An intricate web

PANKAJ SEKHSARIA

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/article2857008.ece
Unlike the rest of India, tribal rights and conservation are not at the opposite ends of the spectrum in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Yet, there are challenges.

In a national scenario where wildlife conservation and tribal rights have ended up at the extreme ends of an acrimonious spectrum, the situation in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands stands out in stark relief. We have here a situation where the protection of the indigenous peoples, the forests and the islands' biodiversity including its rich bird life are all intricately linked. Evidence suggests, in fact, that forests protected legally in the islands as tribal reserves are more important for wildlife and biodiversity conservation than the protected area network created under the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act.

Wildlife conservation

The islands have 105 protected areas (wildlife sanctuaries and national parks) which constitute a significant percentage of the all India number of a little over 600. Yet, it has been argued that they don't actually play an important ecological role in the islands. Most of these protected areas (PAs) are tiny islands and rocky outcrops that sometimes have an area of as little as a few hectares. The largest forest area protected for wildlife in the Andamans, for instance, is the 133 sq km Interview Island Wildlife Sanctuary. Importantly, this island experienced intense and sustained timber extraction operations till about the middle of the 1960s. Compare this with the 1,000 sq km Jarawa Tribal Reserve that is spread over three large islands (South, Middle and North Andaman) and the implications are obvious. That a significant part of this tribal reserve has never been subject to any timber extraction operations underlines the importance of the reserve from an ecological and biodiversity point of view.

That the islands are important for bird conservation here is evident in the fact that 19 areas have been identified here as Important Bird Areas under a programme coordinated by the Bombay Natural History Society. Significantly, six of the 19 IBAs are those areas that are designated as tribal reserves. These include the islands of Car Nicobar, Great Nicobar, Little Nicobar, Tillangchong, Camorta, Katchal, Nancowry and Trinkat, all in the Nicobar Islands (they have been together classified into three different IBAs) and the Jarawa Reserve, Little Andaman, and North and South Sentinel in the Andaman group of islands.

Tribal reserves

At the heart of the story, then, is the Andaman and Nicobar Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation (ANPATR) that was created in 1956 and under whose provisions large areas of forests and adjoining seas have been designated as tribal reserves. This includes the entire group of the Nicobar Islands (about 1,900 sq km) and four tribal reserves in the Andaman Islands (nearly 1,600 sq km). The Andaman reserves are named after the four aboriginal negrito communities that have been living in these islands for at least 40,000 years: the Great Andamanese, the Jarawas, the Onge and the Sentinelese. These reserves, then, are not just critical to ensure the natural resource base and cultural security of these tribal communities, they are central also to the ecological security of this unique group of islands. Research over the years by a host of organisations including the A&N Forest Department, the Zoological and Botanical Surveys of India, the Andaman and Nicobar Environment Team and the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History has shown that these tribal reserves have some of the most pristine mangroves, coastal systems, turtle nesting beaches, tropical evergreen forests and a number of other important habitats that still survive in these islands.

Conservation challenges

The challenges, however, are more complex than they appear at first. One of the biggest has been the large influx of people from mainland India. The population in the islands has grown six fold from about 60,000 in 1960 to an estimated 3,80,000 today as per 2011 census. The population of the indigenous communities on the other hand (Onges – 100 and the Jarawas – 375) is extremely small and has remained steady over the many decades. The situation clearly demands careful intervention. One such framework was provided by the orders of the Supreme Court, which were passed in 2002 in response to a public interest litigation filed by non-governmental organisations. The court had asked for putting in place an inner line area system to prevent the influx of people, stopping commercial timber extraction, removal of encroachments, phasing out of sand mining from the island's beaches, use of appropriate construction materials, closure of the Andaman and Nicobar Forest Plantation and Development Corporation that had been logging the forests of Little and Middle Andaman since the 1970s; and closure of the Andaman Trunk Road (ATR) where it runs through and along the forests in the Jarawa Reserve.

