In this blog its about the Blackbucks (a species of antilopes) in and around the Koppal district of Karnataka, the place where I hail from.

A Blackbuck in dry grasses.

    Now these Blackbucks (Antilope cervicapra) are a species of Antilopes native to the Indian sub-continent. These have been classified as endangered by IUCN since 2003. Blackbuck is the only living species of genus Antilope. Today, the blackbuck population is confined to areas in Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, with a few small pockets in central India.

Female ones can be identified without horns.

         There are about a few thousands of blackbucks found in Koppal and Yelburga taluqs(sub-districts) about 15km away from Koppal district. These herd of blackbucks graze in a group of 5 to 20 individuals in the dry grasses near Koppal. Though these are prohibited against hunting and poaching, occasionally these are hunted down for their flesh and skin. The only natural predators of these blackbucks are wolves other than man. The main food of these animals is the leaves of thorny shrub, Prosopis juliflora found abundant through out the district.

         The most of area in which these animals graze is black soil. These herds are found nearby small streams and more often graze into the crops of nearby villagers. The people have found it tough to avoid them from grazing into the fields. There has been a loss of Rs. 1 crore to the farmers in the year 2010. However the farmers do no harm to these antilopes instead they request the Forest Dept. Officials to shift these herbivores to nearby sanctuaries and save their crops.

         However, since there is no or very less forest land in the Koppal district, it is not possible to shift them. Also the blackbucks are sensitive animals and they may die of shock if they are tranquilized and physically shift them to nearby sanctuaries. Since there is no forest land in Koppal district, the department may require around 400-500 acres to set up a blackbuck sanctuary. However there are no plans to setup a sanctuary as it involves a long process like huge funds to buy agriculture land from farmers and taking permission from the state and union governments.

        However the union and state governments are not in a mood to take a positive step.

Leopards straying into in villages nestling along the forest fringes in the State, attacking people and their cattle have become a matter of serious concern.

The killing of a healthy female leopard that had strayed into the small hamlet of Angamoozhy in the Ranni forest division by an unruly mob on Tuesday was the latest in the series of human-leopard conflict in the State.

Three weeks ago, a five-year old boy was fatally dragged by a leopard from the company of his father and brother at Athirappally in Ernakulam district. The boy’s body was found, later, in the surrounding area and the leopard was not traced.

In another tragic incident, a four-year old boy was killed by a leopard on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border in Idukki district a year ago.

Killing of a Tiger by the villagers was also reported from the Munnar Forest division when the animal attacked a woman worker a year ago.

As many as four leopards were fatally trapped by humans in Idukki in 2011, according to Mr M.N. Jayachandran, secretary of Society for Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals in Idukki.

Animal-lovers’ concern

Tuesday’s killing of a female leopard had evoked concern and criticism from animal-lovers across the State.

The ferocious animal that had killed two domesticated dogs in the village went into hiding in the bushes adjoining a rubber plantation closeby a school. The entire village, including the local panchayat president and a former District Panchayat member, thronged the spot.

The animal that came out after a five-hour wait inside the bush was more or less overpowered by a man from Kollam, Kuttan alias Vettu Kuttan, who claimed to be an expert in trapping of leopards. However the leopard was suffocated to death when 50 to 100 enthusiastic people swooped on the animal, thrusted their weight on it, plugging its mouth and nostrils, later, leaving the nearly 50 Forest department and Police personnel mere mute spectators of the tragic episode.

The violent mob even blocked the vehicle of the Divisional Forest Officer, R. Kamalahar, and other Forest personnel, when he had directed the Range Officer to register case in connection with the killing of the wild animal.

A local granite quarry group had even granted Rs 50,000 to Vettu Kuttan and another group from Ernakulam had announced cash worth Rs 1 lakh to him in recognition of his ‘valour’, later.

Mr M.S. Rajendran, former District Panchayat member, told The Hindu that incidents of leopards attacking cattle and people were on the rise in Angamoozhy, Seethathode and Chittar villages. The local people were left with little option other than taking their own measures for protecting themselves from the wild animal attacks as the Forest department failed to ensure their safety, he said.

