Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
The Story Of Flamingos
Flamingos Up Close and Personal:-
The fascinating story of Flamingos :- This article appeared in New York Times is very interesting to read for all bird and natural history lovers.....
The fascinating story of Flamingos :- This article appeared in New York Times is very interesting to read for all bird and natural history lovers.....
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
POACHING...
If you come across some poaching activity in your neighborhood, you can report it to the toll free number of the Kerala Forest Department:
1800 425 4733
Monday, August 15, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
NEW!!!
Hi, Everybody,
You are welcome to read our recent survey reports on Bird Survey at Malayattoor Forest Division and Water Bird Count at Varapuzha in the "REPORTS" section in the right panel.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Supreme Court Suspends All Mining in Bellary
The Supreme Court on Friday 29th July ordered the suspension of all mining operations in Karnataka’s Bellary region.
“Mining (is) suspended with immediate effect till further orders,” said a bench headed by Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia and including Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Aftab Alam.
“The greed of a few is making everyone suffer,” the bench added.
Noting the shocking state of the area and the extent of the environmental damage, the bench said the Karnataka government should take responsibility for restoring the ecological balance there by asking the mining companies to pay for the clean up required.
The bench further asked the central environment and the forest ministry to come out with an interim report on the requirement of iron ore for the steel industry.
“The government should explain how much iron ore is required by industry, what percentage of this is met by Bellary, and how much steel produced in India is exported,” the bench said.
It sought the report within a week.
The questions raised by the bench were similar to the report of the Karnataka Lokayukta N. Santosh Hedge that held Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, his family and four ministers among others guilty in a Rs 16,000-crore mining scandal.
In his report, submitted Wednesday, Hegde said that politicians like Yeddyurappa had colluded with mining companies to sanction violation of basic laws.
Bellary has 148 mines, of which 98 are located in forest areas and are at the centre of a row over environmental problems. At least 40 leases for mining in forests had been declared void.
The Supreme Court, after a series of Public Interest Litigation petitions (PILs), asked a special committee to tour Bellary.
After its survey in March, the court-appointed Central Empowered Committee told the judges illegal mining in Karnataka had taken place on a colossal scale not seen before.
...
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
 suspended with immediate effect till further orders,” said a bench headed by Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia and including Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Aftab Alam. “The greed of a few is making everyone suffer,” the bench added. Noting the shocking state of the area and the extent of the environmental damage, the bench said the Karnataka government should take responsibility for restoring the ecologicalhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif balance there by asking the mining companies to pay for the clean up required. The bench further asked the central environment and the forest ministry to come out with an interim report on the requirement of iron ore for the steel industry. “The government should explain how much iron ore is required by industry, what percentage of this is met by Bellary, and how much steel produced in India is exported,” the bench said. It sought the report within a week. The questions raised by the bench were similar to the report of the Karnataka Lokayukta N. Santosh Hedge that held Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, his family and four ministers among others guilty in a Rs 16,000-crore mining scandal. In his report, submitted Wednesday, Hegde said that politicians like Yeddyurappa had colluded with mining companies to sanction violation of basic laws. Bellary has 148 mines, of which 98 are located in forest areas and are at the centre of a row over environmental problems. At least 40 leases for mining in forests had been declared void. The Supreme Court, after a series of Public Interest Litigation petitions (PILs), asked a special committee to tour Bellary. After its survey in March, the court-appointed Central Empowered Committee told the judges illegal mining in Karnataka had taken place on a colossal scale not seen before. ...){kind=link}
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
WILDLIFE
Living on the edge
T.S. SUBRAMANIAN
Wild elephants, finding their migratory corridors blocked by human activity, increasingly enter villages, towns and even cities.
M. ANANDA KUMAR/NCF
A HERD OF elephants in the Valparai plateau. About 150 years ago, British planters converted most of the 220 sq km plateau into tea and coffee plantations, destroying prime rainforests and reducing the streams and nullahs in them to grassy swamps. Elephants move between forest patches through the tea gardens and use the swamps to rest and feed on the grass.
A SINGLE betel leaf and some tobacco and areca nuts have been placed on the dry bed of a narrow channel at a T-junction of two kutcha roads at Chinna Thadagam village near Coimbatore city in Tamil Nadu. A small piece of granite rests on a ledge in the earthen wall abutting the channel. This marks the spot where an elephant attacked and killed Chinma (48), late on the night of May 17. The betel leaf, tobacco and areca nuts are offerings made to her by her husband, Perumal.
Perumal broke down while narrating the incident. It was around 10-45 p.m. when Chinma told him that she wanted to ease herself. They walked a few hundred metres from their tenement, and Perumal waited in a shed for his wife to return. But Chinma, on her way back, walked straight into an elephant standing near a thorny bush. It seized her with the trunk and flung her against the earthen bund. Perumal said neither he nor Chinma had seen the elephant.
The sun was shining bright on the Valparai plateau, 110 km from Coimbatore, on the morning of March 6. M. Annappan (53), a worker in Ryan Division of TANTEA (Tamil Nadu Tea Plantations Corporation Limited), had walked down from his tenement in a secluded area in the tea garden to fetch water from a tap. When he was returning with a bucket of water, he found himself face to face with an elephant standing under a big tree. No sooner had he stepped back than the elephant's trunk was around his waist and he was up in the air.
Annappan's wife, Rani, broke down as she held his glass-framed photograph. She said, “We did not notice the elephant. It was standing under a tree whose leafy branches were hanging all around it. A neighbour who was drying her clothes outside her house shouted that she had heard an elephant trumpet. My husband could not talk. He could not say anything about what happened.” Annappan died before he could be taken to hospital.
It is not only elephants but also leopards that have been causing mayhem in the Valparai plateau.
A. Nadira, Rani's neighbour, said, “Leopards give us so much trouble. We are not able to rear hens, goats or cows.” Annappan's sister Panchalai recalled that her grandnephew had told his mother when they were standing in the tea garden that he had sensed something. They found that it was a leopard. It ran away when they made a lot of noise.
“If you want elephants, leopards and tigers to be here, send us out of this place. Or if you want us to be here, send out the elephants, the gaurs, the leopards and the tigers,” said Raja, Annappan's brother.
At Periya Thadagam village in the Thadagam valley, U. Rangasamy considers himself lucky to be alive. He walks with a limp after he suffered multiple fractures in his right ankle when he fell while running away from an elephant a few months ago. He was on his way to his field around 8-15 p.m. to guard the crops and had gone past a temple when he saw an elephant in front of him. “I shone the torch on it. It chased me,” he said. As he sprinted and vaulted the temple's compound wall, he fell on a slab and fractured his ankle. Two years earlier, Rangasamy's sister's husband was dismembered by an elephant herd in a temple on the hill slope a few hundred metres away from the place where Rangasamy had his encounter.
When S. Prakash, a brick kiln owner at Periya Thadagam, and Rangasamy showed this correspondent and the photographer the destruction wrought by elephants in the nearby fields, it did not take long to realise the enormity of the human-elephant conflict (HEC) in the area. Elephants had eaten big swathes of the pea (“thatta payir”) crop, and dung lay everywhere. A few months earlier, elephants had smashed the solar-powered electrified fence at the foot of the hill. They had entered the fields and feasted on sorghum, maize and pea. “It is only in the past five years that the raids on fields by elephant herds have increased,” Prakash said. What attracts them to the Thadagam valley, besides the crop, is the pith inside the palmyra stem used as firewood in the brick kilns. “Elephants love eating that gooey pith,” said Prakash, who is also a wildlife enthusiast.
The Frontline team met C. Sivagnanam, Assistant Conservator of Forests, Forest Protection Squad, Tamil Nadu Forest Department, and his team distributing handbills to people on how to protect the forests. Asked why elephants increasingly entered farmland, brick kilns and tea estates and attacked human beings, Sivagnanam gave a simple reply: “We have started living in their territory.”
Testimony to this is the 20-odd institutions that have come up in the foothills of the Western Ghats in Coimbatore district directly in the migratory path of the elephants. These institutions include the Amirtha Vishwa Vidyapeeth University (364 hectares) at Ettimadai village in the Boluvampatti range, the Karunya University (283 ha) surrounded by the Western Ghats on three sides, the Isha Yoga Centre at Velliangiri Hills, the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University's Forest College and Research Institute (200 ha) on reserved forest at the foot of the Nilgiri Hills on Kotagiri Road, the Karl Kubel Institute for Development Education, the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History near Anakatty, the CRPF's Central Training College-II at Sanjeevi Hills, the Sachidananda Jothi Niketan Matriculation School near Mettupalayam, the Chinmaya International Residential School at Sirumugai, the Indus College of Engineering, the V.L.B. Janaki Ammal College of Engineering and Technology, and the ACC Madhukarai Cement Works. All of them have been built on patta land right on the elephants' migratory corridor.
M. PERIASAMY
A HERD THAT entered a ravine along a check dam at Kanuvai near Coimbatore, close to the Thadagam valley, which is an active elephant corridor. Constructions, mainly brick kilns, that have come up on this corridor force the elephants to find other routes during their migration. This herd eventually moved to the nearby reserve forest.
Also in the active migratory corridor in the Thadagam valley are 190 brick kilns.
The HEC is a pan-India phenomenon now. On June 9, two elephants strayed into Mysore city in Karnataka and got separated as the confused younger tusker ran helter-skelter with hundreds of people running after it. The tusker mauled a cow and trampled to death a guard at an ATM kiosk before it, along with its companion, was calmed down with tranquillisers.
On June 23, a wild elephant attacked fatally a person at Moongilmadai in Alanthurai village in the Boluvampatti forest range in Coimbatore district. On May 18, a leopard mauled to death a three-year-old girl, Janani, in Thaimudi village in Valparai taluk.
K. ANANTHAN
TWO TUSKERS THAT were fatally hit by a train between Podanur and Madhukarai near Coimbatore in 2008. This stretch forms part of a number of elephant corridors in the Palakkad gap near Walayar, and about 15 elephants died here between 2000 and 2010. When the tracks were relaid, they became virtual death traps for migrating herds. The tracks are placed at a level much lower than the rest of the ground and clambering up to escape a train is not easy.
Indeed, the man-animal conflict is on the rise, be it in Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts in Tamil Nadu, Hassan district in Karnataka, Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh, Palakkad district in Kerala or in places in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Assam.
Leopards have entered Karad town in Maharashtra and even bungalows on the outskirts of Mumbai, including one belonging to the actor Hema Malini.
Plantations and pain
Until about 150 years ago, the 220 square kilometre Valparai plateau was covered with thick rainforests that were home to hundreds of elephants. British planters converted 72 per cent of the area into tea gardens and coffee plantations. Consequently, the Valparai elephants lost their home ranges. But it is in the last 15 years that the conflict has become a formidable issue. In the Coimbatore Forest Division (CFD), which is distinct from Coimbatore district, 66 persons have died in elephant attacks between 2001 and 2011. Elephants enter villages in this area at eight different places a day. Within the tea estates in Valparai itself, elephants have attacked and killed 36 people since 1994.
