The Centre has asked Chhattisgarh government to submit a proposal to National Tiger Conservation Authority to declare Guru Ghasidas National Park in the State as a tiger reserve, saying it had the potential to support a viable population of the big cat.
This national park lies between Madhya Pradesh’s Bandhavgarh and Jharkhand’s Palamau tiger reserves. It is also contiguous with Madhya Pradesh’s Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve.
In a letter to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said, “This would ensure (use of) the largest landscape within this part of Central India for tiger conservation“.
Noting that the area was surveyed by the Wildlife Institute of India last year, the Minister said, “Though the prey population in the habitat is very low at present, it has considerable diversity.”
“Therefore, with good management and protection under Project Tiger, the area has a potential for supporting a viable tiger population along with the Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve,” Mr. Ramesh added.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article2147726.ece
Friday, July 1, 2011
Use armed force to guard Simlipal: Jairam to CM
More than a year after the massacre of more than a dozen elephants in Orissa’s Simlipal Tiger Reserve, the country’s fourth biggest tiger reserve, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has asked Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to take urgent measures to safeguard the tigers in the state’s Similipal national park.
Similipal is one of India’s first Project Tiger reserves. Spread over 845.70 sq km, it is home to many Royal Bengal Tigers and elephants.
Between April and May last year, 14 elephants were slaughtered by poachers inside the tiger reserve situated in Mayurbhanj district of Orissa. A probe team from National Tiger Conservation Authority, which found seven elephant carcasses, in its report said the staff of the tiger reserve had burnt and destroyed the carcasses.
“There was a concerted effort to destroy the remains of the elephant carcasses, which amounts to destruction of evidence without registering a case. Although there is absolutely no evidence to suggest the involvement of forest staff in the actual killing of the elephants, the destruction of evidence and the fact that the elephant deaths were not reported by the staff, should be treated as a very serious matter,” the NTCA committee said in its report.
http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/RAJ-JPR-sariskas-tale-of-woes-continues-with-sluggish-relocation-of-villagers-2231507.html
Similipal is one of India’s first Project Tiger reserves. Spread over 845.70 sq km, it is home to many Royal Bengal Tigers and elephants.
Between April and May last year, 14 elephants were slaughtered by poachers inside the tiger reserve situated in Mayurbhanj district of Orissa. A probe team from National Tiger Conservation Authority, which found seven elephant carcasses, in its report said the staff of the tiger reserve had burnt and destroyed the carcasses.
“There was a concerted effort to destroy the remains of the elephant carcasses, which amounts to destruction of evidence without registering a case. Although there is absolutely no evidence to suggest the involvement of forest staff in the actual killing of the elephants, the destruction of evidence and the fact that the elephant deaths were not reported by the staff, should be treated as a very serious matter,” the NTCA committee said in its report.
http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/RAJ-JPR-sariskas-tale-of-woes-continues-with-sluggish-relocation-of-villagers-2231507.html
Sariska's tale of woes continues with sluggish relocation of villagers -DNA
Jaipur: Rehabilitating villages situated in critical tiger habitats is perhaps the most crucial task for the forest department authorities involved in tiger conservation works, however work in this regard is moving at a snail's pace in Rajasthan.
"Out of the twenty eight villages earmarked for relocation, only Bhagani village has been shifted till date. Work on shifting Umri, Sukol and Dabli villages is also on. However, the major problem we face is that these villages, after taking relocation packages, settle again in the nearby villages. So, the whole purpose of relocation is being defeated," said an official posted at Sariska Tiger Reserve.
In Sariska, relocation work at Kankwari, the village where tiger ST1 was poisoned, and Rotlyala and Kraska villages is yet to begin even after the Forest department already having the financial sanction for the work.
Situation is more or less same in Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve. Only two villages, Indala and Machanki, have been shifted out of the park so far while the relocation work in seven other villages is still pending despite financial sanctions.
In Ranthambhore, Kalighat, Bhid, Kathuli, Hindwad, Mopr Doongari, Dangra, Bheempura, Mudarhedi villages, having more than 1,500 families, are still to be shifted out of the park. Forest authorities maintain they are in the process of shifting these villages but officials don't wish to come on the record.
