Amidst depressing news of poaching of Rhinos here comes some happy news. My contracts in Kaziranga National Park inform me that the forest guards have put up a spirited show against poachers on Friday.
A six member team of forest guards was on routine patrol of the park when they heard gunshots. The poachers were targeting an adult rhino near the Mihimukh range. Seeing a band of six the poachers the forest guards gave a chase and a gunfight ensued. In the encounter that lasted nearly 30 minutes four poachers were killed. Two managed to escape in the melee. A rifle and large quantity of ammunition was also recovered.
This is the second major success for the frontline staff this week. On Tuesday, seven poachers were arrested while they were on their way to sell a rhino horn to an international smuggling syndicate.
Well done frontline staff of Kaziranga National Park.
Dr S S Bawaskar, a young veterinarian of Nagpur zoo has come up with a brilliant idea to stop marauding tigers from entering villages.
Ranmangli village near Nagpur in Maharashtra was frequented by a tigress and two sub-adult cubs. The tigress had already killed a woman last month sending panic across the region. The forest officials of the region were a harried lot.
Tigers spray urine on trees and shrubs or scrape and deposit urine on the ground to mark their territories. The scent lasts for several days and sends a clear message to other tigers. When fresh, it is easily detectable by humans also up to 2-3 m away (Smith et al. 1989). A tiger coming across a scent mark usually sniff, leap back and snarl. Dr S S Bawaskar thought why not give this a shot. He suggested spraying urine in areas frequented by the marauding tigress.
Taking cue from Dr S S Bawaskar Nagpur forest division officials collected urine of captive tigers in the city’s Maharajbagh zoo and sprinkled it near the spots frequented by tigers. After the spraying tigers have stopped coming to the village.The officials are keeping their fingers crossed to see whether this proves to be permanent solution.
Munnar has been voted as the second best destination in Asia by Tripadvisor’s 2010 Traveller’s Choice Destination award. It is good news. Tourism Principal Secretary Dr Venuis is reported to have said “Millions of travellers rely on Tripadvisor for travel inspiration. So we are thrilled and humbled that Munnar has been honoured by travellers this year,’’
We have full respect for the hard work being done by Dr Venu for making Kerala a preferred international destination for tourists. At the same time we have a feeling that in Munnar you are doing an overkill. Have you carefully looked at the environs as you travel from Neriamangamlam to Munnar?. The evidences of unregulated tourism are visible everywhere. There are mountains of refuse left by the tourists.The most appalling part is the plastic litter
The other day Mr Mohan Varghese, the chairman of HRWEPA was narrating to me an incident that happened near Naeriamangalam. The monkeys were picking up the vomit thrown out by tourists and gobbling it along with the plastic bags. Makes you puke just reading about it.
So venu Saab have a thought for the delicate mountain ecosystem of Munnar. Very strict guidelines have to be chalked out for tourists visiting Munnar.They should not remain on paper. They have to be put in place ruthlessly. We wish you the very best.
Panna has the dubious distinction of a wildlife reserve where the tigers have disappeared. Panna had more than 30 tigers four years ago. All of them had disappeared. When authorities planned reintroduction there were many doubting toms. The prophets of doom have been proved wrong.
Two tigresses- one from Bandhavgarh and another from Kanha were translocated to Panna on March 6 and March 9. The government has plans to relocate four more tigers.
It is happy tiding in Panna right now. The tigress, translocated from Bandhavgarh has given birth to three cubs. It is the first time that a translocated tigress has given birth in India.
Conservationists are elated at the latest developments in Pana. All is not yet lost. There is hope on the horizon.
The state of the wildlife management in many of India’s wildlife reserves makes me wonder where the conservation is headed. The knowledge about wildlife is abysmally poor in many areas and the concerned officers make no serious effort to keep themselves current. Reading habit is unknown. Recently I made a quick reconnaissance of untrained officers manning some of our wildlife reserves. What I found was shocking. Many of the officers had absolutely no inkling about the advances in wildlife management. They were beating around the bush in their effort to make an impression and in the process cut a very sorry figure
It may not be possible to train all officers in wildlife management but they can at least do a little bit of reading. This is happening at a time when wildlife institute is finding it difficult to get trainees for their management programmes. Officers are not willing to go for wildlife training and want to cling on to their plum postings.
There is rot at the top. Officers are more concerned about pandering to the politicians. Last year I attended a workshop in one of India’s premier wildlife reserve. The minister came, did the inauguration and tried to impress on the gathering his interest in the welfare of wildlife. The conference was attended by some of India's leading conservationists. The politicians departed immediately after the inauguration. They have no time to interact with the scientist or even the courtesy to sit though at least one session. I would have been a happy man if the minister had attended at least the presentation of one paper. They had other “pressing affairs”. No wonder India’s wildlife is languishing.
Some of the scientists are also to be blamed. I recently found that in a census equation the error was taken as 20% which is unusually high. This was never put to test objectively. 0.10 could be used.0.05 is more common.0.01 is also sometimes used. There is no follow-up.
99% of the officers had not even the vaguest idea about the free online journals readily available on the net. This brings to my mind a funny incident that occurred in one of the wildlife reserves. A college professor walked up to the wildlife warden and asked about the recruitment. The reply was “The Government has imposed a total ban on recruitment by PSC. The professor was shocked to see the level of ignorance. He steered the subject away from wildlife and started talking about weather.
A total revamp of the system is long overdue. This has to be done on a war footing if India’s wildlife is to survive.
After chairing the National Board of Wildlife meeting, an obviously distressed, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has written to chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand to declare areas around tiger reserves as eco-sensitive buffer zones. Things are not very rosy in these three key tiger-bearing states.
Centre has written several times to state Governments to create a buffer zone in tiger areas in order to reduce human-tiger conflicts. Many states are yet to wake up. Special tiger protection force meant to hire and train local tribal population in conservation is yet to take deep roots in many states. There is no dearth of high flown pronouncements yet nothing of consequence is happening in the field. It is against this sad backdrop that the prime minister has taken a personal initiative amidst his various pressing chores.
K.V Uthman has sent a guest blog post requesting your help in protecting a tree that is used every year by a pair of endangered WHITE BELLIED SEA EAGLE to build nest and lay eggs. Unfortunately this tree stands on private property and the owner wants to sell off his land after hacking the tree. As my other blog tahrcountry.blogspot.com has wider readership I have posted it there. Read what Uthaman has to say here.