M. Ananda Kumar, Wildlife Scientist, Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), Mysore, said, “We investigated each of the 36 deaths. Surprisingly, we found that 72 per cent of them occurred on the roads within the tea estates…. Ninety-nine per cent of the fatalities occurred within the mock-charge distance of the elephants.” In other words, the victims did not keep a safe distance from the elephants. They could not sight the elephants standing on the roads.
“Elephants are such amazing animals that although they are huge in size, if they stand next to a small bush it will be difficult to make them out,” said Ananda Kumar. They have an uncanny ability to stand rock still. It will be difficult to distinguish a rock from an elephant in torchlight. Only after one gets close can one realise it is an elephant.
K. ANANTHAN
A FEMALE ELEPHANT comes charging on Moyar Road in the Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary. A file picture.
Ananda Kumar, who has studied the human-elephant conflict in the Valparai plateau for the past 10 years, said: “However, when the elephants see human beings, they give enough warnings. They stretch their ears. They kick the mud and make a rumbling noise in their stomach. They are saying, ‘Hey, I am here. Do not come close to me.' But people ignore these signals. The mock-charge by an elephant involves taking several steps forward and then going back. If people are within the mock-charge distance, they will be killed. There will not be much time to escape from close encounters.”
V. Thirunavukarasu, District Forest Officer, Coimbatore, said people should keep a safe distance from elephants. A simple push by an elephant with its trunk is enough to puncture the liver or kidneys, which can lead to internal bleeding and death. “In most of the cases, it is a defence mechanism,” said Thirunavukarasu, who belongs to the Indian Forest Service (IFS). Besides, the elephants feel insecure when they have calves with them.
M. ANANDA KUMAR/NCF
A HERD MIGRATING to distant forest patches stranded in a tea estate in the Valparai plateau. When they are forced to remain there for long hours because of human activity, they usually make merry in the garden and then raid nearby ration shops, noon-meal centres or homes for food.
In Chinma's case, she went too close to the elephant and it just pushed her with its trunk. The elephant did not chase her or trample her to death as news reports said.
In an incident on November 11, 2010, a 35-year-old woman was trampled to death by an elephant near Therkupalayam village in Coimbatore district. As she came out of her home, she saw an elephant standing right there. A barking dog irritated the elephant and it pushed her and, when she fell down, crushed her head. “That is very rare,” the DFO said.
M. ANANDA KUMAR/NCF
A herd camping in a swamp in a tea garden in the plateau. Establishing connectivity between forest patches along the swamps in the tea gardens can facilitate elephant movement and reduce man-animal conflict.
“In Coimbatore district,” said Thirunavukarasu, “about 58 villages have been affected by the problem. The issue is the corridor.” Elephants are migratory animals, not territorial like tigers. When they find that their migratory corridors are blocked, they have two options. They can either go back to the forests after climbing the steep slope of the Western Ghats or take a circuitous route around the periphery of the forests.
C.R. Jayaprakash, executive committee member, Nilgiri Wildlife and Environment Association, Udhagamandalam, said elephants, instead of taking a U-turn on the periphery of the Western Ghats, move in a straight line through the institutions on their path. Since these institutions have erected powerful solar-powered electric fences, the elephants take an alternative route that is through fields and villages. The elephants love the sorghum, maize and peas crops as also the coconut plantations, mango groves and jackfruit trees. “They enter the farmland around 9 p.m., have a king's meal until 4 a.m. and go back into the forests at dawn. They take rest during the day and return for the raid the next evening,” said Jayaprakash, who is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at PSG College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore.
K. ANANTHAN
A FORMER EMPLOYEE of a tea estate owned by Tamil Nadu Tea Plantation Corporation Limited, or TANTEA, shows the kitchen of a tenement damaged by a herd that came looking for rice, salt and dhal, on March 6. Tea estates have reported an increase in incidents of elephants attacking ration shops, noon-meal centres and homes.
Two different situations exist in the Valparai plateau and the Coimbatore Forest Division.
The Valparai plateau is situated in the Anamalai Hills of the Western Ghats and is surrounded by the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, the Eravikulam National Park, the Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary and the Vazhachal Reserved Forests. The altitude on the plateau ranges from 900 metres to 1,450 metres above mean sea level. The Anamalai-Parambikulam Elephant Reserve is home to about 1,000 elephants.
M GOVARTHAN
ELEPHANT-PROOF TRENCHES dug on the edge of the forest in the Sathyamangalam division in Erode district. District Forest Officer V. Thirunavukarasu says the trenches reflect "traditional wisdom" and adds that they have "proved to be effective" in deterring elephants from entering farmlands or villages.
In their paper entitled “Asian elephant Elephas maximus habitat use and ranging in fragmented rainforest and plantations in the Anamalai Hills, India,” published in the journal Tropical Conservation Science, Volume 3 (2), 2010, Ananda Kumar, Divya Mudappa and T.R. Shankar Raman, all belonging to the NCF, point out that the Valparai plateau is dominated by tea, coffee and eucalyptus plantations, interspersed with fragments of rainforests, riparian vegetation, swamps and settlements.
The paper says there are nearly 40 rainforest fragments ranging in size from 0.3 ha to 100 ha dispersed across the plateau on private land. Eucalyptus plantations are raised in tea estates as fuel clearings to meet the energy requirements of tea estates. Riparian vegetation is restricted to a number of small and large rivers traversing the plateau. About one lakh people live in scattered settlements in the Valparai plantation landscape. Since the establishment of the tea estates, forest patches within the plantations are the only refuge for elephants because tea estates are open areas. The plateau itself undulates gently, enabling elephant herds to move from one place to another. However, elephants are good mountain climbers. The British planters, ingenuously, used the elephant paths over the mountains to lay roads.
K. ANANTHAN
A TRAINED ELEPHANT (right), locally called 'kumki', engages with a wild elephant that entered a sugarcane field at Nagaranai near Sathyamangalam in December 2010. The Tamil Nadu Forest Department uses kumkis to drive away wild elephants from human settlements. The department plans to set up a camp for kumkis near Coimbatore so that they are available quickly to tackle their wild cousins.
During their year-long study of elephant movement in the Valparai plateau, Ananda Kumar, Divya Mudappa and Shankar Raman realised that there were three herds and that they spent eight to 10 months in a year in the tea plantations.
“They had lost their home ranges to tea plantations. So they had to stay in the tea estates. Elephants show a lot of fidelity to their home ranges,” Ananda Kumar said. There were also inter-herd pressures. They could not enter the home range of another herd. The authors followed the movements of two herds within the estates. Elephants do not feed on tea leaves but gorge on the grass in the swamps within the plantations. (When the rainforests were converted into tea estates, the nullahs flowing through the forests became swamps).
Most of the conflicts and deaths occurred in the centre of the plateau where there were no forests. A critical area is the remote TANTEA estate. The Periakallaru river runs through it, dividing it into Ryan and Lawson Divisions. All the nine deaths that occurred in the TANTEA estate took place in Ryan Division, and the encounters happened during the dry season from October to March. This is the season when festivals take place and people are on the roads often. Encounters took place because there were no bus facilities and estate workers had to walk about 5 km to reach home. Many residential colonies in Ryan Division have no toilets and people have to relieve themselves in the open.
Although there are 32 tribal settlements within the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, not a single death of a tribal person in an encounter with an elephant has been reported from there. “The tribal people know how to behave with elephants. They do not disturb them. They do not burst crackers,” Ananda Kumar said.
Interestingly, elephants target ration shops and noon-meal centres because they look for the rice, dhal and salt stored there. What has aggravated the situation is that the ration shops and noon-meal centres are situated among workers' tenements. On March 6, the day an elephant killed Annappan, a herd attacked a ration shop situated in the tenements nearby.
K. ANANTHAN
Kumkis escorting the sufficiently subdued wild elephant back into the forest.
Ananda Kumar suggested that establishing connectivity from one forest patch to another along the swamps in the tea estates would facilitate the movement of elephants and result in fewer encounters. “The tea companies need to show interest in this because they are the stakeholders in this area. Once you have a tree-line along these nullahs/swamps, it will improve the water flow, which is good for tea, and elephants can move. It will also help the lion-tailed macaques, which now live in the isolated forest patches where a lot of inbreeding takes place.”
In the Coimbatore Forest Division, HECs occur in four U-shaped valleys that lie in the western part of Coimbatore, adjoining the Western Ghats. These valleys are the Boluvampatti range, which includes Thondamuthur; Marudamalai; Thadagam; and Palamalai. In all these valleys, an assortment of deemed universities, engineering colleges, holiday resorts and housing colonies have come up on the elephants' migratory routes. “When they enter the villages, they find instant food, especially in the Thadagam valley, in the form of bananas, sugarcane, maize and sorghum,” said Jayaprakash. At least 40 per cent of the land that lies on the western side of the Mettupalayam area has been affected by the elephants' raids on crops. It means an important agricultural belt is lost. “This has led to sociological problems. Nobody is sure whether he can harvest his crop,” he added.
K. ANANTHAN
A PART OF the herd of 13 elephants that entered a banana plantation at Somayanur in the Thadagam valley on January 29. This area is known for its frequent human-elephant conflicts. Forest officials and the police had a tough time controlling the crowd that gathered and ensuring for the animals safe passage into the forest.
According to Thirunavukarasu, the CFD is part of an important elephant corridor. On an average, 200 to 300 elephants use this territory every day for migration. An elephant feeds on 250 to 300 kg of food and drinks 200 litres of water a day. So they migrate from one place to another in search of food and water, enough of which are not available in one place, and for breeding.
The elephant population in the CFD has shot up in the past 10 years as a result of the CFD's anti-poaching measures. If the male-female ratio during forest brigand and elephant poacher Veerappan's era was 1:40, it now stands at 1:12, indicating an increase in their population. Apart from engineering colleges blocking their migratory corridors, real estate has boomed on the periphery of the Western Ghats. “Everybody wants to own a home on the periphery because they can have a nice view of the hills…. People say that the elephants are entering the city. But I would say that the city has encroached their territory,” said Thirunavukarasu.
K. ANANTHAN
COIMBATORE DISTRICT FOREST Officer V. Thirunavukarasu. He says human-elephant conflict has affected 58 villages in the district and believes that the reason is the blocking of the corridor.
Two important places, which are in the elephants' migratory path and therefore facing a problem, are the Thadagam valley and the Naickenpalayam area. The Thadagam valley used to grow sorghum and maize, fodder for the cattle until 15 years ago. But it is home to 190 brick kilns now and “they stand right in the middle of the main migratory corridor of the elephants,” said Thirunavukarasu.
