Tiger! Buxa earns its stripes

Alipurduar, March 30: Buxa can breathe a little easy: a Royal Bengal tiger — or something that resembles the magnificent beast — has been spotted in the reserve and captured on film too.

One tiger in a tiger reserve may not appear too much of a big deal to the uninitiated but it is a milestone moment for north Bengal’s Buxa, where no big cat has been spotted in the past 40 years.

Certainly not since 1983, when the reserve, 8km from Alipurduar town in Jalpaiguri district and contiguous to Bhutan, was formally inducted into Project Tiger, India’s flagship conservation programme.

All these years, all that Buxa Tiger Reserve had to justify its moniker was a few growls in the dead of the night — presumably a hungry cat making a kill — scat and an estimate that the area housed at least a dozen big cats.

The ignominy — imagine calling yourself a tiger reserve with no tiger to show — appears to have ended now, thanks to beat officer Manindra Sarkar who has come up with a grainy image of a golden creature.

Sarkar’s colleagues say he caught the tiger on camera when it turned around and made a royal walkout. Sarkar was on tiger census duty that started in early February.

“It’s indeed a happy day as for the first time in the history of the tiger reserve, we have been able to record direct evidence of tigers in Buxa. So far, our staff had to be satisfied with the pugmarks, scat and distant roars. But this is the first close encounter,” said S.B. Mondol, the chief wildlife warden, in Calcutta.

He added that the exact location from where the photograph was taken was not being disclosed for the safety of the animal.

According to the reserve’s deputy field director, Subhankar Sengupta, Sarkar had gone to investigate a bush in which he suspected an animal was lurking.

“When he approached the bush from behind, he saw the tiger, about five to six years old, come out,” Sengupta said. “The tiger began walking away and when it turned around once, Sarkar managed to take two snaps,” the official added. He said the foresters later collected plaster casts of the pugmarks.

Animesh Bose, the secretary of the Siliguri-based Himalayan Nature and Adventure Foundation, said: “We are happy. No one had been able to photograph a tiger even before it was declared a tiger reserve.”

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100331/jsp/frontpage/story_12285410.jsp

Tigress strays into village, kills teenager

BHOPAL - A tigress strayed into a village located on the outskirts of the BandhavgarhNational Park in Madhya Pradesh and killed an 18-year-old girl Tuesday. It is hiding in a farm and all efforts to nab it have so far proved futile, an official said Wednesday.

“The park officials are trying to nab the tiger hiding in the farm, where it had killed the girl and a bullock,” the park’s Deputy Director K.S. Alawa told IANS.

Dwarika Prasad Tiwari’s daughter Anjana went to collect mahua, a forest produce, from her father’s farm in village Kuchwahi when the feline, which had earlier killed a bullock, attacked and killed her.

The villagers reached the place but the feline hid itself inside the farm. The park officials also reached the spot and cordoned off the area.

“Our efforts to capture the animal were futile as the big cat was still hiding inside the farm,” Alawa said, said adding that Rs.1 lakh as ex-gratia was released for the victim’s family as per government norms.

http://blog.taragana.com/science/2010/03/31/tigress-strays-into-village-kills-teenager-9597/

Nath writes to PM to clear environmental roadblock

After issues like finances and land acquisitions, now it is India dwindling tiger population that is posing a problem for Road Transport Minister Kamal Nath's road building programme.

Nath has sought the Prime Minister's intervention to get the environmental clearances so that he can achieve his target of building 20 km of roads every day by building right through the sanctuaries.

At least seven highway stretches pass through wildlife sanctuaries which are home to several endangered species as well as the most precious tiger. The road transport ministry wants these stretches upgraded to 4 and 6 lane highways which means destroying vast expanse of wildlife.

Most of these projects are stuck for over five years now. The environment ministry's version is to divert the highways and acquire land around the sanctuaries. But the huge costs and the entire problem of land acquisition are things that the Road transport ministry surely wants to steer clear from.

The Prime Minister's Office has asked the Cabinet Secretary to resolve the green clearance issue delaying road projects.

Nath had written to the Prime Minister on the issue. Five road projects are stuck due to delays in environmental clearances. Four of the highway projects are in Pench sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. Two are in Hastinapur sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh. These stretches have to be upgraded to 4 and 6 lane national highways.

