read earlier blog post
Thursday, September 17, 2009
UP to carry out Tiger Census shortly
Under cloud for its claims on tiger numbers in Dudhwa National park, the UP govt has decided to go in for a fre census with the help of Wildlife Institute of India and NTCA reports Times Of India. On an ealier post this blog had written about the new country wide census to be conducted starting October this year which will be the most comprehensive and technically superior ever undertaken.
Tadoba gets new Field Director
After the mass transfer of forest officers in Maharashtra a few months back Tadoba Tiger Sanctuary in Chandrapur distt has finally got a new field director informs our friend from ground Zero, Shalik Jogwe a keen wildlife conservationist. Though a welcome move it is also symptomatic of the apathy with which politicos and govt officials treat important issues like convervation of wildlife and forest. The park director post has been lying vacant for almost 2 months at a critical time during rainy season when poaching incidents are at their peak. If this is not criminal culpability on park of the govt then what is. Letting the sanctuary gates open for poachers by removing the most important officials.
Tadoba has been in news recently for the campaign greens along with local citizens have been running to oppose granting of mining licenses by mah govt to Adani power. Convervationists fear the mines will destroy the green cover in the area and sound the death knell for tigers in the reserve which are anyway dwindling in numbers.
read earlier post on mass transfers
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
MP denies signing tripartite agreement with Centre-NTCA
A day after media reports announced Jairam Ramesh having convinced MP govt to get on board its new formula of saving tigers from killing, MP govt in its press release has denied signing any such document reports Indopia. It is relevant to note that more than 6 state hav already signed the agreement paving way for direct release of central funds to the tiger sanctuaries and increased accountability of field directors. Apparantely forest officers in MP having been holding out against signing the pact citing accountability releated issues. It is ironic that the central india state which should be at the forefront of tiger conservation is dragging its feet on such an important issue especially since two of its tiger sanctuaries, Panna and Sanjay Gandhi NAtional Park recently were reported to have lost all their big cats.
MP denies reports of signing MoU with Centre on tiger reserves
Worried centre calls meet to discuss alarming rate of Tiger Killings
Worried by the continuing spate of tiger killings this year, 50 as per NTCA estimate and 66 according to NGOs, centre has called a series of meets of all 17 tiger states reports Chennai Online. the first such meet is to be held on 17th Sept with the last one on 6th October. It is relevant to note that tiger deaths due to poaching, habitat loss and man animal conflict are continuing to take its toll on the big cat population despite vigorous efforts put in by the new MOEF Jairam Ramesh to get states to become more accountable in dealing with the problem.
Centre convenes meetings to discuss tiger deaths
Goa govt doing its bit to bury tiger killing case
After all the misfires into the investigation of tiger killing case in Goa, from very little evidence to investigators becoming accused to samples being changed, the Goa govt has finally decided to refer the matter to the stae wild life board. The tiger killing came to light in march and there has been a systematic attempt at covering up the killing and now this gem delivered by the Goa govt will ensure the case is buried for good within the state. if the govt was serious about investigating the killing they would have handed it over to WCCB or a nodal central agency. Knowing fully well that there are vested interests involved in hushing up the case, goa's politicos are offering an extra hand at helping their brethren.
Govt to refer tiger killing case to Goa Wild Life Board
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
MP seeks 2500 crores from centre to resettle families living inside Tiger sanctuaries
A day after MP govt signing on the tripartite agreement with NTCA and Centre, the state has proposed to move out almost 25000 families living inside wildlife sanctuaries a PTI report states. To achieve this the state govt has asked the centre for a grant of almost Rs 2500 crores since the Centre recently increased compensation payable to each relocated family to Rs 10 lac. This move might go a long way in ensuring wildlife lives seperated from any human interference and settled areas inside parks which are sometimes used by poachers for cover are removed.
MP seeks Central funds for relocating villagers from reserves
Monday, September 14, 2009
Centre convinces MP to sign tripartite agreement
In a development set to give a big boost to tiger conservation in the country, ministry of Environment and Forests have conviced a reluctant MP govt to sign teh tripartite agreement which will set the stage for increased accountability and streamline flows of funds to sanctuaries. It is pertinent to note that 6 other states have already signed the agreement but MP one of the states with largest tiger population had so far refused to sign the agreement with bureaucrats in teh state against stringent clauses in the pact making them accountable for loss of tigers in the park. Now with MP on board and other states like Maharasthra, Uttarakhand , Rajasthan, Assam, TN having already signed it, Karnataka & UP are the two large states left to come on board.