The brick kilns came up because the soil from the nearby hill slopes got washed down to the valley and piled up to a height of several metres. Affected by elephants' crop raids, big farmers took to making bricks. They dug up the soil for making bricks and used palmyra trunks for baking the bricks. The palmyra trunks are split (to be fed into the oven) and the pith inside them is thrown aside. This ferments and attracts elephants. “It is a wonderful food item for them,” the DFO said.
K. ANANTHAN
M. ANANDA KUMAR, wildlife scientist with the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore. He holds the LED lantern that he and his team developed as part of a GSM-based elephant warning system. It is installed on a high mast and switched on by people in the neighbourhood by dialling the number of the SIM card inside it.
The labourers in the kilns are from Vellore, Pudukottai, Ramanathapuram and Virudhunagar districts and live in tenements near the kilns. Their colonies have no toilets and they are forced to go outdoors to relieve themselves at night. When they encounter elephants, they do not know how to deal with them. They throw stones at them, inviting trouble. Besides, they do not keep a safe distance from them.
There are 20 temples in the forests in the migratory path. They include the Marudamalai temple, the Anuvavi Subramania Swamy temple, the Palamalai temple and the temple in the Velliangiri hill. They attract several lakh pilgrims round the year. The Palamalai and Velliangiri temples are situated in the active migratory corridor. Since the Marudamalai temple blocks their path, the elephants go round the Bharathiyar University campus now. “All this has an impact on the elephants. The issue is a complex one.”
Living on the edge
T.S. SUBRAMANIAN
Wild elephants, finding their migratory corridors blocked by human activity, increasingly enter villages, towns and even cities.
M. ANANDA KUMAR/NCF
A HERD OF elephants in the Valparai plateau. About 150 years ago, British planters converted most of the 220 sq km plateau into tea and coffee plantations, destroying prime rainforests and reducing the streams and nullahs in them to grassy swamps. Elephants move between forest patches through the tea gardens and use the swamps to rest and feed on the grass.
A SINGLE betel leaf and some tobacco and areca nuts have been placed on the dry bed of a narrow channel at a T-junction of two kutcha roads at Chinna Thadagam village near Coimbatore city in Tamil Nadu. A small piece of granite rests on a ledge in the earthen wall abutting the channel. This marks the spot where an elephant attacked and killed Chinma (48), late on the night of May 17. The betel leaf, tobacco and areca nuts are offerings made to her by her husband, Perumal.
Perumal broke down while narrating the incident. It was around 10-45 p.m. when Chinma told him that she wanted to ease herself. They walked a few hundred metres from their tenement, and Perumal waited in a shed for his wife to return. But Chinma, on her way back, walked straight into an elephant standing near a thorny bush. It seized her with the trunk and flung her against the earthen bund. Perumal said neither he nor Chinma had seen the elephant.
The sun was shining bright on the Valparai plateau, 110 km from Coimbatore, on the morning of March 6. M. Annappan (53), a worker in Ryan Division of TANTEA (Tamil Nadu Tea Plantations Corporation Limited), had walked down from his tenement in a secluded area in the tea garden to fetch water from a tap. When he was returning with a bucket of water, he found himself face to face with an elephant standing under a big tree. No sooner had he stepped back than the elephant's trunk was around his waist and he was up in the air.
Annappan's wife, Rani, broke down as she held his glass-framed photograph. She said, “We did not notice the elephant. It was standing under a tree whose leafy branches were hanging all around it. A neighbour who was drying her clothes outside her house shouted that she had heard an elephant trumpet. My husband could not talk. He could not say anything about what happened.” Annappan died before he could be taken to hospital.
It is not only elephants but also leopards that have been causing mayhem in the Valparai plateau.
A. Nadira, Rani's neighbour, said, “Leopards give us so much trouble. We are not able to rear hens, goats or cows.” Annappan's sister Panchalai recalled that her grandnephew had told his mother when they were standing in the tea garden that he had sensed something. They found that it was a leopard. It ran away when they made a lot of noise.
“If you want elephants, leopards and tigers to be here, send us out of this place. Or if you want us to be here, send out the elephants, the gaurs, the leopards and the tigers,” said Raja, Annappan's brother.
At Periya Thadagam village in the Thadagam valley, U. Rangasamy considers himself lucky to be alive. He walks with a limp after he suffered multiple fractures in his right ankle when he fell while running away from an elephant a few months ago. He was on his way to his field around 8-15 p.m. to guard the crops and had gone past a temple when he saw an elephant in front of him. “I shone the torch on it. It chased me,” he said. As he sprinted and vaulted the temple's compound wall, he fell on a slab and fractured his ankle. Two years earlier, Rangasamy's sister's husband was dismembered by an elephant herd in a temple on the hill slope a few hundred metres away from the place where Rangasamy had his encounter.
When S. Prakash, a brick kiln owner at Periya Thadagam, and Rangasamy showed this correspondent and the photographer the destruction wrought by elephants in the nearby fields, it did not take long to realise the enormity of the human-elephant conflict (HEC) in the area. Elephants had eaten big swathes of the pea (“thatta payir”) crop, and dung lay everywhere. A few months earlier, elephants had smashed the solar-powered electrified fence at the foot of the hill. They had entered the fields and feasted on sorghum, maize and pea. “It is only in the past five years that the raids on fields by elephant herds have increased,” Prakash said. What attracts them to the Thadagam valley, besides the crop, is the pith inside the palmyra stem used as firewood in the brick kilns. “Elephants love eating that gooey pith,” said Prakash, who is also a wildlife enthusiast.
The Frontline team met C. Sivagnanam, Assistant Conservator of Forests, Forest Protection Squad, Tamil Nadu Forest Department, and his team distributing handbills to people on how to protect the forests. Asked why elephants increasingly entered farmland, brick kilns and tea estates and attacked human beings, Sivagnanam gave a simple reply: “We have started living in their territory.”
Testimony to this is the 20-odd institutions that have come up in the foothills of the Western Ghats in Coimbatore district directly in the migratory path of the elephants. These institutions include the Amirtha Vishwa Vidyapeeth University (364 hectares) at Ettimadai village in the Boluvampatti range, the Karunya University (283 ha) surrounded by the Western Ghats on three sides, the Isha Yoga Centre at Velliangiri Hills, the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University's Forest College and Research Institute (200 ha) on reserved forest at the foot of the Nilgiri Hills on Kotagiri Road, the Karl Kubel Institute for Development Education, the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History near Anakatty, the CRPF's Central Training College-II at Sanjeevi Hills, the Sachidananda Jothi Niketan Matriculation School near Mettupalayam, the Chinmaya International Residential School at Sirumugai, the Indus College of Engineering, the V.L.B. Janaki Ammal College of Engineering and Technology, and the ACC Madhukarai Cement Works. All of them have been built on patta land right on the elephants' migratory corridor.
M. PERIASAMY
A HERD THAT entered a ravine along a check dam at Kanuvai near Coimbatore, close to the Thadagam valley, which is an active elephant corridor. Constructions, mainly brick kilns, that have come up on this corridor force the elephants to find other routes during their migration. This herd eventually moved to the nearby reserve forest.
Also in the active migratory corridor in the Thadagam valley are 190 brick kilns.
The HEC is a pan-India phenomenon now. On June 9, two elephants strayed into Mysore city in Karnataka and got separated as the confused younger tusker ran helter-skelter with hundreds of people running after it. The tusker mauled a cow and trampled to death a guard at an ATM kiosk before it, along with its companion, was calmed down with tranquillisers.
On June 23, a wild elephant attacked fatally a person at Moongilmadai in Alanthurai village in the Boluvampatti forest range in Coimbatore district. On May 18, a leopard mauled to death a three-year-old girl, Janani, in Thaimudi village in Valparai taluk.
K. ANANTHAN
TWO TUSKERS THAT were fatally hit by a train between Podanur and Madhukarai near Coimbatore in 2008. This stretch forms part of a number of elephant corridors in the Palakkad gap near Walayar, and about 15 elephants died here between 2000 and 2010. When the tracks were relaid, they became virtual death traps for migrating herds. The tracks are placed at a level much lower than the rest of the ground and clambering up to escape a train is not easy.
Indeed, the man-animal conflict is on the rise, be it in Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts in Tamil Nadu, Hassan district in Karnataka, Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh, Palakkad district in Kerala or in places in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Assam.
Leopards have entered Karad town in Maharashtra and even bungalows on the outskirts of Mumbai, including one belonging to the actor Hema Malini.
Plantations and pain
Until about 150 years ago, the 220 square kilometre Valparai plateau was covered with thick rainforests that were home to hundreds of elephants. British planters converted 72 per cent of the area into tea gardens and coffee plantations. Consequently, the Valparai elephants lost their home ranges. But it is in the last 15 years that the conflict has become a formidable issue. In the Coimbatore Forest Division (CFD), which is distinct from Coimbatore district, 66 persons have died in elephant attacks between 2001 and 2011. Elephants enter villages in this area at eight different places a day. Within the tea estates in Valparai itself, elephants have attacked and killed 36 people since 1994.
M. Ananda Kumar, Wildlife Scientist, Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), Mysore, said, “We investigated each of the 36 deaths. Surprisingly, we found that 72 per cent of them occurred on the roads within the tea estates…. Ninety-nine per cent of the fatalities occurred within the mock-charge distance of the elephants.” In other words, the victims did not keep a safe distance from the elephants. They could not sight the elephants standing on the roads.
“Elephants are such amazing animals that although they are huge in size, if they stand next to a small bush it will be difficult to make them out,” said Ananda Kumar. They have an uncanny ability to stand rock still. It will be difficult to distinguish a rock from an elephant in torchlight. Only after one gets close can one realise it is an elephant.
K. ANANTHAN
A FEMALE ELEPHANT comes charging on Moyar Road in the Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary. A file picture.
Ananda Kumar, who has studied the human-elephant conflict in the Valparai plateau for the past 10 years, said: “However, when the elephants see human beings, they give enough warnings. They stretch their ears. They kick the mud and make a rumbling noise in their stomach. They are saying, ‘Hey, I am here. Do not come close to me.' But people ignore these signals. The mock-charge by an elephant involves taking several steps forward and then going back. If people are within the mock-charge distance, they will be killed. There will not be much time to escape from close encounters.”
V. Thirunavukarasu, District Forest Officer, Coimbatore, said people should keep a safe distance from elephants. A simple push by an elephant with its trunk is enough to puncture the liver or kidneys, which can lead to internal bleeding and death. “In most of the cases, it is a defence mechanism,” said Thirunavukarasu, who belongs to the Indian Forest Service (IFS). Besides, the elephants feel insecure when they have calves with them.
M. ANANDA KUMAR/NCF
A HERD MIGRATING to distant forest patches stranded in a tea estate in the Valparai plateau. When they are forced to remain there for long hours because of human activity, they usually make merry in the garden and then raid nearby ration shops, noon-meal centres or homes for food.
