No more resorts near Corbett: Jairam Ramesh

New Delhi: The environment ministry is worried about luxury resorts mushrooming around Jim Corbett tiger reserve and wants to stop more from coming up. In 1991, there were only six such resorts around Corbett, but at present there are 74.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh recently said the growing influence of land mafia near the reserve was one of the major reasons for tiger deaths and rise in cases of man-animal conflict.

He has also written to Uttarakhand chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal not to permit any more resorts around Corbett.Ramesh has also persuaded Manmohan Singh to monitor whether state governments are taking steps to protect the sanctity of reserves.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_no-more-resorts-near-corbett-jairam-ramesh_1361832

Tiger deaths continue unabated

New Delhi, Mar 22 (PTI) In just ten weeks since January, at least 13 tigers have died, five each in January and March in various reserves across the country. Last year, 60 deaths were recorded. Now, merely 3,500 big cats are left in the wild of which 1,411 are in India.

Little wonder that the whole world is crying itself hoarse over the sharp drop in the population of this endangered species from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh deciding to step in to save the big cats and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh making a wakeup call by blaming mafia supported by politicians for its extinction.

A UN's wildlife body, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) too in its ongoing meeting in Doha has noted that despite several years of efforts the world has failed miserably to protect tigers.

Man vs Wild: lack of space endangering tigers

New Delhi: It’s an incident which sent shock waves across India's best managed park. On March 7, two tiger cubs brutally killed and poisoned by local people in retaliation for killing their goats.

Deputy director, Ranthambore Shekhawat said, “We were very upset because the goats were killed, we took stock of situation and decided to take people in custody and we were fortunate the culprits were also caught.”

Reaching the tiger graveyards is not easy. The area is far from the tourist zone, deep in the ravines near a dry river bed.

The village of Tadla Khet where the killings were planned by the Gujjars has been deserted, except for Ram Khiladi, whose son is the main accused in the tiger killings and is now in custody

Ram Khiladi said, “People have run away for fear of forest department, because they are arresting everyone.

While swift action enabled the forest department to nab the culprits, experts say the problem runs deeper

“We should control their livestock, 15- 250 goats is a lot.. secondly the animals come for grazing and are killed, we should compensate fast... see for 2,000 goat we have lost 2 tigers,” says Tiger expert Dharmendr

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/man-vs-wild-lack-of-space-endangering-tigers/111861-3.html?from=tn