the fire line work before February 15 and our forest department guards along with forest workers are also patrolling day and night on foot so that such instances can be avoided.” added Saste

According to a report prepared by Forest Department, between 2005-2010, there were more than 350 forest fire incidents reported and around 1000 hectares of forest burnt to cinders due to them.

What Fire Department has to say?

According to a fire department official, “The exact reason for the fire is yet to be known but at around 11 pm we got a call from Goregaon that there is a fire in the forest near Film City. Immediately, two of our fire engines along with forest department reached the spot and the situation was brought under control within a few hours.

Source: http://www.mid-day.com/news/2013/mar/050313-huge-fire-in-mumbais-national-park-near-film-city.htm

PILs against tourism in tiger reserves

Two public interest litigation petitions have been filed in the Madras High Court Bench here — one challenging a notification issued by the Centre on October 15, laying down guidelines for tourism activities around tiger reserves, and another to quash separate proceedings issued by the State Forest Department on February 18, permitting tourism-related activities at Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve in Tirunelveli district.

SWASAM Trust, a non-governmental organisation represented by its managing trustee S. Ramesh, had filed both the petitions through its counsel T. Lajapathi Roy.

The trust claimed that permitting tourism-related activities in and around tiger reserves would defeat the object of ‘Project Tiger,’ a scheme implemented by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests since 1973 for ensuring a viable population of tiger in the country for scientific, economic, aesthetic, cultural and ecological values.

Claiming that he was one among the members of a Local Advisory Committee for Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, Mr. Ramesh said that the Chief Conservator of Forests and Field Director of the Reserve had erred in issuing the February 18 notification permitting tourists to enjoy boating in Karaiyar Dam and drive their vehicles up to upper Kodayar area. He contended that both the activities would prove disastrous to the wildlife and ecosystem in the Reserve.

“Allowing vehicles inside the core area would affect breeding of tiger population.”

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/pils-against-tourism-in-tiger-reserves/article4477495.ece