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13
peacocks found dead
Bhilwara, June 22, 2009: In 3 days 13 peacocks found dead in a
village named Haler near Bhilwara. Maize and wheat grains found in
the dead peacocks abdomen are suspect to poisons. More
than five hundred birds were recently poisoned by some villagers in
Parbatsar in Nagaur district.
Source: Hindustan Times |
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Poachers go high tech
NEW DELHI, June 16, 2009: With high-tech peddlers increasingly turning to cyberspace an easy route to carry wildlife trade, it's time the enforcement agencies in India wake up to this threat and initiate web
patrolling to curb the menace, experts say. After
parkeet, peacocks and turtles, endangered species of owls are the latest in the series being sold online as was exposed with the arrest of a wildlife trader and two of his associates last week from Thrissur in Kerala.
The poachers had put advertisement of owl sale on the internet, communicating through masked phone numbers, international network to confuse the enforcement officials, said Ashok Kumar, vice-chairman of Wildlife Trust of India which assisted the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau
(WCCB) and Kerala Forest Department's Intelligence Cell in busting the racket.
The online advertisement displayed the photograph of the owls labelled as 'silver owl' with a note
describing it as "a very rare species". Experts say that an owl could fetch between Rs 3 lakhs to 5 lakhs in
the international market where their demand is on increase. "Barn owl is a common species; nevertheless, its trade is illegal in India. The owls are used by black magic practitioners or kept as pets. Traders extract a hefty amount on these birds from gullible buyers," Kumar said. "Several endangered species are under threat from wildlife criminals who are turning high-tech. But there has little or no initiative from the
authorities so far to track the wildlife trade happening in the cyber world."
Environmentalists worry about wildlife in Sunderbans
Kolkata June 10, 2009(PTI): Environmentalists are worried of the devastation caused by Cyclone Aila to wildlife, particularly tigers, in the
Sunderbans, which stretches over a vast area in South and North 24
Parganas districts. Forest officials, though, have not confirmed how many animals persished due to it.
"Some animals might have lost their lives in the cyclone. But we don't know how many were killed," West Bengal Forest minister Ananta Roy said.
Three wildlife reserves from India added to UNESCO's list
New York, May 28, 2009 (PTI): Three wildlife reserves from India are among the 22 new sites from 17 countries added by United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to its Worldwide Network of Biosphere Reserves.
The reserves at Simplipal in Orissa, Norkek in Meghalaya and Panchmarhi in Madhya Pradesh are added to the list on Wednesday bringing the total number of sites to 553. UNESCO, whose International
Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Programme
(MAB-ICC) is meeting on the Island of Jeju in South Korea, now has its Biosphere Reserves in 107 countries.
Similipal, 320 kilometre from Bhuvneshwar, which used to be the hunting ground of the Maharajah of Mayurbhanj is now a home to three animal species--Tiger, Asian Elephant and gaur.
Nokrek is a famous biological hot spot, harbouring
elephants,tigers, leopards and gibbons. Panchmarhi, which has tiger and other wildlife resorts, is considered a botanists paradise.
Biosphere reserves are areas designated to serve as places to test different approaches to integrated management of terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine resources and biodiversity. As a result, they are sites for experimenting with and learning about sustainable development.
India's Wildlife biologist wins Green Oscar
LONDON, May 14, 2009: A noted Indian wildlife biologist has won the Whitley Award, considered the 'Green Oscar', in recognition of his work to reduce human-wildlife conflict in the Western Ghats in
Karnataka. Dr MD Madhusudan, Director of Nature Conservation Foundation -- a young NGO that has grown quickly to become one of the most respected in India -- received a trophy and a cash prize of 30,000 pounds from Princess Anne at a glittering ceremony held at the Royal Geographical Society here last night .
Two other Indian conservationists received Associate Awards. Sudipto Chatterjee received 10,000
pounds to develop an action plan to conserve wild rhododendrons in the Eastern Himalayas while Supraja Dharini received an equal amount for a community based initiative to protect sea turtles and dolphins in Kancheepuram in Tamil
Nadu. |
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Sangai safe in sanctuary on Loktak lake
Imphal, April 27,:2009: The recent counter-insurgency operation in
Manipur’s Keibul Lamjao National Park, the last home of the threatened
sangai, has not affected the antlered deer population or its habitat, a six-day wildlife survey has revealed.
The army, Assam Rifles and police jointly launched a massive operation, inside the 40 square km sanctuary on Loktak lake on April 11 to flush out militants who had made the floating national park in Bishnupur district
their hideout. They busted five rebel camps, killed a dozen militants and seized 10 weapons.
A census carried out in 2003 by officials of the Wildlife Institute of India recorded 180 sangai in Keibul Lamjao sanctuary. |
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Elephants kill 5 in
Assam village
Assam, April 24, 2009 : Two wild elephants charged into Bangsali village in Assam on Friday, demolishing homes
and killing five members of a family, officials said. The elephants entered Bangsali village at dawn and tore apart a
mud- thatched hut and killed a mother and her two children before destroying an adjacent home,
local official Ishfaqur Rahman told the Indo-Asian News Service.
