Dear Friends,
Below is the list of contents and editorial from the new issue of the Protected Area Update (Vol. XVII, No. 6, December 2011).
If you would like to receive the entire issue as an attachment, please write to me.
thanks
Pankaj Sekhsaria
Editor, Protected Area Update
C/o Kalpavriksh
PROTECTED AREA UPDATE
News and Information from protected areas in India and South Asia
Vol. XVII No. 6
December 2011 (No. 94)
LIST OF CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
A rich and diverse menu
NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES
ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS
- Navy proposes missile testing on Tillongchang WLS; NBWL to inspect site
ANDHRA PRADESH
- Opposition to road inside Kambalakonda WLS
- More than 90 tigers at Nagarjuna Sagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve
ARUNACHAL PRADESH
- NBWL sub-committee to study impact of Demwe Lower on Kamlang WLS
ASSAM
- Villagers in Khalingduar Reserve Forest, adjoining Bornadi WLS perform Ganesh puja to keep jumbos at bay
- Dam projects to impact Dibru-Saikhowa NP; public hearing postponed indefinitely
- Home guards, casual workers protecting PAs not paid for seven months; quitting posts
- Kaziranga NP opens to tourists four days before schedule
- Two Malinoises (Belgian shepherd dogs) for anti-poaching operations at Kaziranga NP
GOA
- Centre asks Goa to cancel nod to mines within 10 km radius of PAs
GUJARAT
- Maldharis threaten agitation against eviction from Gir
- Forest officer transferred for stopping lion shows in Gir; challenges transfer order
HIMACHAL PRADESH
- Sainj power project threatens Great Himalayan NP
JAMMU & KASHMIR
- Hangul population on the rise
- Wildlife awareness camp conducted near Sudhmahadev Conservation Reserve
JHARKHAND
- Elephant bridges to be built over canals in Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary
- Mushroom cultivation project initiated near Hazaribagh WLS
KARNATAKA
- Greater Talacauvery NP opposed as it may displace more than two lakh people
- Nagarhole guards allege intimidation by kin of senior police official; threaten strike
- Extension of Bisile Reserve Forest range for creation of elephant corridor meets opposition
- More speed barriers on highways inside Bandipur National Park
- Move to restore night traffic through Bandipur Tiger Reserve
- Community forest rights for Soligas in the BRT Wildlife Sanctuary
KERALA
- 45 frog species sighted in Shendurney WLS
- Ornithological survey of Malabar records 341 species
- 10 year, Rs. 58.8 crore tiger conservation plan for Parambikulam TR
MADHYA PRADESH
- 25 tribal women to be trained as wildlife guides in Kanha TR
MAHARASHTRA
- Farmers, villagers oppose Sahyadri Tiger Reserve
MANIPUR
- Climate change threatens Keibul Lamjao NP
MEGHALAYA
- Meghalaya claims 47 tigers in state: seeks detailed tiger survey
ORISSA
- Crocodile attack leads to ban on collection of nalia grass from Bhitarkanika NP
- Housing projects coming up adjacent to Chandaka Wildlife Sanctuary
RAJASTHAN
- FD to train Sariska TR villagers in wildlife protection
- Rs 5 crore, 5 year ‘Project Panther’ adjoining Kumbhalgarh WLS
- Water from Ajan Bund released for Keoladeo NP
SIKKIM
- FD’s GPS mappings helped pilots in earthquake relief in Dzongu
TAMIL NADU
- Sathyamangalam WLS expanded to 1410 sq kms
WEST BENGAL
- Elephant calf killed by a train inside Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary
- State to get Rs 400 crore loan from JICA for wildlife conservation
- Honey bees, chilli crackers to scare away elephants in North Bengal
- Domestic elephant shelter in Jaldapara not safe from wild elephants
NATIONAL NEWS FROM INDIA
- Genetics helping to trace tiger poaching
- RBS Awards for wildlife conservation
SOUTH ASIA
- Simultaneous tiger estimation in Manas across Indian, Bhutanese border
NEPAL
- Invasive climber poses threat to Chitwan NP
SRI LANKA
- UNESCO seeks report on the alleged road through Sinharaja forests
- Kodigahakanda forest to be declared a wildlife sanctuary
UPCOMING
- National Conference on Biodiversity Assessment, Conservation and Utilisation
OPPURTUNITIES
- Openings with FERAL for work in the Western Ghats
IN THE SUPREME COURT
READERS WRITE
PERSPECTIVE
- When students discuss conservation science
EDITORIAL
- A rich and diverse menu -
It is only a subjective assessment, but one can say with confidence that the PA Update this time has one of the most richly diverse set of stories that have appeared within the covers of one single issue of this bimonthly. The issue covers a period of about three months prior to its publication and yet one sees the range and diversity of subjects that wildlife conservation in India deals with. Many of these issues have been regularly covered in earlier editions of the PA Update, but what is striking this time is so many of them coming together in the way they have.