MP signs tiger conservation pact with NTCA, parks
Sunday, September 13, 2009
WII says samples not from Tiger in Goa poaching case
In an development eerily similar to the Aarushi Murder case, WII Dehradun has indicated that the samples sent to them for analysis by the Goa Forest department after a tiger was killed near the Mhadei Wildlife sanctuary does not belong to a Tiger. TOI says Is it interesting to note that the institute has taken more than 3 months to do the analysis and realease its report raising questions about the sanctity of the work done by them. The goa forest dept after extensive seach and anaysis had collected the sample and were very sure of them belonging to a tiger. Obviously the samples were changed before it got to WII or something happened there. Given the influence local goa mafia has shown over the case it wont be surprising that samples were changed in Goa itself. The local police has been hand in glove with local mafia in harrasing forest officials. Goa state authorities have so far shown no inclination to hand over the case to WCCB obvisouly due to local political pressure. Like the unfortuanate tiger, the case seems to be headed for a quite burial.
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Latest tiger census to be ready by Oct 2010
Minister MOEF Jairam Ramesh has indicated the new census going to be undertaken sometime end of this year will be ready with its findings by October next year in time for the Tiger summit to be he held at Ranthambore. As posted on this blog earlier the new census will be one of the most comprehensive ever undetaken in India and will cover Sunderabans and some of the sanctuaries in Assam. Read earlier post
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
AP govt announces YSR memorial inside tiger sanctuary - Environmentalists up in arms
YSR's sudden and unfortuante departure wasnt just a loss for the state and the country but it seems it will also sound the death knell for wildlife inside the state's pristine eco corridor. AP govt minister yesterday announced building a memorial at the crash site which lies deep inside the heart of Nallamala Forests and is part of Gundlabrahmeshwaram wildlife sanctuary according to a TOI report. If YSR was alive one can safely imagine he would never allow this to happen. Building a memorial will destroy the forests on account of increased tourist activity and will facilitate encroachment inside, an area hitherto of bereft large human settlements. Obviously the green bridage is protesting the move. one hopes better sense prevails amongst AP govt officials and the forests are left untouched so that YSR's soul can rest in peace.
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Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Wildlife Crime Control Bureau waiting for Goa Govt to order investigation into Tiger killing
A story two days back in local media had reported WCCB having taken up the case of tiger poached in Goa in march this year. WCCB Deputy Director has in a story on et online denied taking up the case and has cited regulations which dont allow them to take over a case unless asked by the state govt. From destruction of evidence to the main whistle blower being ostracised the case took at biazzare turn last week when some of the forest officials investigating the case were accused of beating up one of the accused in custody (read earlier post here http://planettiger.blogspot.com/2009/08/goa-tiger-poaching-case-investigators.html).
This after the main accused in the case managed toget bail on account of insufficient evidence which was apparently burnt villages in connivance with locals. Now that the case is as good as dead, the last centre should do is to ensure no repeats of this incident happen anywhere in teh country and all tiger death cases, including the ones where state governments are not keen on central inquiry are investigated transparently.
Sunderbans tiger -human conflict continues unabated as prey census
A post earlier this month had highlighted increased incidents of tigers straying into villages in the Sunderbans apparently due to reduced prey base. read earlier post (http://planettiger.blogspot.com/2009/09/sunderbans-tiger-deaths-attributed-to.html)
Now comes news of a man having been lifted by a tiger while collecting crabs. A study to ascertain the prey base in the sanctuary was initiated in July by the forest department is yet to see light of day as instances of man-animal conflict continue to rise. The forest department had suspected cyclode Aila ealier this year to have been responsible for the death of many deer and wild boars in Sunderbans the primary meal of tigers. In light of the increased nunber of tigers conming into close contact with humans the forest department had planned to devise steps to address this issue. The prey base study is supposed to be a critical component of the conservation plan and no one seems to know when that will come out. In the meanwhile attacks and conflict situations continue to rise and Sunderbans where a scientific census of tigers will be undertaken for the first time this year continues to wait for official attention.
Crab collector lifted by tiger
New Tiger census to be most comprehensive ever undertaken in India
After the first new age tiger census in India carried out in 2007 using camera trap methodology put the big cat number at 1411, WII is ready to embark upon the next such exercise from October across tiger reserves in India. Indian Express today reports preperation for the mamoth exercise going on with the help of NGO. The latest round will also cover Sunderbans which was left out in the previous survey and also some other sanctuaries in North east that were excluded from the earlier census. The latest census will also capture much more ground level data using a customised software in which ground staff will key in informatino related to habitat and behaviour of the big cats. Before the census in 2007 state forest officials were prone to exaggerating tiger numbers for the fear of loosing their jobs or keeping the lid on poaching. THe census for the first time highlighted the plight of tigers in India and the precarious situation they are in. Although the count did create huge amount of media coverage and groundswell of support amongst general public the govt has been slow to react. Despite all the proclamations by politicians and bureaucrats, india has been loosing tigers rapidly as the ground situation has only deteriorated owing to corruption, lethargy and lack of awarness. With the census numbers beyond dispute and the latest round likely to bring in even worse new , one hopes it will finally goad all stake holders into taking decisive steps to protect tigers.
