NAGPUR: The state government has decided to reduce the area of proposed Mansingdeo Wildlife Sanctuary from 182.57 sq km to just around 132.73 sq km keeping out 49.84 sq km area with Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (FDCM) and Nagpur Forest Division.
The government will also rename it as Pench Wildlife Sanctuary instead of Mansingdeo. Highly placed sources said that of the proposed three blocks, the government has excluded key Block I consisting of 4,256 hectares (14 compartments) of FDCM and 727 hectares (3 compartments) of Nagpur division totalling 49.84 sq km. As the excluded area includes Mansingdeo (a small temple inside the forests), the remaining area now will be called Pench Wildlife Sanctuary.
“The move is not in wildlife interest. It seems commercial considerations have triumphed over environment and wildlife concerns,” said conservationists.
“The FDCM area is prime tiger habitat and without it, the sanctuary will have no meaning. It's better not to notify it without Mansingdeo. The area is richer than 257 sq km Pench tiger reserve and Mansinghdeo actually helps in maintaining corridor continuity. The FDCM is ready to part with its area for four-laning of highways but not willing to give area for wildlife,” argued Prafulla Bhamburkar of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).
Bhamburkar and Nitin Desai of Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) had first submitted the sanctuary proposal in 1993. Since then, it is hanging fire. The state wildlife board (SWB) headed by chief minister has already given a go-ahead to declare Mansingdeo as sanctuary but some vested interests were successful in excluding the FDCM area.
Mohan Jha, field director of Pench Tiger Reserve, was not available for comments. Chief wildlife warden A K Joshi said, “Yes, I've heard about some compartments being excluded but have no information in this regard. The National Board for Wild Life (NBWL) has asked the state to declare six sanctuaries including Mansingdeo in lieu of reducing 8,500 sq km Great India Bustard (GIB) Sanctuary in Nannaj (Kolhapur) to 1,200 sq km.”
Sources said on June 28, government filed an affidavit with the supreme court that it would declare Mansingdeo as a sanctuary but did not inform it about plans to exclude FDCM area. Senior forest officials refused to comment but said excluded area will be part of 500 sq km Pench buffer and hence wildlife interests would not be hampered.
Conservationists say there was difference between buffer and sanctuary. Keeping Mansingdeo in buffer zone would not stop FDCM from undertaking felling in the area in future. The excluded area is a reserve forests (RF) and felling should not be allowed in RFs. They felt the government should stop practice of giving RFs to FDCM. The corporation was handed over 5,900 hectares of RFs in Nagpur, Chandrapur and Bhandara on September 4 and July 14, 2009, respectively.
“Any move to exclude Mansingdeo area from original proposal will be fought in the court of law,” conservationist Kishor Rithe warned.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Corbett National Park Closes for Monsoon Break
orbett National Park in Nainital district of Uttarakhand is one of the oldest National Parks in the country and considered one of the best National Parks to spot a tiger. It was recently closed down for the monsoon period and will now re-open for tourists on 15th October.
The limited areas of the park, where night safaris are conducted have been closed down for tourist since 15th June and will re-open on 15th November.
Uttarakhand Forest Department has closed down Corbett National Park for tourist for the safety of visitors during the monsoon period. Numerous rivers, streams and rivulets pass through the park, many of which pass through the main road used by tourist. Due to heavy rains, the water levels of these rivers rise to dangerously high levels, sometimes causing floods thus making the roads dangerous for driving. As a result jeeps can get stuck or marooned and tourist may get hurt. Therefore in order to avoid any kind of discomfort or problems for the tourist, forest officials have close down the National Park for the monsoon period.
Corbett National Park named after hunter turned conservationist, Jim Corbett was the first National Park in the country to be declared as a Tiger Reserve under Project Tiger, for the protection of the endangered species of the Royal Bengal Tiger. The park located at the foothill of the Himalayas, gets maximum tourist and collects maximum tourist revenue among all other National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries in Uttarakhand. Corbett National Park receives the highest number of both domestic and foreign tourist in the state among others such as Rajaji National Park, Valley of Flowers National Park, Nandadevi Wildlife Sanctuary and others.
http://www.rang7.com/news/national-park/corbett-national-park-closes-for-monsoon-break-539.htm
Gandak River plays havoc with Valmiki tiger reserve
The internationally known and Bihar's sole tiger conservation unit, the Valmiki Tiger Reserve in West Champaran district, may soon be history. The changing course of the meandering Gandak river is fast eroding its western edges and devouring large parts of the sanctuary at a fast clip.
