Poacher gets 3 yrs in jail

A notorious poacher who killed and ate wild animals like tiger and hyena has been sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment by a court in Madhya Pradesh.

Dariya Bawaria was on Wednesday also fined Rs 10,000 by a court of JMFC in Sihora in Jabalpur division in connection with a 1988 case.

Bawariya, his wife Bhagwati, and seven others had been booked after a seizure of one tiger skin, tiger bones, four tiger paws, three cans of tiger fat, one hyena skin and eight spring traps from them in Bahoriband range in the state. All the accused were granted bail and subsequently jumped it.

Dariya was arrested on April 28, 2008 from the Corbett Tiger Reserve with two tiger traps and other poaching equipment.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Poacher-gets-3-yrs-in-jail/653662

Big cats hit a low in Pakke sanctuary - Clouded leopard on camera in tiger reserve for first time

Guwahati, July 29: For tiger lovers in the Northeast who were on cloud nine after Kaziranga’s success, Pakke tiger reserve in Arunachal Pradesh is a bit of dampener.

Pakke has recorded a density of only 1.9 tigers per 100 square km compared to Kaziranga’s tiger density of 32 per 100 square km, the highest in the world.

Three months ago in April, Kaziranga had recorded the estimated highest density, overtaking the previous highest recorded density of 19.6 tigers per 100 square km found at Corbett Tiger Reserve.

However, the good news at Pakke is that the density of tigers is up slightly from the 1.15 per 100 square km recorded in 2006. Besides, a clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) has been captured on camera for the first time in the reserve.

However, Jimmy Borah, senior project officer, Tiger Programme, North Bank Landscape, WWF-India, who carried out the camera trapping along with others, said, “Looking at the terrain and the habitat, the density of 1.9 tigers can be considered good enough”.

He said the density at Pakke was similar to other tropical semi-evergreen forests in Southeast Asia. The usual density of tigers varies from 3-12 tigers per 100 square km in the tiger reserves in the country.

The WWF-India carried out the tiger census in collaboration with Arunachal forest department. Automated cameras were used to capture the photographs of wild animals.

The effectively sampled area for camera trapping was 261.81 square km of the reserve’s total area of 862 square km. The camera trap was laid at 30 locations in both Sijusa and Tipi ranges. The census was carried out from February 4 to March 30 this year. “Large areas of the park have still not been covered as they are inaccessible,” an official of Pakke tiger reserve said.

On the camera trapping of the clouded leopard at the reserve, a WWF report stated, “This very beautiful and elusive cat is reported in the landscape from various places of Arunachal Pradesh but its status is not well documented. Change in land use, encroachment into forest areas and hunting of the animal for its pelt, are the main threats to the survival of the species. There is a need to design a long-term conservation plan before its population reaches a critical level.”

The Pakke tiger reserve lies in the foothills of eastern Himalayas in East Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. It is home to over 2,000 species of plants, 300 species of birds, 40 species of mammals, 30 species of amphibians and 36 species of reptiles. It is one of the last remaining strongholds for many globally threatened species of flora and fauna.

Pakke (earlier Pakhui) was declared a reserve forest in 1962, a wildlife sanctuary in 2001 and a tiger reserve in 2002. The Centre had sanctioned Rs 210.35 lakh under Project Tiger in the 2009-10 fiscal to improve infrastructure in the reserve.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100730/jsp/northeast/story_12746070.jsp

Cheetah rerun

More than six decades after the last cheetah disappeared from India - the only mammal the country has lost in a long time - the government has decided to reintroduce the fastest one.

The experts and the government have proffered few reasons why the spotted cat should be brought back. It's the only mammal whose name is derived from Sanskrit, for one. It will help preserve the grasslands and drylands in India, for another. The first is easily dismissed as posturing but the second reason is worth a serious look.

On any count, it's going to be a costly affair. Experts have suggested a ballpark figure of Rs 300 crore to be spent in the first year itself.

The cheetah sites will require constant money flow through the life of the project (read: endlessly). Much of the initial money is going to be spent on relocating more than 100 human habitations in the three sites where the experts want to set free the first set of imported cats.

The wildlife enthusiasts want to play down the trade-offs: the cheetah is bound to become the conservation star that turns grasslands and drylands into exclusive preserves just as the tiger had for decades in the forested parts of the country. Some of the settlements to be relocated are temporary – used by grazers – the cheetah enthusiasts point out.

That the temporary settlements are traditional livelihood sources for many in the arid Jaisalmer is yet to be discussed. In another site (Kuno-Palpur in Madhya Pradesh) many have been uprooted and displaced under controversial circumstances to bring in the lion, so relocating a few more villages shouldn't be difficult, they say.

To be fair, the cheetah enthusiasts have recommended "adequate and generous compensation with alternate arrangements" for those displaced. But in a country where most of the existing national parks and sanctuaries, including tiger reserves, were created at a time when traditional rights of people living in the forests were summarily dismissed, is yet another symbol of exclusivist conservation required? Almost every tiger reserve and dozens of national parks and sanctuaries continue to be battlefields between displaced local population and the forest department, with rights of the poor unresolved.

The UPA, under Sonia Gandhi, has been trying hard to restore these rights and correct a historical injustice that the government itself claims is one of the causes of alienation of forestdwellers.

Experts suggest the spillovers of tourism from the cheetah will provide livelihood to those displaced.

Five-star hotels at the edges of tiger reserves that earn Rs 40,000 a night showing off cordoned tigers to foreign tourists while the locals run tea shops or get employed as daily labour, one would think, would have taught the government a lesson.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/wild-wacky/Cheetah-rerun/articleshow/6235374.cms

Cheetah rerun

Nepal has 155 adult tigers, 5% of world population

KATHMANDU: The number of adult tiger has reached 155 in Nepal's forests, an increase of 28% over last year's population, a top official has said.

The tiger population grew after tiger census was conducted in the Chure area of Chitawan National Park, which was skipped during last year's census, according to Coordinator of the Tiger census 2010 Bivash Pandav, an Indian national, who is working under World Wildlife Fund Nepal office in Kathmandu.

The number of adult tiger has reached 155 in Nepal's forests which is an increase of 28%, announced Gopal Prasad Upadhyaya, director general of Department of National Park's and Wildlife Conservation.

Though this not an increase in tiger population in actual term, but the number has also not declined in the region, he said. In Chitawan National Park located in central Nepal alone, 125 tigers were recorded.

Last year only 91 tigers were found when the census was carried out only in the lowland of the tiger reserve.

The total adult tiger population of 155 (124 to 229) was arrived at after adding other tiger populations from Bardia, Shuklaphanta and Parsa reserves.

The census was done through the latest process of camera trapping which required 3,582 human days and 170 elephant days, according to experts at WWF Nepal.

The monitoring of tiger was done from December 7, 2009 to March 22, 2010. As per the census it is estimated that the tiger area of Nepal has 6.53 adult tigers in 100 km area, which is a good population for breeding purposes, say experts.

WWF Nepal has provided Nepal government with $51,351 to carry out the tiger census. This means Nepal is home to nearly 5 per cent of tiger in the wild worldwide which is estimated to be 3,200.

There are 13 tiger range countries in the world including Nepal, India, China and Myanmar. The tiger range
countries have been working together to conserve the endangered wild animal tiger, to make the number double or around 7,000 in next Year for Tiger 2022.

Nepal government is also committed to double the tiger population to 250 by the year 2022, said minister for forest Dipak Bohara. The government is committed to control poaching, increase tiger habitat and prey animals with a view to double the tiger population in the next 12 years, he said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Nepal-has-155-adult-tigers-5-of-world-population-/articleshow/6233044.cms