Indian Wildlife Club Forum

The headlines scream of a seething Singur in Calcutta, where Tatamotors are acquiring land to set up an automotive plant. The settlement to the farmers is handsome, yet farmers ask,"What use is cash?"

The echoes of these feelings are heard in a faraway consumeristic land in a different form.  America. 

Americans have increased the conservation of private lands by more than 50 percent in just five years. Currently about 37 million acres of private land has been set aside as natural areas.  Factors contributing to the increase in private lands conservation include towns wanting to preserve their quality of life, state and local open space bond initiatives, and policymakers concerned about sprawl and unchecked development.

Sources: Business Standard, 10 Dec, 2006 and  lta.org/census

The award of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus is a tremendous accomplishment for the founder of Grameen Bank, Bangladesh and for the field of social entrepreneurship.

The media describes Yunus as an economist, professor, or banker, but really why the Nobel Committee selected him is because Yunus is the quintessential global social entrepreneur. His brilliant microcredit strategy is based on unleashing the potential of every person to change his or her life.

Training: Understanding and deciphering EIA: from screening to decision-making
New Delhi, January 8-13, 2006

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This hands-on training programme aims at demystifying Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for NGOs. It also seeks to develop the capacity of state-level regulators to screen and scope the EIA process, evaluate reports and conduct public consultations.

The course will expose participants to:
- Technical and new legal aspects of EIA
- Environmental and social impacts of various types of developmental projects
- Hands-on exercises in screening, scoping, data analysis and developing environment management plans
- Tools and thumb rules to evaluate various environmental and social impact parameters
- Techniques to engage in public consultation

Last date for registration: December 15, 2006

Register online >>
http://www.cseindia.org/misc/eia_form.htm

Wild Elephants of Nepal have all but vanished.  It is said that the occasional herd is from the forests of Shiwaliks and the TERAI along the Himalyan foothills in U.P.
With rapid changes in landscape and increased human activities, the elephants stopped their seasonal migration around 1994 through the forests of Uttar pradesh, India to the connecting forests of Kanchanpur, Kailali and Bardia Districts of Nepal.
Recently there have been reports of a reverse migration from the Royal Bardia Park and Chitwan Forest in Nepal, bordering Bahraich ( Eastern U.P).   According to a report in the Indian Express dated 26 November, 2006, a herd of 22 elephants crossed over to make Bahraich their home.

The major single cause for elephant population going down is the loss of corridors and the above report is a welcome development for all those who want to see these giants roaming the forest and not chained to human bondage.

Dener Giovanini (Brazil) has designed a citizen-based network to fight the third largest illegal business in the world, animal trafficking. He incorporates Internet communications into a start-to-finish system that saves animals' lives, brings criminals to justice, and provides new employment opportunities to rural traffickers.

Dener Giovanini has created the National Network Combatting Wild Animal Trafficking (A Rede Nacional de Combate ao Tráfico de Animais Silvestres), or RENCTAS, to curb and ultimately stop animal trafficking in Brazil by addressing the problem at all levels and including all relevant actors. Perhaps the most distinctive aspects of Dener's work are the focus on training programs for those low-income individuals who make a living by producing the animals for the phenomenally lucrative trade, and the degree to which he creates partnerships among people who would not ordinarily be in contact with each other. To that end, RENCTAS effectively links individuals and organizations to solve all aspects of the problem together: animal protection groups and veterinarians are linked to government officials who have seized the animals from the traffickers; individuals and organizations who want to report trafficking are linked to the government's environmental agency and the Public Prosecutor's Department.

Dener's comprehensive approach includes: 1) an urgent response and care system for the animals who are seized by government officials; 2) training programs to provide alternative employment to those involved in animal trafficking; 3) a reporting system for those who want to report instances of trafficking; 4) training of police officers and customs agents in how to deal with animals that are seized; 5) efforts to improve and enforce environmental laws to provide greater protection for animals vulnerable to trafficking; and 6) a campaign to educate the public about the damage animal trafficking will cause to the environment, and to raise awareness among consumers in an effort to eliminate the market for trafficked animals.

 Ashoka Fellow Dener Giovanini has built a 60,000 person movement served by a powerful Internet investigative and tracking capacity that has thrown Brazil's $3 billion hugely destructive and unforgiving trade in wild animals (90 percent die en route) onto the defensive.

http://www.ashoka.org/node/3272

Dr. JA McNeely, Chief Scientist, IUCN (World Conservation Union), will be speaking on "Ecological Security:The Foundation of Sustainable Development" at the India International Centre (IIC), New Delhi, on 16 December 2006 at 5 pm.

The Kerala and Tamil Nadu governments are at loggerheads over the 100-year-old Mullaperiyar Dam in Kerala's Idukki district.

Tamil Nadu wants the water level in the dam raised to route more water to five of its southern districts, a demand upheld by the Supreme Court. But Kerala says, the aging dam cannot withstand the pressure and invited a Navy diving team to check the dam's structural integrity. But the decision has angered Tamil Nadu .

Tamil Nadu plans to increase the height of the dam from the present 136 metre to 142. It also wants to raise the height of an associated dam to 152 metre. However, Kerala says that the dam is too old and can't stand any more pressure.

Scientists of the Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered species (La-Cones), Attapur, Hyderabad, have come up with tiger census system using DNA fingerprinting.

DNA is extracted from the samples of faeces of tigers. It is screened with existing tigers'DNA samples to determine whether the sample belongs to the same tiger.

The scientists of la-Cones are the first in the world to conduct tiger census using DNA finger printing. Africa has experimented with thisfor elephant population.

The Pilot project conducted in Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary and BRT sanctuary in Tamil Nadu have given 99% accuracy according to officials. The cost for conducting the tiger census in all reserves in the country would be about Rs 1.5 crore.

The RTI ( Right to Information) Act of India is a historic legislation. But, it rests with the people of India to make their government and authorities accountable.

To enable all educated people to use this Act in order to bring in accountability in public administration, an all india helpline 9250400100 has been set up by Manjunath Shanmugham Trust and Parivartan.

The helpline will be at the service of all who need help to use the Act. A team of specially trained call centre executives will answer all queries. The service is available in English, Hindi and Tamil now-on all days from 8am to 4pm.

Sustaining Fish Stocks

A new study by the environmental research organization Worldwatch has found that consumers are playing an increasingly large role in dictating the terms of how fish and other seafood are harvested around the world. Seafood eaters have become an unlikely ally to the world’s beleaguered fish populations.

“Today, most of the world’s seafood, from tuna to salmon to bay scallops, is threatened with extinction,” With industrial scale fishing having wiped out roughly 90 percent of tuna, marlin, swordfish and other large predatory fish in just the last 50 years, and United Nations surveys indicate that about two-thirds of the world’s major fish stocks are on the verge of collapse.

“A public that better understands the state of the world’s oceans can be a driving force in helping governments pass legislation to ban destructive fishing, mandate fishing labels that indicate how fish were caught and create marine preserves off-limits to fishing where fish can spawn.”

The new Worldwatch report highlights various non-governmental initiatives to help save vanishing marine life, from color-coded seafood selection guides for restaurant-goers to targeted purchasing by large seafood buyers. It praises such efforts for boosting the sales and reputations of participating companies, protecting jobs in developing countries where fishing is an important industry, and increasing the overall quality and safety of seafood around the world.

Source: www.worldwatch.org/node/4709