Nearly a decade later, many of these orders have not been implemented. The population influx continues, little effort has been made to move to more island-friendly methods of construction and the ATR still remains open to traffic. The Member of Parliament for the islands recently even argued for the mainstreaming of the Jarawa and for the denotification of the Jarawa Tribal Reserve so that the land and forests could be made available for development.

Other new challenges are also showing up on the canvas. In October 2011, the National Board for Wildlife was asked to give permission to the Indian Navy to set up a temporary missile testing site on the Tillangchong Island in the Nicobar group. A decision on this is still awaited but here is a classic illustration of what this article is all about. Tillangchong Island is a wildlife sanctuary and an Important Bird Area with important populations of the endemic Nicobar Megapode. It is a tribal reserve under the provisions of the ANPATR and is also of traditional cultural and religious importance to the Nicobari tribal community. The challenges and the opportunities are as clear as they can be!

Pankaj Sekhsaria is a member of the environmental organisation Kalpavriksh.

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
---
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.
----


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
---
Information has been sourced from different newspapers and
http://indiaenvironmentportal.org.in

'Because Andaman's forests are Jarawa infested …'

Pankaj Sekhsaria
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article2811842.ece

Infestation, in'fes•ta'tion n. the state of being invaded or overrun by pests or parasites. Do people inhabit the lands and forests that they have been living in for thousands of years or do they infest them? The answer to this no-brainer of a question might well lie at the root of the problem being faced by the Jarawas in the Andaman Islands today. The video showing the Jarawa women dancing on the Andaman Trunk Road, apparently for food, is just the latest manifestation of a malaise that is so deep that one might well argue that there is no hope for the Jarawa.

In 1965, the Ministry of Rehabilitation, Government of India, published an important document related to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands: ‘The Report by the Inter Departmental Team on Accelerated Development Programme for A&N Islands.' The contents of the report and their purpose were evident in the title itself — it laid out the roadmap for the development of these islands and set the stage for what was to happen over the decades that have followed.

This little known report of less than a 100 pages in size is remarkable for the insight it provides into the thinking and the mindset of the times. There is what one might call a shocker on every page of this document and here is a just a sampling:

Page 26: …The Jarawas have been uniformly hostile to all outsiders with the result that about half the Middle Andaman is treated as a Jarawa infested (emphasis added) area which is difficult for any outsider to venture… With the present road construction and the colonisation of the forest fringes, friction has become more frequent, and no month passes without a case of attack by the Jarawas.

Page 69: The completion of the Great Andaman Trunk Road would go a long way to help in the extraction of forest produces...

A nation that had just fought its way out of the ignominy of being a colony was well on the way to becoming a coloniser itself. And those that came in the way could only be pests or parasites infesting the forests that had valuable resources locked away from productive use.

It is also pertinent to note here that in 1957 itself, more than a 1000 sq. km of these “Jarawa infested” forests of South and Middle Andaman had already been declared protected as a Jarawa Tribal Reserve under the provisions of the Andaman and Nicobar Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation (ANPATR) — 1956. The 1965 report was in complete violation, or was a result of complete ignorance of this legal protection to the Jarawa and the forests that they have inhabited for thousands of years.

The seeds that were sown then have bloomed into myriad noxious weeds today and if one knows this history, the latest video that has generated so much heat is not in the bit surprising. Much space in the media, both print and electronic, has been occupied in the last few days by a range of claims and counter claims — about the date of the video, about the police involvement in its making, the role of tour operators and about fixing blame and responsibility. A little known fact that lies at the root of the issue has been all but forgotten — the existence of the Andaman Trunk Road, where this infamous video was shot about three years ago. The Andaman Trunk Road that the 1965 report offered as a good way of extracting resources from the forests of the Jarawa had been ordered shut by a Supreme Court order of 2002.

