Indian Wildlife Club Forum

The Decmber 2004 tsunami has seriously disrupted breeding patterns of the endangered leatherback turtle in the Andaman and Nicobar islands where 400-600 used to nest during the winter, according to a UNDP report.

The report also said the turtle population had become virtually extinct in Malaysia and had deprived the country of one of its most "charismatic tourist lures". The tsunami had caused localised damage to turtle habitats in 11 countries, the 166-page United Nations Environment Programme report observes.

India, Thailand and Sri Lanka are the worst affected, with some nesting beaches completely destroyed. Marine turtle conservation projects in these countries also suffered significant because of the loss of lives of conservation staff.

"It's far too soon to say whether this is a long-term downward trend or simply a natural fluctuation in the population size," the report says. The main threats to the pre-historic creatures of the sea, which can grow up to 700 kg or more, include mortality in fisheries, human egg harvest, depredation of eggs by pigs and dogs and loss of critical habitat -- especially beaches needed for nesting.

Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, an Engineer and Chartered Accountant for 15 years in the U.K, returned to Srilanka with the aim of creating a million wildlife enthusiasts in Srilanka by 2025.

“Gehan’s Photo Booklet” series published by Jetwing Eco Holidays, Srilanka, is now available as booklets in downloadble form ( free download).

The first booklet of this series is the Butterflies of Sri Lanka and Southern India. Photographs of 96 of the 242 species of butterflies and skippers found in Sri Lanka are included in the booklet. Many of the species have two images each, depicting both the underwing and upperwing of the butterfly. For some of the species where sexual dimorphism is present, images of both sexes are included. Images of Sri Lanka’s largest species of Butterflies such as the Blue Mormon, Common Birdwing and the endemic Ceylon Tree Nymph are included in the booklet.

The second booklet of the series is the Birds of Sri Lanka and Southern India. All the photographs in these booklets have been taken by Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, CEO of Jetwing Eco Holidays. To encourage and facilitate a wide a audience, especially school children to learn and identify the butterflies and birds they encounter, the species names have been given in three languages (English, Sinhala and Tamil). The booklets can also be used in Southern India as Sri Lanka shares many of the butterfly and bird species with Southern India.

Here is the link for the downloads http://www.jetwingeco.com/web_pages/sales/jetwing_sales.html

A country with no natural wealth of its own, is attracting tourists worldwide who want to study animal behavior. This country is Singapore. Jurong Bird Park and Santosa Island are must visits for wildlife lovers.

The open zoos of Singapore educate, conserve and entertain. The need to protect endangered species is communicated so well through these efforts that corporates invest liberally in the upkeep of the Singapore Zoological Gardens. The butterfly and insect sections, the Dolphin Island and other nature related sections of the Zoo are crowd pullers.

Short two minute video clips of my visit are uploaded at the following links

NOTE:   In case the links do not open, cut and paste the urls in your browser. Use the BACK button in your browser to come back to IWC Blog.

"Sky Meets Sea"

"Animals Teach"

Hope you like watching them. I look forward to your comments.

Illegal trade in endangered species can't be attributed to socioeconomic factors. People doing this, in most cases, have other means of finding income. It is pure greed and the ability to manipulate the uneducated tribals which fuel a flourishing trade.

Most people committing wasteful acts are doing it out of ignorance. Will creating awareness help? Yes, to some extent. Will Environment education help? Yes to a large extent. Not just informing them about the issues but also providing solutions.

There could be a reason why -quote- the "newly industrialized" countries are not starting from the enhanced ideas on environmental protection unquote-.

The way I see it, it is a communication problem. "Marketing" is an important issue, not only with environmental problems but with most problems in general. It is not only important to identify a problem, it is equally important to be able to present it to the public in a way that people can identify with it and express it in a way that is easy to comprehend.

Problem solving in a developed country has to be adapted to the realities of a a developing country. Who will do this job? Our own environmental educators have this big responsiblity.

Media generates public interest, but stops short of suggesting solutions to problems. That is where environmental educators must pitch in.

