Pasted below is the list of contents and editorial from the new issue of the Protected Area Update (Vol. XIV, No. 6, December 2008). If you would like to receive specific stories or the entire newsletter as an attachment please do write to me at psekhsaria@gmail.com
Please also forward to individuals and other egroups that might be interested in the issues and/or would like to receive the stories in the Update.
Please also forward to individuals and other egroups that might be interested in the issues and/or would like to receive the stories in the Update.
Thanks
Pankaj Sekhsaria
Editor, PA Update, C/o Kalpavriksh
----Pankaj Sekhsaria
Editor, PA Update, C/o Kalpavriksh
PROTECTED AREA UPDATE
News and Information from protected areas in India and South Asia
Vol. XIV No. 6
December 2008 (No.76)
LIST OF CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
-A Gulf in trouble?
NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES
ANDHRA PRADESH
SEZs threaten wildlife
ARUNACHAL PRADESH
Community Biosphere Reserve in Upper Siang District
ASSAM
Disease kills rhino calf in Pobitara, 2nd one ailing
Chakrashila staff receive training at Corbett
Workshop on wildlife management
Workshop on hoolock gibbon translocation
Call to include Kaziranga portion in NH-37
Male rhino gores female to death at Manas
Manas poachers join green NGO
GUJARAT
Feral dogs hunt blackbucks at Velavadar
66% tourists to Gujarat visit Gir
Hotels functioning illegally around GirNew management zone for PAs in North Gujarat
FD proposes incentive scheme for informers
JAMMU & KASHMIR
Wildlife crime prevention workshop held in Leh
JHARKHAND
FD ‘adopts’ two villages near Dalma WLS
Spotted deer released into Hazaribagh NP
KARNATAKA
Initiative to control traffic in Bandipur NP
Tribal people block entry to Nagarhole NP
Night traffic banned on road inside Nagarhole NP
Wildlife research institute coming up in Kodagu
KERALA
Tiger population rising in PTR; count to be undertaken across state
Conflict between panchayats over management of Kadalundi Community Reserve
PUDUCHERRY
Oussudu Lake declared first sanctuary in Puducherry
MEGHALAYA
Garo Students Union Opposes Coal Mining in Balpakram NP, South Garo Hills
ORISSA
Simlipal opens for tourists from November
Tourism facilities for Chandaka WLS
Anti-poaching measures at Chilika
Villagers of Karlapat WLS start exercising rights under Forest Rights Act
TAMIL NADU
Large scale mortality of aquatic life in the Gulf of Mannar Marine NP
Campaign to declare Gulf of Mannar a World Heritage Site
UTTARAKHAND
Metal trap-detectors for Corbett and Rajaji
UTTAR PRADESH
Trains through Dudhwa may stop
WEST BENGAL
Top officials transferred after tiger death in Sunderbans TR
Czech national arrested for collecting beetles from Singalila NP flees country
NATIONAL NEWS FROM INDIA
Parliamentary committee for scrapping of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill
Responses to the draft regulatory framework for wetland conservation
13 tigers poached in last two years
Conference of Southern Forest Ministers
49 Indian mammal species face extinction threat; rhino out of IUCN red list
NTCA signs pact with TRAFFIC India
Edberg award for environmental work to Shekar Dattatri
Workshop on wildlife conservation laws for Northeast judiciary
SOUTH ASIA
BANGLADESH
World’s largest population of endangered dolphins found in Bangladesh
Bangladesh acts to protect deer in Sundarbans
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
New President for the IUCN
MoU for protection of migratory birds of prey found in Europe, Africa and Asia
INTERPOL and CITES launch new manual for wildlife crimes investigators
UPCOMING
Maharashtra Rajya Pakshimitra Sammelan 2008
OPPORTUNITIES
Small Cat Action Fund
Doctoral research fellowships in tiger conservation
Graduate Research Assistantship at Michigan State University
LIST OF COMMUNITY AND CONSERVATION RESERVES IN INDIA
LATEST STATUS OF CRITICAL TIGER HABITATS
EDITORIAL
A GULF IN TROUBLE?
The last few months have seen some drastic ecological changes in the waters of the Gulf of Mannar along the country’s eastern coast. An unprecedented algal bloom is reported to have caused the mortality of thousands of marine animals here. While there certainly is a set of inter-related factors that must have caused the bloom, it is important that scientists have pointed out to the large scale and indiscriminate dumping of municipal and domestic sewage as one of key triggers.
Just a few months ago there were other reports of the corals here getting diseased on account of deteriorating water quality associated with increased pollution and sea surface temperatures (PA Update Vol. XIV, No. 3). Illegal blasting and collection of coral for use as limestone continue to pose a serious threat to coral reef resources in the region and it was not very long ago that the exotic algae Kappaphycus alvarezzi that is being cultivated here as part of a commercial enterprise was seen to have invaded significant parts of the protected area (PA Update Vol. XIV, No. 4). This species is reported to have become invasive (displacing local varieties of algae) and was also smothering corals leading to major adverse impacts on the reefs in the Caribbean, where it was introduced with similar intentions of income generation. There are fears that a similar situation will be seen soon in the Gulf of Mannar too.