Dr Gopakumar, veterinary surgeon, said the leopard was a healthy one and the death was due to suffocation.

A tiny piece of information regarding snakes by Pooja Shah in the July issue of care4nature(E-magzine) inspired me to share some more myths on snakes in rural Rajasthan which I think to an extent justify to science and rurals as well.

Myths, may it be on anything, are never false but they are always time proven general observations around people & followed by the justifications of the innocent brains or sometimes created by shrewd quacks. Snakes!!! after God unfortunately crowns the maximum number of myths amongst all immortals and living things,  in my last 18 Yrs. of   resquing, releasing & general social working on reptiles I came across many situations for example a road side welder once called me on the site & I saw a rare behavior of a cobra, the welder and the labour around refused to work cos a cobra used to surface a few minutes after the welder would start welding in the underground pipeline, I was unable to help at that time but now I think I know the reason, Infact the Arc welding rod leaves a long trail of red hot metal behind it, snakes depend upon their Thermal vision for food & the hot trail of metal must be giving an illusion of a smaller snake or  amillipede or   may be some other insect in the snakes menue. 

Similar is the reason behind a common misbelief that the Ratsnake (Dhaman) suckles milk from the cow’s nipples& people are not lying when they say they have seen this, in fact this is another illusion of the thermal vision, the ratsnake confuses the nipple for a live rat & holds around it looking for the head of the rat as all reptiles eat their prey from the head first, the moment it realizes that its not a rat it simply leaves it, but why ratsnakes only do this? this is so as ratsnakes have a great ability to lift their bodies very high in comparison to the rest.

It is most commonly believed that snake charmers remove the teeth of the cobra as protectection, but snake charmers or beggers to be precise are far more cruel than simple Defanging, The heart touching fact is that the helpless cobra’shead is laid inverted on an upside down mud pot and then using a shaving blade an H shaped incision is made inside the mouth over the venom duct to expose it, then a small piece of the duct is cut off in order to delink the venom gland and the fangs, turmeric powder is then applied as a disinfectant. Even if thecobra survives the trauma the results of this barefoot surgery are sad as the snake is unable to eat on its own and neither can it digest the force fed egg or minced meat, nothing on earth can stop the snake from dying due to starvation& in addition to this snake charmers stop giving water to their snakes months before the Naga festivals cos the snake has to perform in public the act of drinking milk while the starved reptile is actually drinking milk to satisfy the quench of water as it has no other options.

 Well! Placing myths and the facts behind is endless, it is required that we wildlifers start sharing the responsibility to generate awareness to protect this innocent reptile, there are very simple things we can do like stop entertaining charmers on streets and ask others to follow, efforts are to be made by coordinating with NGOs dealing with beggers& ask them to add charmers in their targets & to help snake charmers find alternate means of living.

 It is not a good idea to call a snake charmer or a local wildlife activist involved in snake resquing (like me) if in case a snake enters the house as the snake charmer will kill the cobra & if it some other snake apart cobra he will simply leave it next doors cos he will never bother to find the right place to release, where as the local wildlife activist is likely to release it in some forest adding to food pressure on regular basis, any how removing the snake or killing it is never a solution as a new snake will take its place uptill the food source (rat, frogs, insects, lizards, bird nests) is not removed so it is always better to shift the snake outside the house and explain to people the facts of their  food chain and easy availability.

 It is indeed very difficult to explain this to most of the people around because of the myths and fears but that is where we conservationists are required in the society. This reminds me of an instance where I made a Monitor Lizard (varanusbengalensis) bite my finger in order to explain to the villagers that it is not poisonous and to my surprise they started making fun of me saying ”We know you are not gonna die as you catch snakes, you’ve poison in you but we’ll surely die if this one bites any one of us”  I felt very helpless indeed but continued to work.  Today people of that village are far more aware about snakes than what they were at that time.