Excerpt from an article by Gaurav Gupta in Indian Express dated 28 July 2006

The Australian experience stands as a dire warning not only to the conservationists who are up in arms against this legislation, but most importantly to the Indian adivasis themselves. Experience shows that transfer of land by itself leads to neither a reattainment of lost culture nor economic gains. In fact quite the opposite has occured- previously productive land has been left desolate once placed in aboriginal hands. The problem has been a lack of education, training and support for aboriginal people to conduct sustainable deveoplment on the land coupled with a lack of proper incentives. Aboriginal leaders point out that what aborigines really want as first priorities are education and jobs. Transfer of land plays no role in this..... ....

The Australian experience would suggest that we allow adivasis an inalienable right of access to forest for cultural practices (which does not require actual ownership) but look elsewhere for a solution to their economic livelihood. In short, ownership of land is no longer part of the real concern facing Adivasis and giving it back is certainly not part of the solution...

( Gaurav Gupta can be contacted at Gupta.Gaurav@bcg.com)

EVERYTHING about this controversial project is low-key. The Ken-Betwa Link Project is the first link in a series of projects to build dams and canals between 30 of India's rivers, major and minor. In August 2005, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh signed a Memorandum of Understanding for starting work on the canal to link the Ken and Betwa rivers.

The 427-km long Ken river rises in Madhya Pradesh, flows through the State for 292 km and then joins the Yamuna at Chilla in Uttar Pradesh. The districts of Chatarpur and Panna in Madhya Pradesh and Bandha in Uttar Pradesh depend on it for water via a network of weirs and canals built a century ago. According to the MP irrigation department, these have all been declared defunct, having outlived their utility.

The Betwa is another tributary of the Yamuna that also rises in the same region as the Ken and flows north through MP for 232 km. It joins the Yamuna at Hamirpur in UP, upstream of the Ken. This is the larger of the two rivers.

The link proposal suggests building a 230-km-long canal to transfer 1020 million cubic metres (mcm) of surplus water from the Ken to the Betwa river. The canal will originate at the Daudhan dam, to be constructed a few kilometres upstream of two existing (defunct) weirs. In addition, there will be four more dams. All of these will be built in the Panna National Park and will submerge a large part of this protected area.

The project will irrigate an estimated 3.7 lakh hectares of additional land, give 3.3 lakh people drinking water and generate 66 MW of power. It is estimated to cost Rs. 8,500 crore. 8.650 Ha of land submerged by the dams and the canal. The canal will be linked to existing tanks and ponds en route to its destination to the Barwa Sagar, an old reservoir on a small stream near Jhansi that empties into the Betwa river. In addition to rains, Bundelkhand has a rich history of tank irrigation. The Chandelas and later rulers built a network of large and small tanks by walling up streams, drains and rivers over the last millennium. These are largely functional even now and in many towns and villages are the main source of water for drinking, washing and irrigation. Some are large enough to be used for fishing. Most hold enough water to last a couple of years without good rainfall. Most places along the likely route of the canal are already well irrigated by these tanks and other small rivers in the region, including the Dhasan river. The canal is supposed to feed some of these tanks, while draining others.

The entire stretch that the canal is to pass through is hilly and very rocky. The land slopes from south to north and from east to west. All the rivers and underground aquifers flow in this general direction. The canal will block this natural flow of water, leading to waterlogging in the southern part of the region. It will reduce water availability to the north. The canal also has to cross the Dhasan river. All this will make its construction a contentious and environmentally destructive activity.

In order to recover the construction costs, the project proposes to charge for the use of water, based on the crop grown per Ha. In order to pay these charges, farmers will have to change their cropping pattern to cash crops. Small and marginal farmers will get edged out in the process.

Rajendra Parmar, who farms some 10 Ha outside Nowgong near Chatarpur, is sceptical about the canal. The land, he says, is very well irrigated with tanks, canals and tube wells. The extra water will only cause waterlogging.

Further, both the rivers flow through the same part of the country. They flood at the same time. The Betwa enters the Yamuna upstream of the Ken. If the Ken's waters are added to the Betwa, there will be regular floods along the section of the Yamuna between Hamirpur and Chilla. Conversely, says Dr. Prakash, there will be droughts immediately downstream of Chilla. The project will not mitigate floods or droughts; it will exacerbate them.

There are enough examples of drought mitigation at the local level around the country. However, the drawback from the government and industry's perspective is that these are driven by local communities and do not benefit either babudom or industrialists. A mega project is a feast for bureaucrats, politicians and businessmen. This alone will be sufficient reason to go ahead with river linking despite objections and agitations by local people.

Hindu Sunday magazine