‘THE
STATE OF WILDLIFE IN NORTHEAST INDIA: (1996 – 2011) – A Compilation of
News from the Protected Area Update’
Dear Friends,
I am very happy to announce the publication of a new book and the first
that is based on the 18 years of information available in the Protected
Area Update.
EDITED by Pankaj Sekhsaria
PUBLISHED by the Foundation for Ecological Security, Anand.
Pp: 300, over 100 line drawings.
Price: Rs. 250 + postage
Write to me at psekhsaria@gmail.com for details of how to procure a copy.
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LIST OF CONTENTS
North East India Regional News;
News from the States:
Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura.
Perspective & Opinion:
The Print MediaŹ¼s Kaziranga obsession – An analysis (Mehak Siddiqui & C Rajesh Reddi);
A case study of wildlife rescue and rehabilitation in western Assam(Sonali Ghosh);
Snow leopards in the land of the rising sun(Yash Veer Bhatnagar);
Karbi Anglong: A little known wilderness of Assam (Anwaruddin Choudhury);
Elephants and other memories of the Garo Hills(Nimesh Ved);
Dams in the North East (Neeraj Vagholikar);
Community conservation of wildlife (Neema Pathak)
Annexures:
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A NOTE ON THE BOOK (based on the editorial in Protected Area Update 102 (April 2013)
For over a decade and a half the Protected Area Update has religiously
presented a consolidated account of India’s wildlife and the PA network.
Published six times a year, it carries in a tightly edited format, news
and information of what is happening in, to and around these national
parks and sanctuaries that have been at the core of India’s wildlife
conservation strategy.
Now, for the first time, a section of this
huge body of information has been re-organised to form a completely new
publication – what we have called ‘The State of Wildlife in North-East
India - 1996-2011’. Published by the Foundation for Ecological Security,
this is an historical account of developments in the PA network in the
eight states of the north-east. While the primary unit still remains the
individual protected area, the time line has changed from two months of
one issue to 15 years that this publication covers.
In following
one news item after another about any particular PA we see what happened
month after month, year after year; what developments recurred at what
periodicity; what were the issues that were important and what was done
about them. It is, we believe, an important glimpse into the
contemporary history of wildlife conservation in this very interesting
part of the country.
And many insights emerge, none more striking
than it’s Assam centred-ness. It might be a North East compilation but
it might as well be called an Assam compilation. Nearly two-third of the
stories are from the state of Assam alone. The others in the region
seem to exist only on the margins. Even in Assam, about 50% of the
stories are about only one PA, the Kaziranga National Park. This, in
turn raises a whole set of questions - What explains this fascination
with Kaziranga? Is it really that much more important than anything else
in the region? Don’t other parks have a lot that Kaziranga does not? Is
it about what is actually happening on the ground, about what the world
thinks of Kaziranga or some dynamics of editorial desks and newspaper
newsrooms? The answers are not really there, but the ground is laid for a
lot more investigation, questioning and for gaining many insights.
The stories in this 300 page compilation have been illustrated with the
sometimes quirky, sometimes amusing but always insightful line drawings
that have been the hallmark of the PA Update since the beginning. It
also includes a series of analysis and perspective by individuals with
well established expertise in their fields of work, all related to the
wildlife and environmental issues of the region.
It’s been a hugely
instructive experience putting it together and we are confident it will
be the same for those who will venture out now to read it.