 VickrantSaggar

V.saggar@rediffmail.com

09928857151

"Do Elephants View Humans As Direct Threats?
We are constantly learning more about how intelligent elephants are, about their incredible memory, their tight family structure, and their intricate language. In fact, just a couple days ago we learned about a study showing how very alike humans and elephants are. Considering that this species is always surprising us with their smarts, the conflict between elephants and humans may go even deeper than habitat loss. Gay Bradshaw, an elephant behavior expert, tells Live Science that with humans killing elephants, the aggression could be stemming from this violent interaction.

Bradshaw says elephants are simply reacting as people would when under siege. People are shooting, spearing, poisoning the big animals: "From a psychologist's perspective, that's trauma. If you look at elephants and people, that's the same thing we see with people under siege and genocide."

Bradshaw likens the conflict between humans and elephants to colonialism, with the people taking over the elephants' indigenous culture, and with "elephants fighting to keep their culture and their society as they are pushed into smaller places and killed outright."

It's easy to brush this theory off, saying that Bradshaw is anthropomorphizing elephants and that attacks such as what occurred in Mysore is the result of four males getting separated from the herd and lost in the scary streets of a strange city. However, if we pause for a moment and consider the amazing things we know about elephants, the idea that wild elephants view humans as a direct threat more than ever isn't such a stretch."

Read full article at 

"Man-animal (anthropogenic) conflict in India is taking a heavy toll on habitat

and thereby the survival of wildlife. Habitat fragmentation is leading to

isolation of animals, inbreeding, and causing local extinction of such

species. If wildlife are restricted in their movements and in their sociology

(mating patterns and territoriality) it will lead to inbreeding, further

weakening the genetic pool. This applies to all endangered birds, reptiles,

insects, and mammals.

In early 2010 there was an official alert that 1000 tigers were reduced to

skin and bone since the last census of 2008. The 2008 census said there

1411 tigers remaining. Only 50 percent are females. Of these there are

many which are old and frail, and are not breeding any more. Many other

males are of the same bloodline so mating is impossible. Genetic

inbreeding amongst felines is one of the greatest threats to tiger numbers.

Taking all this into account, only 1/3rd of the 1000 odd tiger population in

India are fit to breed."-Malini Shankar

Read More at

http://www.indiatogether.org/2011/feb/env-manimal.htm

The Ugly Result Of Human-Wildlife Conflict

 Source: http://www.animalrescueblog.org/2007/12/ifaw-elephants.html

Indian National Snakebite Protocol

India has now become the first country to formally approve a National Snakebite Protocol. This 

includes both treatment and first aid.  In addition, the Government committed to nationwide training for each 

State and a comprehensive programme of research with the Indian Council 

for Medical Research. This will address many of the unanswered 

questions on snakebite management and identify the ever growing list of 

medically significant snakes in India.

The notion of ’the Big 4’ was abandoned as being inaccurate and dated. More medically significant snakes are emerging which has serious 

implications for the supply of effective anti venoms.  A significant amount of training has already taken place in 6 States 

and more will follow. India has now taken major steps to remove itself from the top of the mortality list where snakebite is concerned.

Wild Goa Yahoo group  Posting by  ian.d.simpson@tinyworld.co.uk 

Jason Antony and Ankur Chaturvedi:

I found this extremely interesting article on the website of Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun. Here is an excerpt

---"For example, elephants use their powerful infrasonic calls in long distance communication, which can be monitored from a long distance using infrasonic recorder. Earlier studies reveal that the elephants strongly respond to their conspecific calls playback even up to 7 km. distance. Till now, surveys of forest elephants have been based on systematic counts of dung. Cornell Laboratory of Bioacoustics, USA, is developing a new technique known as ‘acoustical monitoring system for elephants’ census.Long distance acoustical monitoring of the elephants not only useful in population estimation but also be used to alert the peoples living on the edges of forests, regarding the movements of elephants."

The full article by Ani Kumar, discussing sounds made by birds and other mammals is available at the link below

http://www.wii.gov.in/publications/newsletter/annual2002/article11.htm