It's been a decade now and in what can only be called audacious defiance, the administration of this little Union Territory has wilfully violated orders of the highest court of the land. A series of administrators have come and gone but contempt for the Supreme Court remains.

Whenever asked about the order, the administration has tried to hide behind technicalities of interpreting the court order and arguing that the court had never ordered the road shut in the first place. They forget that in March 2003, a few months after the SC orders had been passed, they had themselves filed an affidavit with a plea to “permit the use/movement through the Andaman Trunk Road.” If it was not ordered shut, why the plea to keep it open? A few months later, in July 2003, the Supreme Court appointed Central Empowered Committee reiterated explicitly that the court orders include those for the closure of the ATR in those parts where it runs through the forests of the Jarawa Tribal Reserve. The A&N administration has clearly violated the court's order both in letter and in spirit.

It is a spirit that was evocatively articulated by Dr. R.K. Bhattacharchaya, former Director of the Anthropological Survey of India, in a report he submitted to the Calcutta High Court in 2004. “The ATR”, he said, “is like a public thoroughfare through a private courtyard… In the whole of human history, we find that the dominant group for their own advantage has always won over the minorities, not always paying attention to the issue of ethics. Closure of the ATR would perhaps be the first gesture of goodwill on part of the dominant towards an acutely marginalized group almost on the verge of extinction”.

The video in all its perversity offers us another opportunity, when all others in the past have been brushed aside either due to ignorance, arrogance or then sheer apathy. It's still not too late to make that ‘gesture of goodwill' because otherwise there will be many more such videos down the years and much worse will follow. The lessons from history are very clear on this. And it will hardly be a consolation that a few people will be left saying we told you so.

(The writer is associated with Kalpavriksh, one of the three NGOs whose petition before the Supreme Court resulted in orders for the closure of the Andaman Trunk Road in 2002. He is also the author of Troubled Islands — Writings on the indigenous peoples and environment of the A&N Islands.)




This is a three picture set that shows a Jarawa woman being given some eatables by the driver of a passenger bus on that section of the Andaman Trunk Road that has been ordered shut by the Supreme Court. The pictures were taken in February 2003, a few months after the SC orders of May 2002, and were also submitted to the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee as evidence of continued and undesirable interaction taking place on the Andaman Trunk Road. I was sitting inside and at the back end of the bus when taking the pictures. Photo: Pankaj Sekhsaria

Protected Area Update - December 2011

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.
---
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
---
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
---
Information has been sourced from different newspapers and

http://indiaenvironmentportal.org.in

Protected Area Update - October 2011

Dear Friends,
Below is the list of contents and editorial of the new issue of the Protected Area Update (Vol XVII, No. 5, October 2011, (No. 93). If you would like to receive the entire newsletter in its soft copy form, please write to me. Please also do forward to others who might be interested in the Update.
Back issues of the PA Update can be accessed from www.kalpavriksh.org
I would also like to take this opportunity of requesting readers and well-wishers to support the PA Update through donations and subscriptions. All help, big or small is much appreciated and very welcome.

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. 5
October 2011 (No. 93)

LIST OF CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
Giving the fruit bat it’s due

NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES
GUJARAT
- Lesser Florican population declines in Gujarat
- FD to clear lantana from Gir
- Gujarat clears 17 proposals allowing commercial activities near protected areas
- Eco-sensitive zone around the Kutch Bustard Sanctuary

JHARKHAND
- Special protection force for Palamau TR; no arms to be provided

KARNATAKA
- No more private vehicles in PAs in Karnataka
- GO passed for Aghanashini Lion-Tailed Macaque Conservation Reserve

