Dear Friends, Pls see below for the list of contents and the editorial from the new issue of the Protected Area Update (Vol. XXIII, No. 5, October 2017 (No. 129). Click here to download the pdf of the issue To receive the full issue as a pdf or as a print copy via the post, please write to me at psekhsaria@gmail.com I would also like to take this opportunity to request for your financial support for the PA Update. Of the annual budget of about Rs. 7 lakhs we've managed to raise only about half at the moment. All donations and contributions, big and small, are welcome. Pls do consider helping us out pls write to me at the above mentioned email id for any further details that you might need. Many 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. XXIII, No. 5 October 2017 (No. 129) LIST OF CONTENTS EDITORIAL Systemic injuries, band-aid solutions NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES ASSAM - SC asks for explanation on permission for oil and gas drilling beneath Dibru-Saikhowa NP - Eviction drive to remove encroachers from Amchang WLS GOA - Goa excluded from NGT’s Pune bench; activists condemn the move GUJARAT - Number of lions in Gir touches 650 HIMACHAL PRADESH - Biodiversity management committees set up in 366 gram panchayats JHARKHAND - Government approves diversion of 1000 ha land from Palamau TR - Palamau TR brings captive sambars to increase tigers’ prey base KARNATAKA - Kali TR to lose 75% of its ESZ; state bows to public pressure - Policy for private conservancies for wildlife conservation adjoining PAs - Over 3000 families displaced from Nagarahole NP to be rehabilitated; NGO express concern over implementation of plan - Stop to illegal electrification work in Bhimgad WLS - New management plan for otter conservation in Tungabhadra KERALA - Institute for Western Ghats wildlife research - Survey records over 120 species of amphibians and reptiles in Periyar TR - 58 tigers in Periyar and Parambikulam TRs - 400+ families relocated from Wayanad WLS - Two new species of earthworm discovered in Western Ghats MAHARASHTRA - NHAI to build only one wildlife underpass near Tipeshwar WLS - High-level committee to decide about tiger translocation ODISHA - Advance payment for human kills by wildlife RAJASTHAN - NBWL denotifies over 400 ha of forest from buffer of Ranthambhore TR for mining TAMIL NADU - 60 Irular families evicted from buffer zone of Mudumalai TR TELANGANA - NBWL diverts tiger corridor for irrigation project; asks for 16 eco-bridges to avoid fragmentation UTTAR PRADESH - Build toilets to curb human-tiger conflict in Pilibhit: Chief Minister NATIONAL NEWS FROM INDIA - Tiger cell at WII gets three years extention - Over 27,000 wild elephants in India; highest number of 6,049 in Karnataka - Over 15% of species in India threatened: IUCN - Dr. Mahesh Sharma takes charge as Minister of State in MoEFCC - Centre seeks Supreme Court’s approval for cheetah re-introduction - One person killed a day in wildlife attacks in India - 12 important mangroves forests of the country identified - Exotic species invading PAs: Minister - Meeting held to discuss, curb wildlife trafficking using postal services - SC asks Centre to consider suggestions on safe corridors for wild animals - Eurasian otter presence confirmed in the trans-Himalayas - Finance Act dilutes the NGT Act says Jairam Ramesh; SC issues notice to Centre - Inclusion of Net Present Value of diverted forest in cost-benefit-analysis mandatory; - - - NPV to be 10 and five times more than normal for NP and WLS respectively - NGT asks MoEFCC to prepare a policy for prevention of forest fires - More than 700 projects awaiting environmental clearance: Minister - SC questions Centre over reduction of ESZ by 100 times SOUTH ASIA Nepal/India - 50 rhino calves swept away from Nepal to India; eight returned IMPORTANT BIRD AREAS UPDATE MANIPUR - Call to decommission the Ithai dam RAJASTHAN - Openbill storks abandon nesting in Keoladeo NP because of water shortage A DECADE AGO PERSPECTIVE Why I care about the KBR National Park? -- EDITORIAL 'Systemic injuries, band-aid solutions' Even a quick survey of the conservation scenario in the country today makes one thing rather crystal clear – that the imperatives of conservation cannot (will not!) be allowed to come in the way of industrialization projects and economic growth. This, in fact, has become the defining narrative, and PAs are more in the news for policy that is constantly being diluted to make clearances and permissions easier; for railway lines, roads and canals that will cut through forests and other habitat; and for land in PAs (and elsewhere too) being made available for mining, dams, and infrastructure projects. We have in this issue of the PA Update, like we’ve always had in the past, a number of such examples: of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) being undermined by structural change, of land around tiger reserves like Ranthambhore and Palamau being made available for mining and dam projects and of linear intrusions being approved in PAs in Maharashtra and Telangana. There are two different kinds of narratives that seek to justify these developments. The first and the more blatant one articulates explicitly that PAs, environmental regulation and such concerns are impediments in the ‘development’ of the country. The other is the more confused and self-contradictory one. It pretends to be concerned even as it goes about its job of undermining precisely these concerns. If offers, in cities for example, to transplant full-grown trees because roads have to be widened and growth in vehicle population cannot be questioned; it claims to be concerned about climate change even as it pushes the economy towards a larger emission load; and it allows for linear intrusions like power lines, roads and canals to splice through PAs and then offers underpasses and over bridges so that wild animals can cross over. We have very little idea of how the underpasses and bridges for animals will actually work, if they work at all, but caught up in the belief that we can have the cake even as we eat it, we are willing to go along with these solutions. We are being enticed and dissuaded by band-aid solutions when the injuries being inflicted are systemic and deep. The price to pay will also be very high! === Protected Area Update Vol. XXIII, No. 5, October 2017 (No. 129) Editor: Pankaj Sekhsaria Editorial Assistance: Reshma Jathar, Anuradha Arjunwadkar Illustrations: Ashvini Menon, Mayuri Kerr, Shruti Kulkarni, Madhuvanti Anantharajan & Peeyush Sekhsaria Produced by The Documentation and Outreach Centre 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/index.php/conservation-livelihoods1/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 -------- Pankaj Sekhsaria, PhD Senior Project Scientist, DST-Centre for Policy Research, Dept of Humanities and Social Science, IIT- Delhi Author, 'Islands in Flux - the Andaman and Nicobar Story' (HarperCollins India, March 2017) & 'The Last Wave - An Island Novel' (HarperCollins India, 2014) Also, member, Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group --- facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pankaj.sekhsaria twitter: https://twitter.com/pankajsekh
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