It is now a tussle between nature and infrastructure development and the ball is in the cabinet secretary's court. He has to do a balancing act between environment and development.

http://beta.profit.ndtv.com/news/show/nath-writes-to-pm-to-clear-environmental-roadblock-32825

Straying tigers worry for wildlife officials in Nagarhole

NEW DELHI: Two fully grown male big cats have been straying out of the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve in Karnataka for the last few days, keeping wildlife officials on their toe as they fear the animals might intrude into human habitats or be targeted by poachers.
"It is for the last one week that the duo are roaming in the fringes of the reserve and have killed a few cattle there as well. The two aged tigers seem to have been driven out by their counterparts in a territorial fight in the reserve," said B K Singh, Karnataka Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF).

The staff has been alerted which is keeping a close watch on their movement and making efforts to drive them back to the reserve, he said.

"We hope that they do not get into poachers' trap or enter into nearby villages as it can result into a serious man-animal conflict," he said referring to the recent death of the two tigers in Ranthambore in Rajasthan who were poisoned by angry villagers.
Two 17-month-old cubs were found dead early this month in Ranthambore, allegedly poisoned by villagers apparently upset over the killing of their livestock by the tigers.

Though straying of animals was a natural phenomenon, at times lack of enough space in their habitat due to over-population becomes the main reason for such action, he said.

"This is the second incident of straying of tigers this year, with the previous one being in February when a big cat was chased back to the sanctuary."

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Flora-Fauna/Straying-tigers-worry-for-wildlife-officials-in-Nagarhole/articleshow/5743954.cms

NTCA calls Meet to review save-tiger plan

PATNA: As many as 13 tiger deaths have been reported in India so far in 2010. If one adds the two cases in which tiger body parts were seized this year, the number of big cat deaths stands at 15 this year.

It is more or less a continuation of the previous year's trend when as many as 66 tiger deaths and 29 cases of seizure of tiger body parts were reported from different parts of the country.

An alarmed National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has planned a review of the tiger protection strategy. It may issue fresh guidelines to protect the big cats in a better way. NTCA has convened a meeting of directors of the 39 tiger reserves of the country to discuss the issue. Experts from Wildlife Institute of India (WII)- Dehradun and chief wildlife wardens of 17 states, where these reserves are situated, have been invited to the meeting which would be held at Jim Corbett National Park from April 10 to 12.

On April 10, NTCA member secretary Rajesh Gopal along with other senior NTCA officials would discuss the issue with forest officials of northern and north-eastern states. Forest officials of central states would share their views with the NTCA on April 11 and on the last day it would be the turn of those coming from the southern states.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Meet-to-review-save-tiger-plan/articleshow/5740980.cms

Sariska likely to get more tigers soon

JAIPUR: The long wait for big cats at Sariska tiger reserve may soon come to an end, as the forest is likely to come alive with the roar of two more tigers that may be relocated to it in the near future.

Experts from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun have arrived in the park and are studying the two tigers that had strayed outside the park.

The visit of the experts come close on the heels of a tiger from the park killing a 50-year-old man at the park on Sunday.

"Some experts from WII are visiting the park. However, they are not in connection with the killing but to help us in the identification and subsequent relocation of the straying tigers," said an official.

The Union forests ministry and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) have recently granted the nod to the state government for the relocation of the two straying tigers from Ranthambore.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Sariska-likely-to-get-more-tigers-soon/articleshow/5720540.cms

Fire in Valmikinagar tiger reserve in Bihar

Bagaha (Bihar): Forest cover in about 100 hectares in Valmikinagar tiger reserve in Bihar's West Champaram district was reduced to ashes today.

Madanpur forest ranger Junaid Ali said water was being drawn from tanks in the area by forest employees to douse the fire.

Casualty, if any to animal life in the forest reserve is yet to be ascertained.