In Chinma's case, she went too close to the elephant and it just pushed her with its trunk. The elephant did not chase her or trample her to death as news reports said.
In an incident on November 11, 2010, a 35-year-old woman was trampled to death by an elephant near Therkupalayam village in Coimbatore district. As she came out of her home, she saw an elephant standing right there. A barking dog irritated the elephant and it pushed her and, when she fell down, crushed her head. “That is very rare,” the DFO said.
M. ANANDA KUMAR/NCF
A herd camping in a swamp in a tea garden in the plateau. Establishing connectivity between forest patches along the swamps in the tea gardens can facilitate elephant movement and reduce man-animal conflict.
“In Coimbatore district,” said Thirunavukarasu, “about 58 villages have been affected by the problem. The issue is the corridor.” Elephants are migratory animals, not territorial like tigers. When they find that their migratory corridors are blocked, they have two options. They can either go back to the forests after climbing the steep slope of the Western Ghats or take a circuitous route around the periphery of the forests.
C.R. Jayaprakash, executive committee member, Nilgiri Wildlife and Environment Association, Udhagamandalam, said elephants, instead of taking a U-turn on the periphery of the Western Ghats, move in a straight line through the institutions on their path. Since these institutions have erected powerful solar-powered electric fences, the elephants take an alternative route that is through fields and villages. The elephants love the sorghum, maize and peas crops as also the coconut plantations, mango groves and jackfruit trees. “They enter the farmland around 9 p.m., have a king's meal until 4 a.m. and go back into the forests at dawn. They take rest during the day and return for the raid the next evening,” said Jayaprakash, who is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at PSG College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore.
K. ANANTHAN
A FORMER EMPLOYEE of a tea estate owned by Tamil Nadu Tea Plantation Corporation Limited, or TANTEA, shows the kitchen of a tenement damaged by a herd that came looking for rice, salt and dhal, on March 6. Tea estates have reported an increase in incidents of elephants attacking ration shops, noon-meal centres and homes.
Two different situations exist in the Valparai plateau and the Coimbatore Forest Division.
The Valparai plateau is situated in the Anamalai Hills of the Western Ghats and is surrounded by the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, the Eravikulam National Park, the Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary and the Vazhachal Reserved Forests. The altitude on the plateau ranges from 900 metres to 1,450 metres above mean sea level. The Anamalai-Parambikulam Elephant Reserve is home to about 1,000 elephants.
M GOVARTHAN
ELEPHANT-PROOF TRENCHES dug on the edge of the forest in the Sathyamangalam division in Erode district. District Forest Officer V. Thirunavukarasu says the trenches reflect "traditional wisdom" and adds that they have "proved to be effective" in deterring elephants from entering farmlands or villages.
In their paper entitled “Asian elephant Elephas maximus habitat use and ranging in fragmented rainforest and plantations in the Anamalai Hills, India,” published in the journal Tropical Conservation Science, Volume 3 (2), 2010, Ananda Kumar, Divya Mudappa and T.R. Shankar Raman, all belonging to the NCF, point out that the Valparai plateau is dominated by tea, coffee and eucalyptus plantations, interspersed with fragments of rainforests, riparian vegetation, swamps and settlements.
The paper says there are nearly 40 rainforest fragments ranging in size from 0.3 ha to 100 ha dispersed across the plateau on private land. Eucalyptus plantations are raised in tea estates as fuel clearings to meet the energy requirements of tea estates. Riparian vegetation is restricted to a number of small and large rivers traversing the plateau. About one lakh people live in scattered settlements in the Valparai plantation landscape. Since the establishment of the tea estates, forest patches within the plantations are the only refuge for elephants because tea estates are open areas. The plateau itself undulates gently, enabling elephant herds to move from one place to another. However, elephants are good mountain climbers. The British planters, ingenuously, used the elephant paths over the mountains to lay roads.
K. ANANTHAN
A TRAINED ELEPHANT (right), locally called 'kumki', engages with a wild elephant that entered a sugarcane field at Nagaranai near Sathyamangalam in December 2010. The Tamil Nadu Forest Department uses kumkis to drive away wild elephants from human settlements. The department plans to set up a camp for kumkis near Coimbatore so that they are available quickly to tackle their wild cousins.
During their year-long study of elephant movement in the Valparai plateau, Ananda Kumar, Divya Mudappa and Shankar Raman realised that there were three herds and that they spent eight to 10 months in a year in the tea plantations.
“They had lost their home ranges to tea plantations. So they had to stay in the tea estates. Elephants show a lot of fidelity to their home ranges,” Ananda Kumar said. There were also inter-herd pressures. They could not enter the home range of another herd. The authors followed the movements of two herds within the estates. Elephants do not feed on tea leaves but gorge on the grass in the swamps within the plantations. (When the rainforests were converted into tea estates, the nullahs flowing through the forests became swamps).
Most of the conflicts and deaths occurred in the centre of the plateau where there were no forests. A critical area is the remote TANTEA estate. The Periakallaru river runs through it, dividing it into Ryan and Lawson Divisions. All the nine deaths that occurred in the TANTEA estate took place in Ryan Division, and the encounters happened during the dry season from October to March. This is the season when festivals take place and people are on the roads often. Encounters took place because there were no bus facilities and estate workers had to walk about 5 km to reach home. Many residential colonies in Ryan Division have no toilets and people have to relieve themselves in the open.
Although there are 32 tribal settlements within the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, not a single death of a tribal person in an encounter with an elephant has been reported from there. “The tribal people know how to behave with elephants. They do not disturb them. They do not burst crackers,” Ananda Kumar said.
Interestingly, elephants target ration shops and noon-meal centres because they look for the rice, dhal and salt stored there. What has aggravated the situation is that the ration shops and noon-meal centres are situated among workers' tenements. On March 6, the day an elephant killed Annappan, a herd attacked a ration shop situated in the tenements nearby.
K. ANANTHAN
Kumkis escorting the sufficiently subdued wild elephant back into the forest.
Ananda Kumar suggested that establishing connectivity from one forest patch to another along the swamps in the tea estates would facilitate the movement of elephants and result in fewer encounters. “The tea companies need to show interest in this because they are the stakeholders in this area. Once you have a tree-line along these nullahs/swamps, it will improve the water flow, which is good for tea, and elephants can move. It will also help the lion-tailed macaques, which now live in the isolated forest patches where a lot of inbreeding takes place.”
In the Coimbatore Forest Division, HECs occur in four U-shaped valleys that lie in the western part of Coimbatore, adjoining the Western Ghats. These valleys are the Boluvampatti range, which includes Thondamuthur; Marudamalai; Thadagam; and Palamalai. In all these valleys, an assortment of deemed universities, engineering colleges, holiday resorts and housing colonies have come up on the elephants' migratory routes. “When they enter the villages, they find instant food, especially in the Thadagam valley, in the form of bananas, sugarcane, maize and sorghum,” said Jayaprakash. At least 40 per cent of the land that lies on the western side of the Mettupalayam area has been affected by the elephants' raids on crops. It means an important agricultural belt is lost. “This has led to sociological problems. Nobody is sure whether he can harvest his crop,” he added.
K. ANANTHAN
A PART OF the herd of 13 elephants that entered a banana plantation at Somayanur in the Thadagam valley on January 29. This area is known for its frequent human-elephant conflicts. Forest officials and the police had a tough time controlling the crowd that gathered and ensuring for the animals safe passage into the forest.
According to Thirunavukarasu, the CFD is part of an important elephant corridor. On an average, 200 to 300 elephants use this territory every day for migration. An elephant feeds on 250 to 300 kg of food and drinks 200 litres of water a day. So they migrate from one place to another in search of food and water, enough of which are not available in one place, and for breeding.
The elephant population in the CFD has shot up in the past 10 years as a result of the CFD's anti-poaching measures. If the male-female ratio during forest brigand and elephant poacher Veerappan's era was 1:40, it now stands at 1:12, indicating an increase in their population. Apart from engineering colleges blocking their migratory corridors, real estate has boomed on the periphery of the Western Ghats. “Everybody wants to own a home on the periphery because they can have a nice view of the hills…. People say that the elephants are entering the city. But I would say that the city has encroached their territory,” said Thirunavukarasu.
K. ANANTHAN
COIMBATORE DISTRICT FOREST Officer V. Thirunavukarasu. He says human-elephant conflict has affected 58 villages in the district and believes that the reason is the blocking of the corridor.
Two important places, which are in the elephants' migratory path and therefore facing a problem, are the Thadagam valley and the Naickenpalayam area. The Thadagam valley used to grow sorghum and maize, fodder for the cattle until 15 years ago. But it is home to 190 brick kilns now and “they stand right in the middle of the main migratory corridor of the elephants,” said Thirunavukarasu.
The brick kilns came up because the soil from the nearby hill slopes got washed down to the valley and piled up to a height of several metres. Affected by elephants' crop raids, big farmers took to making bricks. They dug up the soil for making bricks and used palmyra trunks for baking the bricks. The palmyra trunks are split (to be fed into the oven) and the pith inside them is thrown aside. This ferments and attracts elephants. “It is a wonderful food item for them,” the DFO said.
K. ANANTHAN
M. ANANDA KUMAR, wildlife scientist with the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore. He holds the LED lantern that he and his team developed as part of a GSM-based elephant warning system. It is installed on a high mast and switched on by people in the neighbourhood by dialling the number of the SIM card inside it.
The labourers in the kilns are from Vellore, Pudukottai, Ramanathapuram and Virudhunagar districts and live in tenements near the kilns. Their colonies have no toilets and they are forced to go outdoors to relieve themselves at night. When they encounter elephants, they do not know how to deal with them. They throw stones at them, inviting trouble. Besides, they do not keep a safe distance from them.
There are 20 temples in the forests in the migratory path. They include the Marudamalai temple, the Anuvavi Subramania Swamy temple, the Palamalai temple and the temple in the Velliangiri hill. They attract several lakh pilgrims round the year. The Palamalai and Velliangiri temples are situated in the active migratory corridor. Since the Marudamalai temple blocks their path, the elephants go round the Bharathiyar University campus now. “All this has an impact on the elephants. The issue is a complex one.”