Two other people, who belonged to the same family, were injured in that home and
later died, Rahman said. It is believed the Asiatic elephants were looking for food when they entered the
village in the northeastern Assam state. |
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Ghariyals into Hastinapur sanctuary
LUCKNOW, April 17, 2009:: The Makdumpur stretch has emerged as the most favoured habitat for ghariyals that were introduced into Hastinapur sanctuary of Meerut division along river Ganga in January this year. The WWF report based on monitoring and observations of four weeks after the release has shown that all reptiles have taken well to their new habitat. Ghariyal Rehabilitation Centre of Kukrail had released 131 young reptiles in the river in two batches on January 29 and February 28 this year. It was after a long period of 17 years that ghariyals were released in Ganga. It was way back in 1993 that rescued reptiles were released here before this. |
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Donkeys fetch record prices due to labour shortage
MUMBAI, March 18, 2009: The economic meltdown may be the monkey on our back, but the donkey market is alive and kicking. A record number of donkeys - 2,000 to be precise - was sold on the opening day of the nine-day donkey bazaar in Ahmednagar district, and that too at record prices. "The response this year was the biggest ever. It was for the first time that prices ranged between Rs 7,000 and Rs
15,000 -nearly 50% higher than last year,'' a senior revenue official said.
The donkey bazaar,attracts traders from not only Maharashtra but also Gujarat and Rajasthan. It's also a major attraction for local villagers. But what organisers and revenue department officials got a kick out of was
participation by leading builders and their agents. "Most donkeys were purchased by builders from neighbouring areas,'' the official said. The official
attributed the unprecedented demand for donkeys to the acute shortage of power and
labour.The official claimed the output of a donkey was equivalent to that of seven to ten human
labourers. |
Now demand for donkeys... |
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Petition to protect Okhla bird sanctuary
NEW DELHI, March 12, 2009: Area residents, bird-watchers and environmentalists have
together filed a petition with the Central Empowered Committee on Environment constituted by the Supreme Court to protect the Okhla Bird Park and Wildlife Sanctuary due to a construction project by the Uttar Pradesh government.
Home to over 400 species of birds and several thousand migratory birds, the Okhla Bird Sanctuary is an internationally recognized important bird area. It is situated at the point where the Yamuna river enters the state of Uttar Pradesh, leaving the capital. This portion of the barrage is under the control of the Uttar Pradesh irrigation department. Around 3.5 sqkm of the sanctuary fall in Gautam Budh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh and have been protected since 1990, under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
Source: The Times of India |
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Project Snow
Leopard
The snow leopard is a very well adapted apex predator of its ecosystem, but
destruction of its habitat, poaching for its beautiful fur coat and retaliatory killings by shepherds who lose their cattle to it are rapidly pushing it to the edge. Though the habitat of the snow leopard is spread over about two million sq. km in Central Asia and the Himalayan region, their total numbers worldwide are estimated to be only between 5000 and 7000 animals.
India is one of the important countries for the snow leopard and it is estimated that we have between 200 to 600 animals that are found in the five range states of
Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal
Pradesh. There have been a number of researchers and organisations that have
been working in India to ensure the well-being of these threatened animals.
Interesting work has been on to study its behaviour, to understand the major threats and importantly to engage with local communities to make them partners in snow leopard conservation efforts through environment education, ecotourism initiatives and methods to reduce livestock loss.
In January 2009, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) announced the launching of Project Snow Leopard, an initiative for strengthening wildlife
conservation in the Himalayan high altitude regions in general and for the `grey ghost' in particular. It will be treated on a par with other flagship programmes like the Project Tiger and Project Elephant and executed in collaboration with two of India's premier wildlife research
organisations, the Dehradun based Wildlife Institute of India and Mysore based Nature Conservation Foundation.
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India is one of the important countries for the snow leopard and it is estimated that we have between 200 to 600 animals that are found in the five range states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh,
Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. |
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Tiger poaching in Uttarakhand
RAMNAGAR (Uttarakhand), January 31, 2009: Wildlife authorities in a joint operation with the State Police arrested five poachers and seized tiger skin and bones from their
possession at Ramnagar in Uttarakhand. "One tiger skin, tiger bones, ...cat, trap, which was used for poaching and also the weapons by which the tiger was killed have been recovered," said P C Arya, Sub-Divisional Officer of Ramnagar,
Uttarakhand.
"We're investigating five persons and we are also gathering information of the involvement of four to five more persons," said P K
Patro, Divisional Forest Officer, Ramnagar, Uttarakhand.
The tiger is facing the threat of extinction with early results from a 2007 census suggesting there could be as few as 1,500 tigers left in India, compared to a century ago when there were around 40,000.
The winged landlords of Rajasthan
Jaipur, January 4, 2009 (PTI): The people in two villages of
Rajasthan, Asop and Naadsar in Jodhpur have donated pieces of land in the names of pigeons. Bank accounts too are run in the name of pigeons. Pigeons in these villages with 472
'Bighas' and a healthy bank balance of Rs 22 lakhs may well qualify to make it to the books of records.
"These pieces of land in government record are in the name of pigeons
(Doli banam Kabutaran -means- land of pigeons). The land was donated years back for the sake of pigeons," Sitaram
Choudhary, Patwari, a village government official told PTI. In Asop (around 90 KMs away from Jodhpur city), 360.4 Bigha lands in 20 pieces and in Naadsar (around 15 KMs away from
Asop) 112 Bigha land in six pieces is in the name of pigeon. The pigeons and the land looked after local committees.The amount is used for the feeding of pigeons in Asop, Naadsar and nearby villages.
"Kabutaram (pigeons) committee which looks after the lands,gives it on lease for one year to farmers for agricultural purpose. Three shops are also there in the name of pigeon which are also generating rent," Nand Kishore Kasat, son of a former president of the
committee says. PTI |
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