"The lethargic Forest department is affecting the tiger conservation work in the state as nobody in the department seems to be bothered about the growing human- animal conflict situation. In Ranthambhore, villagers leave their cattle in the jungle to graze during monsoon while forest officials turn a blind eye towards the situation. Hoards of villagers coming out with fuel wood is a very common scene every evening in Ranthambhore," said Shatrunjai Singh, a tiger conservationist. All tiger conservation efforts will go waste if the villages are not shifted out of the park soon, Singh added.
http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/RAJ-JPR-sariskas-tale-of-woes-continues-with-sluggish-relocation-of-villagers-2231507.html
MoEF in favour of declaring Mhadei as a tiger reserve -PTI
Panaji, Jun 29 (PTI) Union Ministry of Environment and Forest's letter asking Government of Goa to prepare a proposal to declare Mhadei wildlife sanctuary as a tiger reserve will have far reaching consequences on the Iron ore mining industry there, a noted environmentalist said today.Rajendra Kerkar, who has been campaigning to notify Mhadei as a tiger reserve said, "Around 36 mines, which are active around Mhadei will be hit directly while several others will be affected once the tiger reserve is notified"."The mining activity in the areas like Pissurlem and Honda in Sattari talukas will be shut down as it will fall in the buffer zone," Kerkar said, adding currently there is no buffer zone for state's wildlife sanctuaries.Union minister for Environment and Forest Jairam Ramesh yesterday wrote a letter to Chief Minister Digambar Kamat asking him to submit a proposal to notify Mhadei wildlife sanctuary as a tiger reserve.The green activists in the state have been lobbying for several years to declare this bio-diverse hotspot in the Western Ghats as a reserve for big cats.Goa is the largest exporter of iron ore in the country with around 45 million metric tonnes of ore being extracted annually.The environmentalists had been protesting against mining activities going on within the reserve forest area and wildlife sanctuaries. Mhadei Wildlife sanctuary, spread across 208 sq km, was notified in the year 1999 and is surrounded by thickly-forested Bhimgad, Bondla, Mahaveer, Anshi-Dandeli and Sawantwadi.Goa chief wildlife warden Dr Shashi Kumar said, "It will not be difficult to prepare a proposal for the tiger reserve. But it has to be done in consultation with the locals." In case there is human habitation in the sanctuary, the state will need to take decision on their rehabilitation, he added.
http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/moef-in-favour-of-declaring-mhadei-as-a-tiger-reserve/742636.html
http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/moef-in-favour-of-declaring-mhadei-as-a-tiger-reserve/742636.html
Global Tiger Day every July 29
BANGALORE: Every year July 29 will be celebrated as Global Tiger Day. This has been one of the major recommendations made at the Global Tiger Summit. BK Singh, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) told Express that Karnataka is home to more than 20 per cent of the nation’s tiger population with an estimated 300 tigers.
Majority of the tigers are confined to Bandipur, Bhadra, Nagarhole, Dandeli, Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary and Kudremukh tiger reserve areas.
The State Forest Department (Wildlife) has three basic mantras. “Firstly restoring the tiger habitat, addressing the issues of human habitats on the fringes of tiger reserve areas and finally measures to prevent and control poaching and smuggling of tigers,” he added.
At the summit held at St Petersburg in Russia which was attended by heads of 12 governments, including India in November, the fact that tiger numbers and habitats have declined by 40 per cent (from about 10,0000 to below 3,500) in the past one decade, was brought out. The tiger has been one of the indicators of a healthy ecosystem and failure to reverse these trends will result in not only the loss of tigers but also a loss of biodiversity throughout the Asiatic region.
With increased coordination, the tiger range countries (India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam) would be striving to double the number of wild tigers by 2020.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/global-tiger-day-every-july-29/163880-60-115.html
Majority of the tigers are confined to Bandipur, Bhadra, Nagarhole, Dandeli, Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary and Kudremukh tiger reserve areas.
The State Forest Department (Wildlife) has three basic mantras. “Firstly restoring the tiger habitat, addressing the issues of human habitats on the fringes of tiger reserve areas and finally measures to prevent and control poaching and smuggling of tigers,” he added.
At the summit held at St Petersburg in Russia which was attended by heads of 12 governments, including India in November, the fact that tiger numbers and habitats have declined by 40 per cent (from about 10,0000 to below 3,500) in the past one decade, was brought out. The tiger has been one of the indicators of a healthy ecosystem and failure to reverse these trends will result in not only the loss of tigers but also a loss of biodiversity throughout the Asiatic region.
With increased coordination, the tiger range countries (India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam) would be striving to double the number of wild tigers by 2020.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/global-tiger-day-every-july-29/163880-60-115.html
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