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Prasanth’s Birdwatching Report 10-7-2011
Dear All,
Today I visited FACT township along with Madhu Krishnan for bird watching from 4.00 pm to 6.00 pm. We have seen the following birds,
1. Purple Heron
2. Indian Pond Heron
3. Lesser Whistling Duck
4. Brahminy Kite
5. Western Marsh Harrier
6. Shikra
7. White breasted Waterhen
8. Purple Moorhen
9. Bronze winged Jacana
10. Red wattled Lapwing
11. Blue Rock Pigeon
12. Rose ringed Parakeet
13. Asian Koel
14. Greater Coucal
15. White breasted Kingfisher
16. Small Bee-eater
17. White cheeked Barbet
18. Red rumped Swallow
19. Large Pied Wagtail
20. Paddyfield Pipit
21. Red whiskered Bulbul
22. Oriental Magpie Robin
23. Indian Robin
24. White headed Babbler
25. Franklin's Prinia
26. Ashy Prinia
27. Plain Prinia
28. Common Tailorbird
29. Tickell's Flowerpecker
30. Purple rumped Sunbird
31. Black headed Munia
32. Common Myna
33. Jungle Myna
34. Black Drongo
35. Greater Racket tailed Drongo
36. House Crow
37. Jungle Crow
For some pictures visit,
http://drsprasanth.blogspot.com/
Dr. S. Prasanth
Today I visited FACT township along with Madhu Krishnan for bird watching from 4.00 pm to 6.00 pm. We have seen the following birds,
1. Purple Heron
2. Indian Pond Heron
3. Lesser Whistling Duck
4. Brahminy Kite
5. Western Marsh Harrier
6. Shikra
7. White breasted Waterhen
8. Purple Moorhen
9. Bronze winged Jacana
10. Red wattled Lapwing
11. Blue Rock Pigeon
12. Rose ringed Parakeet
13. Asian Koel
14. Greater Coucal
15. White breasted Kingfisher
16. Small Bee-eater
17. White cheeked Barbet
18. Red rumped Swallow
19. Large Pied Wagtail
20. Paddyfield Pipit
21. Red whiskered Bulbul
22. Oriental Magpie Robin
23. Indian Robin
24. White headed Babbler
25. Franklin's Prinia
26. Ashy Prinia
27. Plain Prinia
28. Common Tailorbird
29. Tickell's Flowerpecker
30. Purple rumped Sunbird
31. Black headed Munia
32. Common Myna
33. Jungle Myna
34. Black Drongo
35. Greater Racket tailed Drongo
36. House Crow
37. Jungle Crow
For some pictures visit,
http://drsprasanth.blogspot.com/
Dr. S. Prasanth
Friday, July 8, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Prasanth’s Birdwatching Report 3-7-2011
Dear All,
Today I along with Mr. Vishnupriyan Kartha visited HMT estate for Bird watching from 7.30 am to 10.30 am. We have seen the following birds,
1. Little Grebe
2. Little Cormorant
3. Purple Heron
4. Lesser Whistling Duck
5. Crested Serpent Eagle
6. Shikra
7. Red wattled Lapwing
8. Spotted Dove
9. Indian Cuckoo
10. Asian Koel
11. Greater Coucal
12. Asian Palm Swift
13. White breasted Kingfisher
14. Small Bee-eater
15. Indian Roller
16. White cheeked Barbet
17. Lesser Golden backed Woodpecker
18. Common Swallow
19. Large Cuckoo Shrike
20. Red whiskered Bulbul
21. Red vented Bulbul
22. White browed Bulbul
23. Oriental Magpie Robin
24. Indian Robin
25. White headed Babbler
26. Franklin's Prinia
27. Ashy Prinia
28. Plain Prinia
29. Common Tailorbird
30. Tickell's Flowerpecker
31. Purple rumped Sunbird
32. Spotted Munia
33. Black headed Munia
34. Grey headed Starling
35. Common Myna
36. Black Drongo
37. Greater Racket tailed Drongo
38. Indian Treepie
39. House Crow
40. Jungle Crow
For some pictures visit,
http://drsprasanth.blogspot.com/
Dr. S. Prasanth
Today I along with Mr. Vishnupriyan Kartha visited HMT estate for Bird watching from 7.30 am to 10.30 am. We have seen the following birds,
1. Little Grebe
2. Little Cormorant
3. Purple Heron
4. Lesser Whistling Duck
5. Crested Serpent Eagle
6. Shikra
7. Red wattled Lapwing
8. Spotted Dove
9. Indian Cuckoo
10. Asian Koel
11. Greater Coucal
12. Asian Palm Swift
13. White breasted Kingfisher
14. Small Bee-eater
15. Indian Roller
16. White cheeked Barbet
17. Lesser Golden backed Woodpecker
18. Common Swallow
19. Large Cuckoo Shrike
20. Red whiskered Bulbul
21. Red vented Bulbul
22. White browed Bulbul
23. Oriental Magpie Robin
24. Indian Robin
25. White headed Babbler
26. Franklin's Prinia
27. Ashy Prinia
28. Plain Prinia
29. Common Tailorbird
30. Tickell's Flowerpecker
31. Purple rumped Sunbird
32. Spotted Munia
33. Black headed Munia
34. Grey headed Starling
35. Common Myna
36. Black Drongo
37. Greater Racket tailed Drongo
38. Indian Treepie
39. House Crow
40. Jungle Crow
For some pictures visit,
http://drsprasanth.blogspot.com/
Dr. S. Prasanth
Monday, June 27, 2011
Wild boar the most hunted animal
State has now allowed its killing in five districts on specific grounds
Perilous path: A government order permits anyone to shoot, with official permit, wild boars that pose danger to human life or property .
KOCHI: The wild boar, whose culling the State government has permitted recently, has been one of the most hunted animals in the State, official figures say.
Statistics available with the Wildlife Forensic Unit of Kerala Agricultural University show that of the 250 meat samples analysed by it to help detect wildlife offences during the past five years, nearly 45 per cent were of wild boars. The samples are brought to the unit as part of the prosecution procedures, P.O. Nameer, head of the unit, says.
After wild boar come the Sambar deer (15 per cent), the gaur (10 per cent), and the tiger (seven per cent) on the poaching list. DNA fingerprinting is done on the meat samples in cooked and raw forms and animal tissues to ascertain the species, he says.
The State government had ordered the shooting of wild boars in Wayanad, Malappuram, Palakkad, Idukki, and Pathanamthitta districts for a year, invoking provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
The Act prescribes that the Chief Wildlife Warden or the authorised officer may, if he is satisfied that any wild animal specified in Schedule 2, Schedule 3, or Schedule 4, has become dangerous to human life or to property (including standing crops on any land) or is so disabled or diseased as to be beyond recovery, by order in writing and stating the reasons therefore, permit any person to hunt such animal or group of animals in a specified area or cause such animal or group of animals in that specified area to be hunted.
An analysis has found that the most number of wildlife offences has been reported from the Pariyaram forest range near Thrissur.
This was followed by Sultan Bathery in Wayanad district, Kalady near Kochi, Kollengode near Palakkad, and Munnar in Idukki. Wayanad is among the districts identified by the government for the experimental killing of boars.
Statistics reveal that the number of wild boars has not jumped in the State. The wildlife census of 2002 found 60,940 of them as against 40,425 in 1997 and 40,963 in 1992. The 2011 census figures are yet to be released.
Confusion
Confusion is reigning supreme in the Forest Department regarding the implementation of the Government Order. Senior officials say the order lacks clarity on the delegation of powers for shooting the animals frequently raiding crops. Identifying the exact animal that is repeatedly causing crop loss will be an uphill task. Selecting the shooter will be another hassle, a senior functionary of the department says.
The department is planning to convene soon a meeting of the divisional forest officers and the range officers of five districts to discuss the modalities of implementing the order.
K.S. Sudhi
The report published in The Hindu dated 27-6-2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Prasanth’s Birdwatching Report 26-6-2011
Today U visited Kadamakudy for bird watching from 9.15 am to 12.30 pm. I have seen the following birds,
1. Little Cormorant
2. Great Cormorant
3. Little Egret
4. Purple Heron
5. Large Egret
6. Median Egret
7. Indian Pond Heron
8. Black Bittern
9. Oriental White Ibis
10. Lesser Whistling Duck
11. Brahminy Kite
12. Western Marsh Harrier
13. Purple Moorhen
14. Bronze winged Jacana
15. Red wattled Lapwing
16. Black winged Stilt
17. Gull billed Tern
18. River Tern
19. Common Tern
20. Small Blue Kingfisher
21. Stork billed Kingfisher
22. White breasted Kingfisher
23. Oriental Magpie Robin
24. Streaked Fantail Warbler
25. Ashy Prinia
26. Purple rumped Sunbird
27. Baya Weaver
28. Grey headed Starling
29. Common Myna
30. Jungle Myna
31. Black Drongo
32. Ashy Woodswallow
33. Indian Treepie
34. House Crow
35. Jungle Crow
For some pictures visit,
http://www.drsprasanth.blogspot.com/
Dr. S. Prasanth
1. Little Cormorant
2. Great Cormorant
3. Little Egret
4. Purple Heron
5. Large Egret
6. Median Egret
7. Indian Pond Heron
8. Black Bittern
9. Oriental White Ibis
10. Lesser Whistling Duck
11. Brahminy Kite
12. Western Marsh Harrier
13. Purple Moorhen
14. Bronze winged Jacana
15. Red wattled Lapwing
16. Black winged Stilt
17. Gull billed Tern
18. River Tern
19. Common Tern
20. Small Blue Kingfisher
21. Stork billed Kingfisher
22. White breasted Kingfisher
23. Oriental Magpie Robin
24. Streaked Fantail Warbler
25. Ashy Prinia
26. Purple rumped Sunbird
27. Baya Weaver
28. Grey headed Starling
29. Common Myna
30. Jungle Myna
31. Black Drongo
32. Ashy Woodswallow
33. Indian Treepie
34. House Crow
35. Jungle Crow
For some pictures visit,
http://www.drsprasanth.blogspot.com/
Dr. S. Prasanth
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Western Ghats to be inscribed in world heritage list next year
No new IUCN missions to be sent to inspect the serial sites
Committee seeks additional information on management of sites
KOCHI: The serial sites of Western Ghats will be inscribed in the World Heritage List next year.
The 36th session of the World Heritage Committee of Unesco in Bangkok will make the announcement, V.B. Mathur, Dean of the Wildlife Institute of India, told The Hindu from Paris.
Though the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) wanted the inscription to be postponed for three years at the current session being held in Paris, the Committee decided to inscribe the 39 serial sites of the Ghats next year, said Dr. Mathur, who is part of the Indian delegation canvassing for the heritage status.
Describing the development as a major step, Dr. Mathur said 18 nations of the 21-member committee supported India. The Indian delegation was also informed that there was no need for new proposals for the Ghats. The Committee has also decided not to send any new IUCN mission to India to inspect the serial sites.
The Committee banks on the technical evaluation report of the IUCN in deciding the status of the sites nominated by the countries. A two-member committee visited the serial sites last year as part of the assessment process.
It has sought additional information regarding the management of the serial sites and given directions to make the management system more effective. The Committee said it was waiting for the recommendations of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests for the conservation and protection of the Ghats. All the information sought by the Committee would be mailed to them shortly, Dr. Mathur said.
On the biodiversity impact of some dams in the Ghats region, the Indian delegation said they were built long ago and had no major environmental impacts. The IUCN also appreciated the high biodiversity value of the Ghats sites and its universal importance, he said.
