Protected Area Update, February 2012

PROTECTED AREA UPDATE
News and Information from protected areas in India and South Asia
Vol. XVIII No. 1
February 2012 (No. 95)

LIST OF CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
Wildlife’s infrastructure nightmare

NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES
ANDHRA PRADESH
- Proposed highway through Nallamala threatens tiger population

ARUNACHAL PRADESH
- New moth species discovered in Tale Valley Wildlife Sanctuary

ASSAM
- Vanya Prani Mitra Awards for forest staff
- Tea estate, permanent structures in elephant corridor in Ripu-Chirang Elephant Reserve
- Two rhinos shifted from Pobitora to Manas TR
- 14 tigers in transboundary Manas; four photographed on both sides of boundary
- Elephants run over by train in Gibbon WLS
- Tigress in Kaziranga NP shot to death by 15 bullets; police, FD hold each other responsible
- Acute funds shortage hits Assam national parks

GOA
- Exclude eco-sensitive zones from mining: WGEEP
- Goa minister challenges Mhadei WLS notification

HIMACHAL PRADESH
- Snow Leopard research centre for Spiti valley

JHARKHAND
- Elephant rescue centre at Dalma WLS

KARNATAKA
- HC upholds order for night closure of road through Nagarhole NP
- High Court says no to translocation of elephants to Cauvery WLS
- Minister seeks reconsideration of plan for extension of Pushpagiri WLS

KERALA
- Reduction in funds puts protected areas at risk
- Model to predict human-elephant conflict zones
- Survey records 176 species of butterflies in Shendurney WLS

MAHARASHTRA
- Coal mining destroying tiger habitat around Tadoba-Andhari TR: Greenpeace report
- RFOs finally appointed in Mansingdeo WLS

ORISSA
- Orissa proposes to use CAMPA funds to fix electrical lines causing elephant deaths
- Controversial Dhamra port located in the vicinity of Bhitarkanika, Gahirmatha finally commissioned

TAMIL NADU
- Tiger population in Sathyamangalam WLS at least 25
- Over 10,000 kgs of sea cucumber seized in Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve in year 2011

UTTARAKHAND
- Over 100 leopard deaths in Uttarakhand in 2011
- Twice rejected by FAC, hydro-project in buffer zone of Nanda Devi BR gets MoEF approval

NATIONAL NEWS FROM INDIA
- Sanctuary Asia Wildlife Awards -2011
- Solar power driven systems installed in 15 TRs
- Any citizen entitled to move Green panel: NGT
- Elephant population on the rise in the country
- MoEF seeks hike in funds for two wildlife schemes
- Virtual fencing to protect forests, wildlife
- 51 tigers died in 2011
- Nation-wide bear survey

SOUTH ASIA
SRI LANKA
- Sri Lanka allocates Rs 1,120 million for elephants for 2012

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
- Joint raid in four countries against wildlife trade

IN THE SUPREME COURT

SPECIAL SECTION - IMPORTANT BIRD AREAS UPDATE

ANDHRA PRADESH
- Five year management plan for Pulicat lake
- Fear over impact on Kolleru WLS of drilling in the K-G basin

GUJARAT
- Greater Flamingoes being electrocuted by high tension power lines in Kutch and Bhavnagar
- Real estate development, industrialization threaten Nal Sarovar

HIMACHAL PRADESH
- Satellite-collared Ruddy Shelduck returns to Pong Lake WLS from China

KERALA
- Hornbill nesting sites to be monitored with help of tribal community

MAHARASHTRA
- Flamingo sanctuary proposed along Thane creek in Mumbai
- Mumbai Trans Harbour Link to impact Sewri Mudflats; NGO seeks re-alignment of route

RAJASTHAN
- Shonkalia grassland near Ajmer to be developed keeping GIB and Lesser florican in mind

NATIONAL NEWS
- Recovery plan for GIB and Lesser Florican

FROM THE ARCHIVES: A Decade Ago
PERSPECTIVE
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EDITORIAL
'Wildlife’s infrastructure nightmare'

More roads that penetrate deeper, railway lines that connect better and faster, dam projects for power and irrigation, coal mining for more electricity, high-tension power lines to evacuate that electricity…. This is one side of India’s infrastructure and constantly lauded growth story.
There is another side to that very story which reads something like the following: Roads that cut through rich forests, railways lines that regularly kill elephants, dam projects that drown pristine forests and wildlife habitats, coal mining that rips apart tiger corridors, high tension lines that kill elephants in Orissa and flamingoes in Gujarat…
From the Nallamalla forests of Andhra Pradesh to the valley of the Alaknanda in Uttarakhand; from the elephant forests of Orissa to the Great Rann of Kutch in Gujarat – the story is the same – what is unfolding is nothing short of a nightmare for India’s wildlife. The infrastructure for our automobiles, power and lifestyles is leaving nothing of the natural infrastructure that the wild denizens need. As we travel faster, longer, and deeper and as the GDP becomes the only mantra, the elephants, the tigers, the leopards and even the flamingoes are getting hemmed in more and more with every passing day.
The fate of the flamingoes in Gujarat highlights this starkly. Their only option on being disturbed at night by vehicular noise in the Great Rann was to fly into high-tension wires hanging above and get charred instantly. Between the vehicle and the wire, India’s beleaguered wildlife is getting sandwiched and slaughtered like never before.
One ‘eco’ – the economic is soaring as everything ecologic is being torn to shreds. The tragic irony is that the same system sells to us and to the world the prowling tiger, the gamboling elephant, the soaring birds and, yes, the dancing tribal as ‘Incredible India’. We at the PA Update are part of a small crowd that’s watching on with incredulity. And with despair.
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PROTECTED AREA UPDATE
Vol. XVIII, No. 1, February 2012 (No. 95)
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

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
- Donations from a number of individual supporters
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Information has been sourced from different newspapers and
http://indiaenvironmentportal.org.in