Admitting the danger to the sanctuary which was the first to be designated under Project Tiger, field director of the Valmiki Tiger Reserve JP Gupta said, "If immediate measures were not taken to prevent the erosion, the project area could be lost forever."
The project area is important, as it is spread over 840 square kilometres with a core area of 335.64 square kilometers consisting of sal and deciduous spread littered with cane breaks, lakes and swamps, live 53 species of mammals, 26 species of reptiles, 13 amphibian species and at least 145 species of birds besides tigers.
"We have already informed the higher authorities of the crisis with the request, that they take up the matter with the Bihar Water Resources Department," Gupta told Hindustan Times.
He, however, could not quantify the exact area of the reserve, already swallowed up by the river.
"The Gandak has developed a tendency to take a course towards its left. In the absence of any survey conducted in the past, we are not in a position to measure the area submerged by the river," a forest expert said on the condition of anonymity.
The forest department is carrying out a survey of the affected area presently, they added.
An appraisal team constituted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) of the Union Government had also noted the development in its report of November last year and suggested remedial measures.
Confirming it, assistant manager of the Wild Life Trust of India and a member of the appraisal team, Samir Kumar Sinha, said, "A vast expanse of forest land has already been engulfed by the river. It is now posing a serious threat to the existence of the reserve."
A spot visit by the HT team to the sanctuary found that a substantial portion of Chunbhatta and Katraha areas of the Valmiki Nagar forest range and Naurangia and Sirsia falling in the Madanpur range were already submerged.
These are the mixed forests with alluvial grassland and canebrakes inhabited mainly by hog deer, wild dogs, spotted deer, leopard cats, black bucks and wild boars (a preferred food species of the tiger).
The submergence of the land has apparently forced the wildlife including tigers inhabiting the area to migrate to the Chitwan National Park across the border in Nepal, which has no physical barrier to hinder their movement.
"We have no authentic evidence to establish the migration of the animals but its possibility cannot be ruled out," said Gupta.
A part of the Chitwan-Parsa-Valmiki landscape, the Valmiki Tiger Reserve once attracted kings, zamindars and nawabs for hunting expeditions.
King George V and Kind Edward VIII of England are said to have visited the forest, which had a huge wildlife population.
Till 1997, the reserve was home to 53 tigers and 54 leopards. In the years that followed, the sanctuary came under tremendous poaching pressure and the number of the precious animals dwindled. As per a government figure now, the national park has only 10 tigers. The continuous erosion of the forest has also substantially contributed to the flight of the animals.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Gandak-plays-havoc-with-tiger-reserve/Article1-569002.aspx
Dead cub found in Pench Tiger Reserve
A dead cub has been found burnt after its paws were chopped off for some tantric ritual at the Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. It is found that the killing was done by forest caretakers along with a member of the village eco-development committee.
The news of the cub comes after a tiger was run over by a speeding vehicle in Bandhavgarh in the state. Some suspect the accidents to be a cover up for poaching. Madhya Pradesh whose name has been associated with such incidents is otherwise the ‘tiger state of India’ and maintains six tiger reserves, including Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Pench and Panna along with Satpura National Park and Sanjay Dubri Wildlife Sanctuary.
In the most shameful scenarios, the researchers, conservationists and by the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court repeatedly warned about vanishing tigers at the Panna reserve but the officials did not do anything to protect the tigers and instead gave false census reports and faked pug marks. The reserve was finally declared tiger less.
In the Bandhavgarh incident, A tigress with her three young cubs were run over by the vehicle belonging to the sanctuary. The vehicle which ran over the tigress should have not been there in the first place because the movement of any vehicle is prohibited at night.
The state still has the highest number of tigers in the country but the lack of proper conservations efforts and indifference at the part of the authorities may cost it the title of the tiger state.
http://www.stockwatch.in/dead-cub-found-pench-tiger-reserve-28021
Indonesia to host meeting on tiger conservation
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