Incidentally, the committee removed Assam's Manas Wildlife Sanctuary from the ‘world heritage in danger' list after taking into account the significant improvements made for its preservation. The sanctuary was inscribed on the danger list in 1992, seven years after Unesco declared it a world heritage site.
K.S. Sudhi
The report published in The Hindu dated 25-6-2011
Committee seeks additional information on management of sites
KOCHI: The serial sites of Western Ghats will be inscribed in the World Heritage List next year.
The 36th session of the World Heritage Committee of Unesco in Bangkok will make the announcement, V.B. Mathur, Dean of the Wildlife Institute of India, told The Hindu from Paris.
Though the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) wanted the inscription to be postponed for three years at the current session being held in Paris, the Committee decided to inscribe the 39 serial sites of the Ghats next year, said Dr. Mathur, who is part of the Indian delegation canvassing for the heritage status.
Describing the development as a major step, Dr. Mathur said 18 nations of the 21-member committee supported India. The Indian delegation was also informed that there was no need for new proposals for the Ghats. The Committee has also decided not to send any new IUCN mission to India to inspect the serial sites.
The Committee banks on the technical evaluation report of the IUCN in deciding the status of the sites nominated by the countries. A two-member committee visited the serial sites last year as part of the assessment process.
It has sought additional information regarding the management of the serial sites and given directions to make the management system more effective. The Committee said it was waiting for the recommendations of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests for the conservation and protection of the Ghats. All the information sought by the Committee would be mailed to them shortly, Dr. Mathur said.
On the biodiversity impact of some dams in the Ghats region, the Indian delegation said they were built long ago and had no major environmental impacts. The IUCN also appreciated the high biodiversity value of the Ghats sites and its universal importance, he said.
Incidentally, the committee removed Assam's Manas Wildlife Sanctuary from the ‘world heritage in danger' list after taking into account the significant improvements made for its preservation. The sanctuary was inscribed on the danger list in 1992, seven years after Unesco declared it a world heritage site.
K.S. Sudhi
The report published in The Hindu dated 25-6-2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
Colour codes for Ghat regions
Vazhachal forest falls in red zone
Colours assigned on the basis of
biodiversity value
Each area assessed for eight ecological parameters
KOCHI: The Vazhachal forest of Kerala, along with other high-value biodiversity areas in the Western Ghats, will be categorised as red-zone areas by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel.
The panel has finalised red, yellow, blue, and green colour codes for various regions of the Ghats based on the biodiversity value.
Each area was assessed for eight ecological parameters and those which scored above five were included in the red zone. All Shola forests will come under this zone.
The national parks and other protected areas will be in the green zone. In the yellow category, industrial activities will be permitted in a regulated manner.
While fixing the colour code, the views of the stakeholders were considered and available literature perused, besides the panel carrying out its own evaluation, panel sources said.
The panel assessed all the areas using a common yardstick and no special consideration was given to any area. It attempted to broadly categorise the zones leaving the finalisation job to the proposed Western Ghats Ecology Authority, a member said.
The expert team has reached a consensus not to permit any wood-based and polluting industries in the red zone. Projects that may cause serious ecological imbalances will not be allowed in the area. The projects that support the livelihood of tribal people and other local communities will be promoted in all the zones. The panel was guided by the philosophy that there should not be any relocation or eviction of people following the categorisation of the Ghats region.
Controversial projects
The panel will submit its views on the Athirappilly hydroelectric project in Kerala, mining activities in the eco-sensitive Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri areas of Maharashtra and Goa and the Gundiya hydel project of Karnataka, sources said.
The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest had earlier sought the views of the panel on these controversial projects following the ecological concerns raised by stakeholders and environmentalists.
Panel report
The panel's recommendations on these projects will be submitted to the Ministry before June 30.
A detailed report on these issues will be included in the final report to be submitted in August. Under the earlier schedule, the panel was to submit its report by June-end.
The views of the panel on the Athirappilly project have become more or less insignificant since Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh had reiterated that the project could not be permitted considering its ecological impacts, a panel member said.
K.S. Sudhi
The report published in The Hindu dated 24-6-2011
Colours assigned on the basis of
biodiversity value
Each area assessed for eight ecological parameters
KOCHI: The Vazhachal forest of Kerala, along with other high-value biodiversity areas in the Western Ghats, will be categorised as red-zone areas by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel.
The panel has finalised red, yellow, blue, and green colour codes for various regions of the Ghats based on the biodiversity value.
Each area was assessed for eight ecological parameters and those which scored above five were included in the red zone. All Shola forests will come under this zone.
The national parks and other protected areas will be in the green zone. In the yellow category, industrial activities will be permitted in a regulated manner.
While fixing the colour code, the views of the stakeholders were considered and available literature perused, besides the panel carrying out its own evaluation, panel sources said.
The panel assessed all the areas using a common yardstick and no special consideration was given to any area. It attempted to broadly categorise the zones leaving the finalisation job to the proposed Western Ghats Ecology Authority, a member said.
The expert team has reached a consensus not to permit any wood-based and polluting industries in the red zone. Projects that may cause serious ecological imbalances will not be allowed in the area. The projects that support the livelihood of tribal people and other local communities will be promoted in all the zones. The panel was guided by the philosophy that there should not be any relocation or eviction of people following the categorisation of the Ghats region.
Controversial projects
The panel will submit its views on the Athirappilly hydroelectric project in Kerala, mining activities in the eco-sensitive Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri areas of Maharashtra and Goa and the Gundiya hydel project of Karnataka, sources said.
The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest had earlier sought the views of the panel on these controversial projects following the ecological concerns raised by stakeholders and environmentalists.
Panel report
The panel's recommendations on these projects will be submitted to the Ministry before June 30.
A detailed report on these issues will be included in the final report to be submitted in August. Under the earlier schedule, the panel was to submit its report by June-end.
The views of the panel on the Athirappilly project have become more or less insignificant since Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh had reiterated that the project could not be permitted considering its ecological impacts, a panel member said.
K.S. Sudhi
The report published in The Hindu dated 24-6-2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Karnataka opposes World Heritage tag for Western Ghats
NEW DELHI: From rock carvings in Mongolia to the Sangha forests of Congo, from ancient German beech woods to the oases of the United Arab Emirates, the nations of the world are vying this week to have their historical and natural wonders honoured with the prestigious Unesco World Heritage site tag.
Karnataka, on the other hand, has been mounting a public, sudden, last-minute campaign opposing that tag for 10 sites in the Western Ghats, an acknowledged hotspot of biodiversity.
Warning that India risks “international embarrassment” due to Karnataka's stance, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has urged the State government to withdraw its objections.
On Sunday, June 19, members of the World Heritage Committee began their 10-day meeting in Paris to decide which of the 42 nominations will make it to the list of 900 cultural and natural treasures. While India started the process of getting the Western Ghats nominated in August 2005, the Karnataka government has chosen to voice its opposition only in this final week before the Unesco committee meets.
Karnataka says it is fully capable of protecting the Ghats on its own, and claims that forest-dwellers will suffer if the World Heritage tag prevents development work from being undertaken there. Environmentalists have been sceptical of the State's position, accusing the government of bowing to vested interests who want to exploit the natural resources of the region in the guise of “development work.”
In a letter to Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Monday, Mr. Ramesh said the State government was “needlessly alarmist” and warned that its “hasty action” was likely to lead to an “international embarrassment” for India. He pointed out that Karnataka — along with Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Maharashtra, over which the Ghats are spread — had been actively involved through the entire process.
“When the 39 sites were initially identified, the State governments were fully in the picture. When the sites were submitted to Unesco, the State governments were again kept fully informed.
“Hence, I am completely at a loss to understand why all of a sudden only the Karnataka government is expressing objections and that too in a language that is unbecoming of a responsible government,” he added.
None of the other States has expressed any concern. Mr. Ramesh rubbished the fear that tribal populations and other forest communities would be displaced by the tag.
The report published in The Hindu dated 22-6-2011
Karnataka, on the other hand, has been mounting a public, sudden, last-minute campaign opposing that tag for 10 sites in the Western Ghats, an acknowledged hotspot of biodiversity.
Warning that India risks “international embarrassment” due to Karnataka's stance, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has urged the State government to withdraw its objections.
On Sunday, June 19, members of the World Heritage Committee began their 10-day meeting in Paris to decide which of the 42 nominations will make it to the list of 900 cultural and natural treasures. While India started the process of getting the Western Ghats nominated in August 2005, the Karnataka government has chosen to voice its opposition only in this final week before the Unesco committee meets.
Karnataka says it is fully capable of protecting the Ghats on its own, and claims that forest-dwellers will suffer if the World Heritage tag prevents development work from being undertaken there. Environmentalists have been sceptical of the State's position, accusing the government of bowing to vested interests who want to exploit the natural resources of the region in the guise of “development work.”
In a letter to Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Monday, Mr. Ramesh said the State government was “needlessly alarmist” and warned that its “hasty action” was likely to lead to an “international embarrassment” for India. He pointed out that Karnataka — along with Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Maharashtra, over which the Ghats are spread — had been actively involved through the entire process.
“When the 39 sites were initially identified, the State governments were fully in the picture. When the sites were submitted to Unesco, the State governments were again kept fully informed.
“Hence, I am completely at a loss to understand why all of a sudden only the Karnataka government is expressing objections and that too in a language that is unbecoming of a responsible government,” he added.
None of the other States has expressed any concern. Mr. Ramesh rubbished the fear that tribal populations and other forest communities would be displaced by the tag.
The report published in The Hindu dated 22-6-2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Mechanism of proposed Western Ghats serial sites to be enhanced
The proposed Western Ghats Natural Heritage Conservation Authority
(WGNHCA) will likely strengthen the management of the serial sites
nominated for the Unesco's World Heritage List.
The country has been campaigning for the status for 39 sites of the
Ghats and the Paris session of the World Heritage Committee that began
on Sunday will decide on the list.
Earlier, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),
which assessed the sites, had observed that “there was no overarching
management plan for the nominated property.”
Responding to the criticism, the Ministry of Environment and Forests
said the sites had comprehensive management plans and were being
scientifically managed under a policy and legal framework.
“The serial properties are spread across Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil
Nadu, and Maharashtra and cannot be effectively managed under a single
or overarching management plan. Instead, the required synergy and
coordination for effective management would be provided by the already
existing Western Ghats Natural Heritage Management Authority.
The management activities will be further strengthened by the proposed
WGNHCA,” according to a document to be submitted to the Unesco.
Synergy, coordination
It was also communicated that the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel,
headed by eminent ecologist Madhav Gadgil, and the Western Ghats
Natural Heritage Committee, were established by an executive order and
an appropriate synergy and coordination existed between the two.
