'Tiger man' Fateh Singh Rathore passes away TNN

JAIPUR: India's best known tiger conservationist Fateh Singh Rathore, whose name became synonymous with Project Tiger, died of cancer at his home in Sawai Madhopur on Tuesday at age 72. A former field director of Ranthambore National Park, Rathore's cancer of the lung had spread to his ribs and the end came around 10:45am.

''Doctors found his cancer had spread in January. Since then we've been treating him at various hospitals. About a week back, realising that he won't survive, Fatehji said he wanted to spend his last days among the hills and forests in Ranthambore. So he was brought here,'' said an associate in Sawai Madhopur.

Fateh Singh is survived by his wife, son Goverdhan Singh Rathore and two daughters — Padmini and Jaya. After retiring from the forest department, Rathore was heading an NGO 'Tiger Watch' in Sawai Madhopur. His death was mourned by activists and commoners alike and thousands came to his home in grief. ''He will be cremated in his farm house on Wednesday,'' said Dharmendra Khandal, a conservation biologist and Fateh's co-worker at Tiger Watch.

''It's a great loss for me; the umbrella under which I was growing up for the past seven years is no longer with me. We were planning some celebration this year as this was his 51st year in conservation. But now the plans will have to be changed,'' added Khandal.

Rathore made his last public appearance in Jaipur in February when he received World Wildlife Fund's Lifetime Achievement Award. He then went into his beloved Ranthambore for the last time on February 11 with his son, grandson and conservationist Belinda Wright.

Known to anyone who has ever been to Ranthambore, Fateh Singh joined the Indian Forest Service in 1960 and was part of the first Project Tiger team. Widely acknowledged as ''tiger guru'' for his legendary knowledge of the big cat, he had the uncanny ability to predict a tiger's whereabouts. His single-minded drive to protect Ranthambore National Park made him an enemy of poachers who once robbed him. In 1983, Fateh Singh got the International Valour Award for bravery in conservation.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Tiger-man-Fateh-Singh-Rathore-passes-away/articleshow/7606695.cms

14 tigers died in two months in India

New Delhi, March 1 (IANS) As many as 14 tigers have died in the country till February this year alone, including two due to poaching, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told Lok Sabha Tuesday.

Replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, Ramesh said 161 tigers - 51 due to poaching -- have died since 2008.

'About 14 tigers have died, 12 due to natural and other causes and two due to poaching, till Feb 22 this year,' Ramesh told the upper house.

From projections done on the basis of the last tiger census done in 2008, there are less than 1400 tigers left in India.
http://www.sify.com/news/14-tigers-died-in-two-months-in-india-news-national-ldbsEqacffj.html

CID preparing data bank to tackle wildlife crime in Karnataka - DNA

With the arrest of notorious poacher Durru, who set a jaw trap to capture a three-legged tiger — Maasti — in Maastigudi in Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, the CID Forest Cell has confirmed the prevalence of inter-state wildlife crime since 1982. They have now decided to maintain a DNA profile of all the seizures.

The measure would help them bust cases in a better way and maintain a scientific data bank. Additional-director general of police (forests), KSN Chikkerur, said that samples in all cases, irrespective of what was seized, would be sent to the head office in Bangalore, from where they would be sent to National Centre for Biological Sciences for DNA profiling. “To begin with, we are doing DNA profiling of tiger, leopard and other skins. As the next step, we will start with ivory,” he said.

Chikkerur said that DNA profiling had been done for the 23 leopards, 43 small claw-less and smooth-coated other pelts and a tiger skin, seized from the house and guest house of Prabhakar Keshav Gajakosh in Haliyal and Hubli, a wildlife product dealer, in 2007.

The biggest seizure by the CID Forest Cell sleuths established that Durra, an associate of poacher Sansar Chand who is in Tihar jail, was supplying pelts to Prabhakar. The sleuths arrested Prabhakar and 10 others, including Sansar Chand’s brothers Rajkumar and Narayan, in July in 2009.

Durru, alias Kanka Lal, 38, who has been sent to Bhavnagar in Gujarat to appear in a trial, would be brought back to Bangalore on March 17. Durru is the son of Hariprasad Lasakchand, another notorious poacher and a resident of Birahuli village in Madhya Pradesh.

Durru has been booked in three cases — two for seizures in Hubli and Haliyal in 2007 and for escaping from judicial custody in 2009.
http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_cid-preparing-data-bank-to-tackle-wildlife-crime-in-karnataka_1514376