The cause of the fire in the reserve, which falls in the Madanpur forest range is also yet to be known, Ali said.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_fire-in-valmikinagar-tiger-reserve-in-bihar_1362906

Maharashtra lost 120 tigers, 425 panthers in 2 yrs

Mumbai, Mar 24 (PTI) In the backdrop of widespread concern over the declining tiger population in the country, it has come to notice that Maharashtra lost 120 tigers between 2005 and 2007.
The Economic Survey 2009-10 which was tabled in the state Legislature yesterday says that there are only 148 tigers in the state as compared to 268 in 2007.
Similarly, the number of panthers has drastically come down from 717 in 2005 to only 292 in 2007.
There are three tiger projects in the state - Melghat, Tadoba-Andhari and Pench situated in the Vidarbha region.
Recent figures state that there are only 1,411 tigers in the country.

http://www.ptinews.com/news/579528_Maharashtra-lost-120-tigers--425-panthers-in-2-yrs

NGO makes hi-tech database for Manas Tiger reserve

Guwahati, March 24: The Manas National Park, in keeping with the times, is going hi-tech.

Aaranyak, a wildlife NGO, has developed a customised database for the park called the Manas Tiger Reserve Information System (Mantris) which will help forest officials to get information on various aspects of the range and also facilitate commoners to get an overview of the entire Manas foothill landscape.

The geographic information system (GIS)-based Mantris is designed for the entire Manas tiger reserve area, which extends from Sankosh river in the west to Dhansiri river in the east, along the Indo-Bhutan boundary. There are 18 ranges in the Manas tiger reserve covering an area of more than 2,800-square km.

The system is ready and will soon be soon handed over to the forest department officials.

Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, the Global Environment Facility, the Japan government, the MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank funded the project.

“There is not enough geo-spatial data and information regarding this important biodiversity-rich area. Mantris is the first web-GIS-based database designed by the geo-spatial technology application programme of Aaranyak for this area,” project coordinator of Aaranyak Bibhuti Lahkar said today.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100325/jsp/northeast/story_12259172.jsp

Tourist access restricted in Ranthambore

JAIPUR: A day after a villager and his donkey were killed by a tiger on the periphery of the Ranthambore National Park, certain portions of the park have been made out of bound for tourists.

There is a tourist track nearly five kilometres from Naharkhora where a tiger attacked 50-year-old Badri Kumar and his donkey on Monday. "Now what we have done is to barricade a further five kms of the track so as to ensure that tourists are atleast 10 kms away from the spot where the incident took place. We will keep this provision on for the next 10-15 days," said a forest official.

Even the small ongoing work in the area like construction of roads have been halted as a safety measure. "Instead, we have set up trap cameras in a bid to locate the big cat. Additional staffers have also been deployed in the area," said the official.

The tiger, after the kill, had eaten the donkey partially though not the man. On Monday, the officials remained busy collecting the post-mortem report and the FIR from the police. The post-mortem report confirmed that the man was killed by the tiger.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Tourist-access-restricted-in-Ranthambore-/articleshow/5717309.cms

Tiger kills man in Ranthambore - A first in almost 2 decades

JAIPUR: Tourist haven Ranthambore woke up to a grisly morning on Monday: a tiger had killed a man on the forest’s periphery. The tiger had gone for the man’s throat and shoulders.

So, is there a man-eater at large in Ranthambore which sees a steady stream of visitors, including VVIPs like Priyanka Gandhi and Sheila Dixit? Forest officials were quick to deny this, arguing that this was an accident.

“There are canine marks on the shoulder and throat of the man. Though the buttocks of the man appear to be eaten, we are ruling out that this was done by the tiger. He must have been eaten later by jackals which also roam in the area,” an official of the state forest department said.

But the rare occurrence has left forest officials worried. The last time a tiger killed a man in the state was in the early 1990s. This happened in Sariska, when a big cat mauled a sadhu.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Tiger-kills-man-in-tourist-hotspot/articleshow/5713952.cms

Panna disaster investigation caught in political slugfest

Tiger on its last leg

The Madhya Pradesh government remained in denial mode for years about the declining number of tigers in Panna till the wild cat went locally extinct, but its new Forest Minister has brought some hope for the beleaguered Park with his plainspeak. Sartaj Singh’s recommendation for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the Panna fiasco, almost countering the findings of a state inquiry committee report, is surely not a magic pill and is definitely not going to win him any friends in the bureaucracy and forest set-up. But the recommendation, if followed up by that by the Chief Minister, is surely a welcome change from the stand taken by the minister’s predecessors, who went blindly by the figures provided by the forest department officers and were hyper-sensitive to criticism.

The first warning bells in Panna were sounded by wildlife expert Raghu Chundawat several years ago when the then premier Park’s priority shifted from protection and monitoring to tourism.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Tiger-on-its-last-leg/594376

India rejects modification on China tiger farms by EU

India has rejected a proposal by the European Union to modify an existing decision for China to phase out Chinese tiger farms.