It would seem that Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve which is the biggest and one of the oldest in the country has no respite from human created disasters and one is not even talking about the construction of the Sethu Samudran Shipping Canal that will undoubtedly cause huge irreparable damage to this unique and rich ecosystem. While there are some studies on the negative impacts of human activities such as sewage disposal, exotic species introduction and coral mining, it would also be very important to initiate a long term process to monitor the economic and ecological impacts of these developments.
What is important is that the developments in the Gulf here are only indicative of what is happening all along India’s rich and diverse coastal systems. We have a huge coastline that is ecologically very rich and one that supports thousands of human communities. In more ways than one this system has always received a step-motherly treatment. Large scale pollution, construction of major projects like ports, industrial hubs and power plants and damming of rivers that eventually force a change in the fine coastal balance continue even today, unmindful of the damage that is being caused.
The present developments here are perhaps a good indicator of just that. The faster we take notice of this the better it will be because in abusing or even just neglecting the coastal systems today we forget that a much higher price will have to be paid tomorrow.
Just a few months ago there were other reports of the corals here getting diseased on account of deteriorating water quality associated with increased pollution and sea surface temperatures (PA Update Vol. XIV, No. 3). Illegal blasting and collection of coral for use as limestone continue to pose a serious threat to coral reef resources in the region and it was not very long ago that the exotic algae Kappaphycus alvarezzi that is being cultivated here as part of a commercial enterprise was seen to have invaded significant parts of the protected area (PA Update Vol. XIV, No. 4). This species is reported to have become invasive (displacing local varieties of algae) and was also smothering corals leading to major adverse impacts on the reefs in the Caribbean, where it was introduced with similar intentions of income generation. There are fears that a similar situation will be seen soon in the Gulf of Mannar too.
It would seem that Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve which is the biggest and one of the oldest in the country has no respite from human created disasters and one is not even talking about the construction of the Sethu Samudran Shipping Canal that will undoubtedly cause huge irreparable damage to this unique and rich ecosystem. While there are some studies on the negative impacts of human activities such as sewage disposal, exotic species introduction and coral mining, it would also be very important to initiate a long term process to monitor the economic and ecological impacts of these developments.
What is important is that the developments in the Gulf here are only indicative of what is happening all along India’s rich and diverse coastal systems. We have a huge coastline that is ecologically very rich and one that supports thousands of human communities. In more ways than one this system has always received a step-motherly treatment. Large scale pollution, construction of major projects like ports, industrial hubs and power plants and damming of rivers that eventually force a change in the fine coastal balance continue even today, unmindful of the damage that is being caused.
The present developments here are perhaps a good indicator of just that. The faster we take notice of this the better it will be because in abusing or even just neglecting the coastal systems today we forget that a much higher price will have to be paid tomorrow.
---
PROTECTED AREA UPDATE
Vol. XIV, No. 6, December 2008 (No. 76)
Editor: PANKAJ SEKHSARIA
Editorial Assistance: WRUTUJA PARDESHI
Illustrations: MADHUVANTI ANANTHARAJAN
Produced by: KALPAVRIKSH
Ideas, comments, news and information may please be sent to the editorial address:
KALPAVRIKSH, Apartment 5, Shri Dutta Krupa, 908 Deccan Gymkhana, Pune 411004, Maharashtra, India. Tel/Fax: 020 – 25654239.
Email: psekhsaria@gmail.com
Website: www.kalpavriksh.org
Production of PA Update 76 has been supported by THE FOUNDATION FOR ECOLOGICAL SECURITY (FES), Anand.
Vol. XIV, No. 6, December 2008 (No. 76)
Editor: PANKAJ SEKHSARIA
Editorial Assistance: WRUTUJA PARDESHI
Illustrations: MADHUVANTI ANANTHARAJAN
Produced by: KALPAVRIKSH
Ideas, comments, news and information may please be sent to the editorial address:
KALPAVRIKSH, Apartment 5, Shri Dutta Krupa, 908 Deccan Gymkhana, Pune 411004, Maharashtra, India. Tel/Fax: 020 – 25654239.
Email: psekhsaria@gmail.com
Website: www.kalpavriksh.org
Production of PA Update 76 has been supported by THE FOUNDATION FOR ECOLOGICAL SECURITY (FES), Anand.
--
2 comments:
nice to see your articles. i am also an environmental journalist like you..kudos buddy..keep working
Pankaj ji,
In addition to what you have provided in the latest PA update as regards Trains passing through Dudhwa which as you have rightly said might be stopped, I would like to bring to your notice, such situations in other reserve forests and dense forest areas in the Terai region of Uttar Pradesh, including Bahraich, Shravasti, Lakhimpur, Piliphit and Siddharth nagar where due to these train movements, there are many accidents that place in which some of these wild-life animals get injured or even die because of the collisions with these trains.
As must be well known to you, an FIR was recently lodged against a DRM of NE Railway after which the Railways rose from its reverie and got into some action, though within as week there was another incident of the like nature.
Until and unless these train movements are not stopped or made strictly regulated, such incidents will recur time and again.
Dr Nutan Thakur,
IRDS,
Lucknow
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