Indian express Story
New census will also include mangrove tigers in Sunderbans, which were not counted in 2007, and give an accurate count of tigers in the Northeast The census will be conducted in three phases. In the first phase, tiger signs will be searched for. In the second phase, remote-sensing techniques will be used. In the third phase, camera-traps will be used to photograph tigers
HOW does one count India's tigers which straddle wetland, grassland, mountains and mangroves? With 90,000 people, Rs 8 crore and two years of hard work.The world's biggest-ever count for the big cat -- the All India Tiger Estimation -- is unfolding shortly. Currently, instructions and methods of data collection are being translated into regional languages -- Assamese, Bengali, Kannada, Oriya, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam -- for forest staff.
In October's first week, training of forest staff through workshops in different parts of India will be held.
In 2007, using cameras and modern tiger-tracking techniques for the first time for counting tigers, Wildlife Institute of India (WII) had come up with a startlingly low number of wild Indian tigers: 1,411 only. This time, the census, to be conducted by WII with the help of NGOs, will be much bigger. It will include the uncounted mangrove tigers in Sunderbans and give an accurate count of tigers in the Northeast. Also, 60 students/researchers will be recruited by WII for the census.
Anewsoftwarewhichwillbekeyinbasic field observations by field guards in a digital format is being used this year.
The exhaustive tiger census will be conducted in three phases. In the first phase, tiger signs will be searched for. Data collection for this phase will start in November. In the second phase, remote-sensing techniques will be used. In the third phase, camera-traps will be used to photograph tigers. In each camera-trapping exercise, one set of two cameras, triggered off by tiger movement, is used to capture both sidesofthetiger.Onecameraisusedevery 4 km in high-density tiger areas.
"We are starting training workshops for forest staff. By May 2010, we hope to finish phase I over central India, Terai, Northeast and Sunderbans. By the time of the Global Tiger Summit, we will have the distribution, numbers and occupancy of tigers over major tiger landscapes in these areas," says Yadavendra Jhala, from WII who is one of the scientists conducting the census.
India will host a Global Tiger Summit in October next year in Ranthambhore. By then, a basic count of major breeding tiger populations -- high or low -- will be readied to announce to the rest of the international participants at the summit. This comes at a time when tiger numbers are at an all-time low.
In a recent estimate, the National Tiger Conservation Authority has found that out of the 37 tiger reserves in the country, 16 have poor tiger density. In the last one year, above 60 tigers are estimated to have died. The new number the census will unearth is unlikely to be cheerful but will also lay to rest grossly exaggerated tiger numbers which state forest departments have estimated.
The challenge posed by difficult habitats -- the mountains in the Northeast, the mangroves in Sunderbans and dense grasslands in other areas -- had limited the scope of the 2007 census. The tigers of Sunderbans, which straddle inhospitable mangrove habitat, were not counted at all. There was only a preliminary tiger count for the Eastern and Northeastern tiger reserves like Kaziranga (Assam), Namdapha (Arunachal Pradesh) Dampa (Mizoram) and West Bengal's Buxa tiger reserve. This time, tiger populations from all tiger reserves with the possible exemption of some Naxalism-ridden areas like Indrawati (Chhattisgarh), Palamau (Jharkhand) and Simlipal (Orissa) will be counted.
The count will put to rest claims that many states make on having "hundreds of tigers". West Bengal has long maintained that Sunderbans has "200-300 tigers", a fact scoffed at by tiger experts. At a recent all-India summit of field directors in Sariska, Buxa field director claimed his park had 200 tigers. Orissa, too, claims to have nearly 100 tigers.
But currently, as many as seven tiger reserves, which face problems of insurgency and poor tiger density, just don't know how many tigers they have, or if they have any tigers at all. These are Indravati, Simlipal (Orissa), Palamau (Jharkhand), Manas (Assam), Namdapha (Arunachal Pradesh), Dampa (Mizoram) and Buxa (West Bengal).
Maoists leading Similipal rampage caught
TOI today reports capture of two maoist kingpins apparently behind the recent widespread poaching of wildlife inside the park. As this blog has been highlighting, the Orissa state govt has thrown its hands up on protecting Similipal citing attacks from Maoists. Early this year, a gang of red brigade and poachers attacked forest guards and tourists who fled the area leading to complete breakdown of protection machinery inside the park. Ever since wildlife killing and tree felling has been going on rampantly inside the park. Read earlier post (http://planettiger.blogspot.com/2009/08/similipal-tiger-reserve-being-plundered.html)
Orissa chief minister even demanded the centre to post CRPF inside the park and last month NTCA sent a team of officials to gauge the ground situation first hand. Reports emanating from inside the park dont seem very good. The sanctuary used to be inhabited by almost 100 tigers till a couple of years back which was down to 61 In january. With the latest killing spree of the last couple of months it is difficult to guess if any tigers have survived.