The Ministry said: “The nominated property duly meets the integrity,
protection, and management requirements as set out in the operational
guidelines of the [World Heritage Commission].” The boundaries of the
sites, it said, were well-demarcated both on the ground as well as on
the spatial database in the Geographic Information System domain.
A decision on the nomination was expected on June 24, said V.B.
Mathur, dean of the Wildlife Institute of India, who had been
coordinating the nomination process for the Ghats region.
Highlighting the eligibility of the Ghats for nomination, the document
prepared by the Ministry said the IUCN had highly commended India for
its ongoing commitment to ensure a comprehensive approach to
conserving the globally recognised high biodiversity value of the
Ghats, noting the scale and complexity of the area.”
The technical evaluation team of the IUCN had reported on the species
richness and diversity of the Ghats. The whole region included some
5,000 vascular plant species, 228 freshwater fish, 179 amphibians, 157
reptiles, 508 birds, and 139 mammals. A large number of them were
endemic too.
“The property is key to the conservation of a number of threatened
habitats, such as wildflower meadows, shola forests, and Myristica
swamps,” according to the document.
“The sites fall under a number of protection regimes, ranging from
tiger reserves, national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and reserved
forests. All these components are owned by the State and subject to
stringent protection under laws, including the Wildlife Protection
Act, the National Wildlife Action Plan, and the Forest Conservation
Act.
The sites belong to the same bio-geographic province and remain as
isolated remnants of previously continuous forest. The Ghats also
represents two Global 200 priority eco-regions not represented in the
World Heritage List.
K.S. Sudhi
The report published in The Hindu dated 20-6-2011
(WGNHCA) will likely strengthen the management of the serial sites
nominated for the Unesco's World Heritage List.
The country has been campaigning for the status for 39 sites of the
Ghats and the Paris session of the World Heritage Committee that began
on Sunday will decide on the list.
Earlier, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),
which assessed the sites, had observed that “there was no overarching
management plan for the nominated property.”
Responding to the criticism, the Ministry of Environment and Forests
said the sites had comprehensive management plans and were being
scientifically managed under a policy and legal framework.
“The serial properties are spread across Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil
Nadu, and Maharashtra and cannot be effectively managed under a single
or overarching management plan. Instead, the required synergy and
coordination for effective management would be provided by the already
existing Western Ghats Natural Heritage Management Authority.
The management activities will be further strengthened by the proposed
WGNHCA,” according to a document to be submitted to the Unesco.
Synergy, coordination
It was also communicated that the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel,
headed by eminent ecologist Madhav Gadgil, and the Western Ghats
Natural Heritage Committee, were established by an executive order and
an appropriate synergy and coordination existed between the two.
The Ministry said: “The nominated property duly meets the integrity,
protection, and management requirements as set out in the operational
guidelines of the [World Heritage Commission].” The boundaries of the
sites, it said, were well-demarcated both on the ground as well as on
the spatial database in the Geographic Information System domain.
A decision on the nomination was expected on June 24, said V.B.
Mathur, dean of the Wildlife Institute of India, who had been
coordinating the nomination process for the Ghats region.
Highlighting the eligibility of the Ghats for nomination, the document
prepared by the Ministry said the IUCN had highly commended India for
its ongoing commitment to ensure a comprehensive approach to
conserving the globally recognised high biodiversity value of the
Ghats, noting the scale and complexity of the area.”
The technical evaluation team of the IUCN had reported on the species
richness and diversity of the Ghats. The whole region included some
5,000 vascular plant species, 228 freshwater fish, 179 amphibians, 157
reptiles, 508 birds, and 139 mammals. A large number of them were
endemic too.
“The property is key to the conservation of a number of threatened
habitats, such as wildflower meadows, shola forests, and Myristica
swamps,” according to the document.
“The sites fall under a number of protection regimes, ranging from
tiger reserves, national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and reserved
forests. All these components are owned by the State and subject to
stringent protection under laws, including the Wildlife Protection
Act, the National Wildlife Action Plan, and the Forest Conservation
Act.
The sites belong to the same bio-geographic province and remain as
isolated remnants of previously continuous forest. The Ghats also
represents two Global 200 priority eco-regions not represented in the
World Heritage List.
K.S. Sudhi
The report published in The Hindu dated 20-6-2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Farmers to be permitted to shoot wild boars
The Cabinet on Wednesday decided to grant special permission for killing of wild boars destroying crops.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told the media after the Cabinet meeting that farmers would be allowed to shoot wild boars attacking their crops subject to stringent conditions. Permissions for this would have to be obtained from the forest officials and the permits would carry clear stipulations. The carcasses of the boars should be burned and not used as meat.
The Chief Minister said that attack by wild animals caused losses of crops running into crores of rupees in the State. There were also threats to life of farmers living by the side of forests. A committee constituted by the previous government had recommended granting to permission to kill wild animals for the sole purpose of protecting crops.
Mr. Chandy announced that the Cabinet had sanctioned Rs. 70 lakh to provide compensation to fishermen whose nets had been damaged by puffer fish. The government would provide 75 per cent of the cost to buy new nets while the fishermen would have to bear 25 per cent of the cost. Attacks by puffer fish (with strong teeth capable of crushing its prey such as mussels) had been reported mostly from Alappuzha and Kollam.
The report published in The Hindu dated 16-6-2011
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told the media after the Cabinet meeting that farmers would be allowed to shoot wild boars attacking their crops subject to stringent conditions. Permissions for this would have to be obtained from the forest officials and the permits would carry clear stipulations. The carcasses of the boars should be burned and not used as meat.
The Chief Minister said that attack by wild animals caused losses of crops running into crores of rupees in the State. There were also threats to life of farmers living by the side of forests. A committee constituted by the previous government had recommended granting to permission to kill wild animals for the sole purpose of protecting crops.
Mr. Chandy announced that the Cabinet had sanctioned Rs. 70 lakh to provide compensation to fishermen whose nets had been damaged by puffer fish. The government would provide 75 per cent of the cost to buy new nets while the fishermen would have to bear 25 per cent of the cost. Attacks by puffer fish (with strong teeth capable of crushing its prey such as mussels) had been reported mostly from Alappuzha and Kollam.
The report published in The Hindu dated 16-6-2011
Long, non-stop bird-flight
Great snipes ( Gallinago media) that summer in Scandinavia fly to their winter habitat in Africa in just two to three days, according to researchers led by biologist Raymond Klaasen of Sweden's Lund University.
Writing in Biology Letters, Klaasen said the snipes not only flew over seas and deserts but also attractive rest and feeding grounds.
Little was known previously about the migratory behaviour of the shorebird, a relative of the common snipe. Klaasen's team captured 10 great snipes at their summer habitat in central Sweden and fitted them with tiny geolocating devices that recorded their flights.
The team recaptured three of the birds a year later and were able to reconstruct their migration. All three crossed the Baltic Sea, the Balkans, the Adriatic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Libyan coast and Sahara Desert on their way to central Africa.
While other migratory birds take advantage of many possible stopovers en route to rest and feed, great snipes fly the distance almost nonstop, Klaasen said.
They also shun stops on the return trip. He said they reached speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour — without assistance from tail winds, as meteorological data showed. — DPA
The report published in The Hindu dated 16-6-2011
Writing in Biology Letters, Klaasen said the snipes not only flew over seas and deserts but also attractive rest and feeding grounds.
Little was known previously about the migratory behaviour of the shorebird, a relative of the common snipe. Klaasen's team captured 10 great snipes at their summer habitat in central Sweden and fitted them with tiny geolocating devices that recorded their flights.
The team recaptured three of the birds a year later and were able to reconstruct their migration. All three crossed the Baltic Sea, the Balkans, the Adriatic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Libyan coast and Sahara Desert on their way to central Africa.
While other migratory birds take advantage of many possible stopovers en route to rest and feed, great snipes fly the distance almost nonstop, Klaasen said.
They also shun stops on the return trip. He said they reached speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour — without assistance from tail winds, as meteorological data showed. — DPA
The report published in The Hindu dated 16-6-2011
Forest staff collar rogue elephant
KEEPING TABS: A group of forest veterinary surgeons led by V. Sunilkumar, forest veterinary officer, Konni, fit a collar telemeter on the neck of a marauding wild tusker at Thekkumpatta under the Sulthan Bathery forest range on Wednesday.
Radio-collared telemeter fitted on the elephant in the Wayanad forests
KALPETTA: Who'll bell the cat? The Forest Department seems to have hit on a novel idea.
Reports of man-animal conflicts have been pouring in from various parts of the State almost on a daily basis and it has remained an arduous task for forest officials to counter the menace of wild elephants in human settlements near forests. Now they have successfully fitted a radio-collared telemeter on a rogue elephant — arguably the first time in the State — at Thekkumpatta in the Sulthan Bathery forest range falling under the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary on Wednesday. The 40-year-old pachyderm, a regular crop-raider in the area, will now be closely watched. And marauding wild elephants now have to better watch out.
According to V.K. Sreevalsan, wildlife warden who led the operation, the animal was located by forest officials in the Arakunji forest area at 6.30 a.m. After studying the suitability of the animal for collaring and the stability of the terrain, the first tranquilizer dart was administered by a group of veterinary surgeons at 8.50 a.m., followed by the second at 9.45 a.m. Soon the animal ran onto a paddy field adjacent to the sanctuary, crossed a river at Kallur and NH 212, and entered the forest. A group of forest personnel followed it and nearly half an hour later the animal began showing signs of weakness and it finally lied down at 10.40 a.m.
Soon a group of veterinary surgeons took biometrical measurements of the animal and fixed the radio-collar on its neck. After a reversal drug was administered, the animal got up and moved into the forest at 11.10 a.m. The device emits signals and this would help track the animal, Mr. Sreevalsan said adding that if the animal is found heading towards human habitations or farms, the residents could be forewarned. A team of 50 personnel, including officials of the Forest Department and a group of forest veterinary surgeons led by V. Sunilkumar. took part in the operation.
E.M. Manoj
The report published in The Hindu dated 16-6-2011
Dhoni adopts Mysore zoo tiger
Protecting Animal Rights:Agasthya, the tiger adopted by Indian cricket skipper M.S. Dhoni.
Gives a cheque for Rs. 1 lakh for the adoption
Mysore: Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has adopted nine-year-old tiger Agasthya at the Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens (Mysore zoo) for one year from Wednesday, executive director of the zoo K.B. Markandaiah said.
A communication to this effect was made by the former cricketer, Javagal Srinath, on behalf of Mr. Dhoni from Bangalore to the zoo authorities.
Agasthya was zoo-bred, Mr. Markandaiah said adding Mr. Dhoni had given a cheque for Rs. 1 lakh for the adoption.
With this, all the eight tigers in the zoo have been adopted. The list includes Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and cricketer Zaheer Khan.
Brahma, which was captured and brought from Kodagu, has been adopted for lifetime by yoga guru B.K.S. Iyengar.