KERALA
- KFRI studies human-elephant conflict in Kerala

MADHYA PRADESH
- Adani’s power plant near Pench TR opposed

MAHARASHTRA
- Rules for Tiger Conservation Foundations approved in Maharashtra
- NTCA seeks minor changes in TCP for Tadoba-Andhari TR
- Large scale promotion of IFS officers in Maharashtra
- SC clears denotification of Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary
- Maharashtra to set up task force for bustard conservation
- 200 acres from Sanjay Gandhi NP for zoo
- Leopard movement to be studied at SGNP to help deal with human-animal conflict
- A number of proposed dams in Thane district to impact Tansa WLS

MEGHALAYA
- Survey on Western Hoolock Gibbon in Garo Hills
- Garo Hills Conservation Award 2011

ORISSA
- Gahirmatha fisherfolk need to be involved in turtle conservation: Study

PUNJAB
- Punjab to compensate snake-bite victims

RAJASTHAN
- Officials reluctant to take charge at Sariska TR

SIKKIM
- Hydro-power projects approved close to the Kanchenjungha National Park; local communities object

TAMIL NADU
- Construction work threatens Annamalaicheri flamingo habitat in Pulicat
- Proposal to declare Pallikaranai marsh a Ramsar site

UTTARAKHAND
- Uttarakhand opposes eco-sensitive zone along Bhagirathi river

UTTAR PRADESH
- First elephant reserve in Uttar Pradesh
- 95% of UP’s Sarus cranes outside PAs

WEST BENGAL
- Jaldapara WLS has at least three tigers

NATIONAL NEWS FROM INDIA
- WCCB bags award for excellence in environmental crime enforcement
- New Tiger Reserves
- Ganges River Dolphin conservation education programme
- Cabinet committee approves reintroduction of cheetahs, more funds for Project Tiger
- Plea to remove vermin status for fruit bats
- Decline in the vulture population in the Nilgiri BR

SOUTH ASIA
BANGLADESH
- Bangladesh to implement Taka 276 crore plan for tiger conservation

BHUTAN
- Bhutan gets US $ 2.25 million from the World Bank for wildlife conservation

NEPAL
- Proposal to allow hunting in the Kanchanjunga Conservation Reserve
- Gharial number rises in Nepal

SRI LANKA
- Government denies reports of elephant translocation from Hambantota to host Commonwealth Games

UPCOMING
- Small mammals field techniques training

OPPURTUNITIES
- Call for proposals: Herpetological Conservation Research Fund
- Openings in the WWF Andhra Pradesh State Office
- Call for applications: Whitley Awards 2012

IN THE SUPREME COURT

Protected Area Network in India
Latest number of PAs in India

PERSPECTIVE
Environment in the Marathi Press: Notes from a young freelance journalist

EDITORIAL

Giving the fruit bat it’s due

Wildlife conservation in India, our wildlife conservation laws and policies are certainly not short of anachronisms of various kinds. One that stands out most prominently is the status accorded to fruit bats – that of vermin in the schedules of the Wild Life Protection Act (WLPA) since it’s inception in 1972.
It is indicative not only of our anthropocentric attitude (any thing causing economic or other damage to humans is to be exterminated), it also betrays an unacceptable ignorance of the actual role these creatures play in nature. It has been believed for long that fruit bats cause considerable damage to horticultural crops, but research over the years has shown that they actually do more good than harm. 10 of the 13 species of fruit bats live only in forests and do not visit fruit orchards where they might cause any damage. They play a very important role in pollination and seed dispersal and are a vital cog in the forest regeneration mechanism. A couple of them are, in fact, even endangered and have been included in IUCN’s red data list.
That it is not known beyond the small circle of bat enthusiasts that the United Nations has declared this as the ‘Year of the Bat’ is indicative of how much (or little) concern there is for these creatures. It is also only fitting, then, that this group of bat conservationists has launched an effort to set the record straight and get the situation corrected (see National Stories from India in this issue of the PA Update). More than a year ago, prominent bat experts associated with the IUCN had written to the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) pointing out that India is the only country in the world where the fruit bat is considered a vermin and had requested for this to be changed. The editorial of the latest issue of Small Mammal Mail, a newsletter dedicated to the ‘most useful but most neglected small mammals’ (www.zooreach.org) like bats and rodents has also made an impassioned plea to rid rodents and bats of the vermin tag. It notes that the relevant government agencies have been addressed on numerous occasions in the matter, but nothing has come of it.
This is, indeed, unfortunate and it’s high time that this much maligned but hugely useful and harmless creature is given it’s due. The least we can do is desist from blaming it for damage it is not responsible for!
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Protected Area Update
Vol. XVII, No. 5, October 2011 (No. 93)
Editor: Pankaj Sekhsaria
Editorial Assistance: Reshma Jathar, Anuradha Arjunwadkar
Illustrations: Madhuvanti Anantharajan
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