India made an intervention at the ongoing Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Conference of Parties in Doha, after the European Union suggested that tiger-range countries adopt an EU reporting system for making a wildlife crime database. The EU has suggested that the EU-TWIX database system be followed by tiger-range countries. And while the proposal also asks for phasing out of tiger farms, India thinks the proposal was not discussed with tiger-range countries, which are Asian, before being presented.

Further, India does not want any tampering with a previous decision in which CITES, the apex body for monitoring wildlife trade, pressed China for shutting tiger farms, keeping them only to a level which “supports” conservation of wild tigers, meaning minimising captive tiger farming as much as possible. As a result of another previous intervention made by India, it was decided that China report to the international body how it was shutting down its farms.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/India-rejects-modification-on-China-tiger-farms-by-EU/594371

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

Manmohan concerned over unnatural deaths of tigers

Concerned over increasing incidents of unnatural deaths of tigers in various reserves in the country, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided to personally take up the matter with State Governments

Concerned over increasing incidents of unnatural deaths of tigers in various reserves in the country, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided to personally take up the matter with State Governments, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Saturday.

The Prime Minister expressed his concern during a meeting of the National Board for Wildlife Thursday, Mr. Ramesh told reporters here.

“The prime minister has agreed to lend weight of his office for monitoring state governments. He will also take up the matter with the chief ministers of various states, especially with the Uttarakhand government, as unnatural mortality of tigers have been reported from Corbett National Park,” he said.
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article260567.ece?homepage=true#

4 get 3-yr jail for poaching tiger

In only the second case of its kind in the state and the first in Vidarbha, four persons were convicted in a tiger poaching case on Saturday by the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) court of Sakoli, Bhandara.

JMFC, AR Surve, sentenced Chandkiran Kodape, Tarachand Soyam, Sampat Soyam and Shiva Pingare to three years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on them for poisoning a tiger on September 29, 1992, near Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary.

The tiger had killed a cow and the accused had poisoned the carcass later using the chemical Thimet.

Range Forest Officer (RFO) Pradip Kottewar had investigated the case and seized the tiger skin from the accused. Assistant Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) Kishore Mishrikotkar pushed the case to bring about the conviction.

Assistant Public Prosecutor H P Randive said, “In the absence of efforts by forest officers like Kottewar and Mishrikotkar, it’s difficult to get convictions. Most of the time, officers are transferred and not available to attend proceedings...”

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/4-get-3-yr-jail-for-poaching-tiger/593503

‘Tiger poaching is only getting accelerated’

BANGALORE: The year 2009 saw the maximum number of tiger deaths in the country due to poaching, with the toll reaching 32. However, 16 tigers were killed so far this year, in less than even three months.

If the Chinese government legalised tiger trade, it would sound death knell for the wild cat species as they were poached due to the demand in China for making traditional Chinese medicine.

Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) made these observations at the Bangalore Press Club on Saturday at the screening of a documentary delving into the plight of the tiger. The Truth About Tigers is made by renowned conservationist and wildlife filmmaker Shekar Dattatri.

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=‘Tiger+poaching+is+only+getting+accelerated’&artid=nO7WlxYonGE=&SectionID=7GUA38txp3s=&MainSectionID=fyV9T2jIa4A=&SectionName=zkvyRoWGpmWSxZV2TGM5XQ==&SEO=

Trapped Sundarbans tiger to be released Sunday

2010-03-20 20:10:00

A tiger from the Sundarbans biosphere reserve, which strayed into a village on the outskirts and was later tranquilised, would be released back into the forest Sunday, according to a top forest department official. The big cat has been kept under medical observation. It was roaming in the jungles with a tigress when it entered the human habitation near Luxbagan in South 24-Pargana district and was caught. 'We trapped a male tiger from Netidhopani-I forest in Sundarbans yesterday (Friday). The tiger has now been shifted to a squeeze cage,' Sundarbans field director Subrata Mukherjee told IANS Saturday. 'The forest department officials successfully tranquilised the tiger by administering ketamine and also radio-collared the animal,' he said. http://sify.com/news/trapped-sundarbans-tiger-to-be-released-sunday-news-national-kduukdbaejb.html