“Tiger, our national animal, needs protection. I'm adopting Agasthya to endorse and encourage our people to love animals and to stand for the cause of animal rights and conservation. Live and let live,” Mr. Dhoni has said.
The report published in The Hindu dated 16-6-2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
KCA may have to pay up to restore mangroves
Under a cloud: The proposed site for an international cricket stadium of the KCA at Pampayimoola near Edakochi.
Penalty will be decided as per the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
KOCHI: The Kerala State Coastal Zone Management Authority will soon impose a penalty on the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) towards the expenses required for restoration of a 23-acre (9.3-hectare) mangrove-rich site identified for setting up an international cricket stadium at Edakochi.
The move is part of the follow-up action being initiated by the authority after Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh made it clear on Monday that his Ministry would not give clearance for the stadium project.
Sources in the authority said the penalty would be decided as per provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 after assessing the extent of damage inflicted by the association on the site. The final decision on the exact fine to be collected will be announced next week.
The authority will prepare an action plan on how to bring back the site to its original condition.
The authority had used time-series satellite images compiled by the Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS) to assess the ecological damage on the mangroves in the area, which comes under the Coastal Regulation Zone-1. In its report, scientists at CESS pointed out that the area consisted of filtration ponds and ‘pokkali' fields. The extent of mangroves increased significantly from 0.9 hectare in September 2001 to 1.7 hectares in December 2005 and to 5.2 hectares in January 2010.
Photographic evidence showed thick mangrove vegetation in early September 2010, most of which was seen removed by the end of that month. The authority found that the site proposed for the stadium consisted of inundated areas subjected to tidal action. Experts said that it was located on the western bank of the Edakochi Kayal, part of the Vembanad backwater system (one of the Ramsar sites in Kerala).
On a Ramsar site, reclamation and any construction of permanent nature, except boat jetties, within 50 metres of the mean flood level is prohibited as per the Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rules formulated under the Environment (Protection) Act.
G. Krishnakumar
The report published in The Hindu dated 15-6-2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Prasanth’s Birdwatching Report 12-6-2011
I have visited Devaswam padam pokkali paddy fields on 12-6-2011 from 4.45 pm to 6.30 pm. The time was of high tide, so there was less number of birds. I have seen the following birds,
1. Little Cormorant
2. Purple Heron
3. Large Egret
4. Median Egret
5. Indian Pond Heron
6. Lesser Whistling Duck
7. Brahminy Kite
8. Western Marsh Harrier
9. Purple Moorhen
10. Black winged Stilt
11. Whiskered Tern
12. Stork billed Kingfisher
13. White breasted Kingfisher
14. Ashy Prinia
15. Common Myna
16. House Crow
17. Jungle Crow
Dr. S. Prasanth
1. Little Cormorant
2. Purple Heron
3. Large Egret
4. Median Egret
5. Indian Pond Heron
6. Lesser Whistling Duck
7. Brahminy Kite
8. Western Marsh Harrier
9. Purple Moorhen
10. Black winged Stilt
11. Whiskered Tern
12. Stork billed Kingfisher
13. White breasted Kingfisher
14. Ashy Prinia
15. Common Myna
16. House Crow
17. Jungle Crow
Dr. S. Prasanth
No-go for Athirappilly, Edakochi projects
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Union Minister for Environment and Forests (MoEF) Jairam Ramesh said here on Monday that even though the state government had made a brave attempt at getting the Athirappilly power project cleared, it cannot be given the green signal as he firmly believed that the project would not be in national interest.
With regard to the 240-MW Pooyamkutty project, he said the ball was in the state’s court and that the project has to be first examined and cleared by the state Forest Department. Also to get an absolute ‘No’ was the cricket stadium at Edakochi, which Jairam Ramesh described as a closed chapter. “They were not playing cricket with a straight bat. There were serious violations of the CRZ rules and there was rampant destruction of mangroves. The gameplan was to remove all the mangroves and get it classified as CRZ II instead of CRZ I,’’ said Jairam Ramesh.
“Kochi can think of a cricket stadium elsewhere,” he added. The Union Minister was briefing reporters after a three-hour-long discussion on various projects with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Forest Minister K B Ganesh Kumar, Industries Minister P K Kunhalikutty, Ports Minister K Babu, Water Resources Minister P J Joseph, Transport minister V S Sivakumar, Chief Secretary P Prabhakaran and Shashi Tharoor MP.
One major decision arrived at during the meeting was setting up Kerala’s own authority for environmental clearances, namely the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and the State-level Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC), which would enable the clearing of projects at the state-level rather than them getting bogged down at the Centre.
The report published in The New Indian Express dated 14-6-2011
With regard to the 240-MW Pooyamkutty project, he said the ball was in the state’s court and that the project has to be first examined and cleared by the state Forest Department. Also to get an absolute ‘No’ was the cricket stadium at Edakochi, which Jairam Ramesh described as a closed chapter. “They were not playing cricket with a straight bat. There were serious violations of the CRZ rules and there was rampant destruction of mangroves. The gameplan was to remove all the mangroves and get it classified as CRZ II instead of CRZ I,’’ said Jairam Ramesh.
“Kochi can think of a cricket stadium elsewhere,” he added. The Union Minister was briefing reporters after a three-hour-long discussion on various projects with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Forest Minister K B Ganesh Kumar, Industries Minister P K Kunhalikutty, Ports Minister K Babu, Water Resources Minister P J Joseph, Transport minister V S Sivakumar, Chief Secretary P Prabhakaran and Shashi Tharoor MP.
One major decision arrived at during the meeting was setting up Kerala’s own authority for environmental clearances, namely the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and the State-level Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC), which would enable the clearing of projects at the state-level rather than them getting bogged down at the Centre.
The report published in The New Indian Express dated 14-6-2011
Red list of birds brings joy and agony
KOCHI: The Red list of birds released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature has brought joy and agony alike for Kerala.
The conservation status of birds prepared by Birdlife International has downgraded the risk faced by Lesser Kestrel, a small falcon species, whereas it has raised the risk level of Nilgiri Pippit, a species endemic to Kerala.
Four vulture species — White-rumped, Indian, Slender-billed, and Red-headed — of Kerala remain on the ‘Critically Endangered' category this year too. The vulture species are mostly found in Wayanad. Those in the Critically Endangered category are the ones that are facing the high risk of extinction.
Five species, including the Egyptian Vulture, Lesser Florican, Nilgiri Laughingthrush, Nilgiri Blue Robin, and White-bellied Blue Robin continue on the ‘Endangered' species list this year also. Eleven species, including Lesser Adjutant, Nilgiri Wood-Pigeon, and Broad-Tailed Grassbird stay on the ‘Vulnerable' list whereas 19 others remain on the Near Threatened category.
Risk level of Lesser Kestrel was reduced to ‘Least Concern' from Vulnerable considering the improvement in its global population. The species underwent rapid decline in western Europe, South Africa and parts of its Asian range earlier. However, recent evidence indicated a stable or slightly positive population trend overall during the last three generations.
In Kerala, the species was reported from the Eravikulam National Park and the Periyar Tiger Reserve and 35 individuals were spotted at Thekkady during a bird census in 2008, said P.O. Nameer, South Asian coordinator, in situ, Conservation Breeding Specialist Group, Species Survival Commission, IUCN.
Nilgiri Pipit, a species endemic to the Western Ghats of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, faced increased risk of survival and has been classified as Vulnerable. Earlier, the status of the species was assessed as Near Threatened.
According to Birdlife International, the grassland habitat of the species is gradually being converted to plantations of tea, eucalyptus, and wattle. Livestock grazing and frequent fires also pose threats to the species. Disturbance may be increasing as even higher resorts are being constructed in the sholas that border areas of grasslands.
As the species often occupies habitat at the very top of hills, it is potentially threatened by the effects of climate change. Its present population is estimated to be between 2,500 and 9,999 mature individuals, according to the report.
In Kerala, the species is found in high altitude areas including the wildlife sanctuaries of Neyyar, Peppara, Shendurny, Chinnar, Aaralam, and the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Its presence has also been reported from Ponmudi Kallar and the hills of Munnar, Nelliampathy, and Siruvani, said Dr. Nameer, who is also a coordinator of the Indian Bird Conservation Network. Vulnerable status was accorded to the species as it had a small range in which its habitat was severely fragmented and declining in extent and quality.
K.S. Sudhi
The report published in The Hindu dated 14-6-2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Great Indian Bustard facing extinction
KOCHI: The Great Indian Bustard, a bird species once found in abundance across the grasslands of India, is facing the risk of extinction.
The 2011 Red List of birds, released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has enlisted the bird in the Critically Endangered category, the highest level of threat. The population of the species is estimated to be just 250.
Hunting, habitat loss and fragmentation have reduced the number of this species, which was found in large numbers in the grasslands of India and Pakistan. But their population is now restricted to small and isolated fragments of remaining habitats, says the Birdlife International, which prepared the list.
The BirdLife International “coordinates the categorisation and documentation of all bird species for the IUCN Red List.” According to the 2011 assessment, 1,253 species are considered threatened with extinction. These include albatrosses, cranes, parrots, pheasants, and pigeons. The larger-bodied species and those with low reproductive rates are more likely to be threatened, the report says.
The Bustard species has been classified as critically endangered “as it has undergone an extremely rapid decline owing to a multitude of threats, including habitat loss and degradation and disturbance. It now requires an urgent acceleration in targeted conservation actions in order to prevent it from becoming functionally extinct.”
The birds have unmistakable, large, brown-and-white body with black crown and wing markings. The males have whitish neck and under parts with narrow black breast-band. The females are smaller, with greyer neck and typically no breast-band. The population of the bird was estimated to be around 300 in 2008. The population viability analysis lends some support to a predicted decline of over 50 per cent of the species in the next 47 years if no additional conservation actions are taken, the report cautions.
In India, the bird is now restricted to Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. Earlier it was distributed from Punjab east through Orissa and south to Tamil Nadu, says P.O. Nameer, South Asian coordinator, in situ, Conservation Breeding Specialist Group, Species Survival Commission, IUCN.
Besides the Bustard, the list has enumerated 15 species from India as critically endangered and 16 as endangered ones. There are 55 vulnerable ones and 65 near-threatened bird species in the country. Some of the critically endangered Indian varieties include the Himalayan Quail, Pink-headed Duck, White-bellied Heron and Christmas Island Frigatebird. The vulture species found in India namely the White-backed, the Indian, the Slender-billed and the Red-headed are also in the critical list, says Dr. Nameer.
The list has classified 189 species worldwide as critically endangered, 381 as endangered with very high risk of extinction and 683 as vulnerable with high risk of extinction. It has also listed 843 species as near-threatened. A total of 2,096 species were treated as global conservation priorities. The threat status of 62 species could not be properly assessed following deficiency of data.
K.S. Sudhi
The report published in The Hindu dated 13-6-2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)