There are stories from areas that have never been reported on before such as the Tillongchang Wildlife Sanctuary in the Nicobar Islands and the Sudhmahadev Conservation Reserve in J&K. The last few weeks have, for example, also seen the death of one elephant calf each in a train accident (again!) in Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS) and in a road accident in Bandipur National Park (NP). While the Karnataka Forest Department is planning more speed breakers on roads inside the park to prevent speeding vehicles, the Kerala government and the Centre are seeking to revoke the ban on night traffic in Bandipur imposed to prevent, precisely these kinds of accidents. In Andhra Pradesh, meanwhile, we have a situation where an NGO is opposing road construction inside Kambalakonda WLS for fear that it will increase encroachments inside.
The plight of field staff in protected areas is seen again in Assam and also in the Nagarhole NP. Home Guards who are the frontline of protection have been deserting their posts in Assam in huge numbers because they’ve not been paid salaries for more than seven months. In Nagarhole they’ve been forced to threaten a strike because they are being intimidated by police and their kin because they are merely performing their duties. In Gujarat the Maldhari community is protesting moves to evict them from the Gir NP, while in a significant first in the Biligiri Rangan Temple WLS in Karnataka the Soliga tribals have been granted community forest rights under the provision of the Forest Rights Act. There is what might otherwise be called the quirky kind of news too – the domestic elephant shelter in Mahananda WLS not being safe from raids by wild elephants, villagers in the vicinity of Bornadi WLS in Assam performing Ganesh puja to keep the wild pachyderms at bay and Kaziranga NP being opened to tourists four days before schedule because of pressure from the tourists.
There is good news as well – a reported increase in the population of the hangul in Kashmir and two encouraging results from surveys in Kerala – one on birds, the other on frogs. The most unexpectedly pleasant report however is one from Sikkim – GIS mapping done by the FD including that for PAs and wildlife conservation played a key role in helping helicopters of Army and other missions to locate, reach and then provide relief to remote communities that had been cut off due to the devastating earthquake of September 18, earlier this year.
All of this is evidence, if any is needed indeed, that there is much much more to conservation in India than the obsession with certain charismatic species or certain issues, be it poaching or relocation of communities from protected areas. These too are important but if we are not aware of and don’t deal with this complexity and diversity, the solutions will never be found. There are also huge opportunities here for researchers, academics, policy makers, the media, and all the others who care about the fate of India’s wild wealth.
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Protected Area Update
Vol. XVII, No. 6, December 2011 (No. 94)
Editor: Pankaj Sekhsaria;
Editorial Assistance: Reshma Jathar, Anuradha Arjunwadkar;
Illustrations: Madhuvanti Anantharajan, Peeyush Sekhsaria
Produced by:
The Documentation and Outreach Centre, 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: http://kalpavriksh.org/protected-area-update
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Publication of the PA Update has been supported by
- Foundation for Ecological Security (FES)
http://fes.org.in/
- Duleep Matthai Nature Conservation Trust
C/o FES
- MISEREOR
www.misereor.org
- Donations from a number of individual supporters
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Information has been sourced from different newspapers and
http://indiaenvironmentportal.org.in
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