MISEREOR
www.misereor.org


Donations from a number of individual supporters.

Information has been sourced from different newspapers and
http://indiaenvironmentportal.org.in

Dastkar Andhra cotton handloom exhibition in Pune - September 2011

Dastkar Andhra brings cotton handloom fabrics from DAMA and readymade garments from daram in an exhibition at Apte Hall, Pune from September 22-24, 2011

Protected Area Update New Issue - August 2011

Dear Friends,
Below is the list of contents of the new issue of the Protected Area
Update (Vol XVII, No. 4, August 2011). If you would like specific
stories of the entire newsletter please write to me at psekhsaria@gmail.com
Please also do forward to other relevant egroups and interested
individuals.
All back issues of the PA Update can be accessed at
http://kalpavriksh.org/protected-area-update

Thanking you
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. 4
August 2011 (No. 92)

LIST OF CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES

ANDHRA PRADESH
- Kawal WLS to get TR tag

ASSAM
- Brahmaputra threatens Orang NP
- Firing range inside Sonai Rupai WLS to stay
- School teacher held for rhino poaching in Pobitara
- Manas TR taken off World Heritage danger list
- Manas to get more Swamp deer
- NGOs express concern over illegal activities in Dibru Saikhowa NP

CHANDIGARH
- First ever census at Sukhna WLS

CHATTISGARH
- Centre seeks TR tag for Guru Ghasidas NP

GUJARAT
- 28 housing projects proposed in the vicinity of Gir; hotels banned in
two km radius around the PA
- ESZs around four sanctuaries in Gujarat
- Leopard and Sloth bear count rises in Gujarat

JAMMU & KASHMIR
- Hangul population on the rise
- Rs. 400 crores for restoration of Wullar Lake; two million willow
trees to be uprooted

KARNATAKA
- In-principle approval for Kudremukh TR
- Transfer to tiger reserves result in staff shortage in other divisions
of the FD
- Court seeks standard rule for resorts near PAs

KERALA
- Periyar and Parambikulam TRs adjudged among best five in the country
- Kerala farmers can kill wild boars

MADHYA PRADESH
- Discord between Ramesh and Congress MPs over Ken-Betwa project

MAHARASHTRA
- Census figures from Sanjay Gandhi NP and Tungareshwar WLS
- FD issues eviction notices to windmills in Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary

RAJASTHAN
- Cheetal and sambhar to be relocated to PAs in Rajasthan
- Rajasthan government opens dialogue over cess with hoteliers around PAs
- Proposal to increase area of Tal Chappar WLS
- State wildlife board recommends water from Panchana dam for Keoladeo NP

SIKKIM
- 300 Red pandas in Sikkim

TAMIL NADU
- WCCB border unit at Ramanathapuram
- Coral mining sinks two islands in Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve
- Census of Nilgiri tahr in Grizzled Giant Squirrel Wildlife Sanctuary

UTTAR PRADESH
- Three elephants electrocuted in Dudhwa NP

WEST BENGAL
- North Bengal FD to set up animal hospital
- Protected area status proposed for Apalchand forest
- Increase in north Bengal elephant population