The capture of these two leaders might make a dent in the on going crime being perpetrated inthe park but long term sercurty and conservation methods need to be put in place immediately to prevent complete loss of the pristine habitat. The state govt can start by signining the tripartite agreement with NTCA and centre that has been signed by more than 6 states already which will make funds more easily available to teh reserve and also make forest rangers accountable for protection.
Similipal rampage kingpin caught |
Bandipur reserve loosing Tigers to Poachers & Corruption
Though some of the rcent steps taken by Jairam Ramesh are laudable but situation on ground is rapidly deteriorating with poaching of tiger continuing unabated across tiger reserves in India. After Sariksa, Panna and some ofthe other parks in North east, a well written piece in Deccan Herald exposes the on going poaching of big cats inside Bandipur and nagarhole sanctuaries shockingly with connivance of forest guards. In a specific instance, teh story details how forest guards themselves removed claws of a tiger before burying it. All the other ills that plaugue forest conservation efforts in India are gradullay taking a toll on wildlife in Bandipur too, which has arguable the best tiger population in teh country. Interference from local politicians to involvement of poaching mafia and a demotivated forest staff, Bandipur is staring at a future full of uncertainity. Karnataka is still one of the major states to have not signed the Tripartite agreement with NTCA and centre that affixes responsibility for loss of tigers on local forest wardens and streamlines flow of money to the park. Apparentely Forest staff in Bandipur has not been paid salary for months despite central funds being released regularly. No prizes for guessing where the funds are going. It is time for the centre to push MP and Karnataka and also Orrisa to sign teh agreement to ensure protection measures are enforced before it is too late.
The hunter becomes hunted
Monday, September 7, 2009
Is it a Tiger or Is it a Dog - Media confused !
Today's TOI and Mumbai Mirror both have reported the same story but carry different facts. Apparently two men were caught in Mumbai yesterday trying to sell what seemed like Tiger Skin. TOI story quotes senior cops involved in the bust up saying they are sure of it being a tiger skin and have sent it for further analysis.
MM, also part of TOI group incidentally, says the skin siezed was of a dog not a tiger and again quotes senior officials involved in the investigation being sure of it being a dog skin.
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Goa tiger poaching case takes another twist
Months after the case came to light, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau has suddenly decided to investigate the case according to a TOI report today. It is worth noting that the case is as good as dead with most of the evidence destroyed after systematic cover ups by the wildlife dept and local population left very little for the Goa wildlife dept to investiage on. On wonders why has it taken WCCB almost 6 months to make up its mind when it has been amply clear from media reports all this while that the case is going no where. As this blog has been saying, responsibility to protect wildlife is not just the state govt's but also centre. Once it was clear that this case was being buried by vested interest, the centralministry should have intervened. Wildlife is national property and leaving it to states who are either bankrupt ofmoney & ideas or are buried under the greed of local mafia is not going to lead us very far on the route to conservation.
The story also mentions jairam Ramesh proposing a cetral law to deal with wildlife related crimes.Such a law has been long over due along with an authoritative investigating central agency like the CBI which has powers to work across borders and take on cases where powerful interests are involved.
Wildlife bureau likely to probe tiger killing
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Centre states play blame game as wilflife vanishes rapidly
A report on IBNlive yesterday details out how most of the states have failed to take effective steps for protection of tigers and reserves earmarked for them. Though states are to be blamed for the tardiness and low priority given to wildlife conservation, the centre till recently hadnt shown any particular zeal in its efforts apart from just blaming the local governments. With the Ministry of Environment and forests known to have been highly corrupt and lethargic no efforts were made by the centre to push states into granting priority to tiger conservation efforts. with a new energetic minister at teh helm things are changing but a lot needs to be done to wake the babudom out of their slumber if we want to see the tiger population surviving into the next generation.
Project Tiger in danger as states fail to utilise funds
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Mumbai surrounded by Tiger infested jungle - Incredible !!
Today's edititon of Mint carries an excerpt from a book titled 'Living Jewels of Indian Jungle' published by BNHS. The book details instances of tigers regularly being sighted in and around areas we live in or visit regularly today. In the early part of 19th Century even Malabar hills had ample game and tigers sighting was not uncommong. Sadly our mindless urge to kill tigers for trophies saw the last big cat being killed in the early 20th century near Vihar lake, a sport which followed by modern day poaching has pushed the beast to the brink.
Wish we could have tiger reserves around Mumbai again.
A tiger on Malabar Hill
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