NATIONAL NEWS FROM INDIA
- IAVP urges wildlife veterinary service
- NTCA committee on abandoned tiger cubs
- Tiger population to be monitored annually
- Nearly 450 tiger deaths in India in last 12 years: NTCA
- Nationwide online survey to find status of the Golden jackal

SOUTH ASIA
- Workshop on dugong conservation in South Asia
BANGLADESH
- Award for Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh
NEPAL
- Genome-mapping of tigers in Nepal

UPCOMING
- International Conference on Indian Ornithology - 2011
- 11th Conference of the Parties to the CBD to be held in Hyderabad in
October 2012
- 9th Indian Fisheries Forum
- Indian Forestry Congress 2011
- Student Conference on Conservation Science

WHAT’S AVAILABLE
- India’s Environmental History
- Pocketful of Forests: Legal debates around compensation and valuation
of forest loss in India

IN THE SUPREME COURT

- List of PA diversions/denotification approved in the meeting of the
Standing Committee of the NBWL on April 25, 2011

SPECIAL SECTION
The Forest Rights Act, Protected Areas and Wildlife Conservation
KARNATAKA
- Workshop on community based conservation of BRT Sanctuary
ORISSA
- Community forest rights in PAs of Orissa
- Relocation of villages continues in Simlipal TR in violation of the FRA
NATIONAL NEWS
- Community Forest Rights under the provisions of the FRA and issues
related to protected areas.

PERSPECTIVE
- Conservation issues are not easy to grasp!

---
EDITORIAL


THE ENDURING TIGER OBSESSION

India’s mainstream English print media is, as readers would have
noticed, the main source of news carried in the PA Update. About 90% of
the stories we carry come from the news reported in these newspapers
from around the country. If what the media carries can be considered a
barometer of the issues that concern India’s policy makers, wildlifers
and conservationists, it is evident that the obsession with the tiger
endures un-abated. In that sense the PA Update reflects the same as
well. On an average nearly 20% of every issue of the PA Update
(including this one) is related to issues of tiger conservation in
general and on tiger reserves in particular. It is a significant
statistic considering that tiger reserves (TRs) account for less than 8%
of the total number of protected areas in the country.
There sure are convincing arguments in favour of the focus on the tiger
– it is at the top of the ecosystem and ensures protection for the
habitat and other species, that its charisma helps garner at least some
interest in and resources for conservation and it’s a great way to get
the general public and policy makers interested in wildlife in the first
place.
This also does reinforce the often made point, however, that India is
obsessed with the tiger and this obsession comes at a cost. Every small
detail of tiger poaching, of the endless controversies over tiger
numbers, of what happens in a tiger reserve, of new proposals for TRs
and the need to relocate people to ensure tiger conservation is
religiously reported. This is in addition to the financial resources and
mindspace that gets dedicated to the tiger at the cost of almost
everything else.
The same kind of sustained interest, for example, is rarely seen when
it involves other species such as the Great Indian Bustard, that is
certainly far more threatened than the tiger and where issues might
indeed be more complex. The less said of the less glamorous and
charismatic species such as insects, amphibians or plants, the better.
As far as the media is concerned, everything seems lost in the shadows
of the great cat.
What is needed is to increase the focus on and coverage of other issues
and species, but not by reducing that of the tiger. It need not be the
one at the cost of the other, and this is a challenge that the media and
the wildlife conservation community, both, need to take up if the full
potential of the media is to be realized and conservation of India’s
increasingly threatened wilderness areas and wildlife communities is to
be best ensured.

----
Protected Area Update
Vol. XVII, No. 4, August 2011 (No. 92)
Editor: Pankaj Sekhsaria
Editorial Assistance: Reshma Jathar, Anuradha Arjunwadkar
Illustrations: Madhuvanti Anantharajan
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
- MISEREOR
www.misereor.org
- Donations from a number of individual supporters

Information has been sourced from different newspapers and
http://indiaenvironmentportal.org.in
www.wildlifewatch.in