Indian Wildlife Club Forum

...The Food and Agricultural Organisation(FAO) of the United Nations recommends urban agriculture including animal rearing within cities as a useful means to tackle poverty and promote sustainable city practices.  It is feared that rapid urbanisation in developing countries will consume about 14 million hectares of cropland by 2020 and make matters worse.  Many African cities and a few European cities are now seriously considering urban agriculture as a viable multifunctional land use strategy.

.........Processed foods increase the ecological footprint of a city, as goods have to be transported from long distances.

The FAO estimates that Delhi will require an additional 1,96,500 trucks of 10 tonne capacity by 2010 to supply food for its population, while Mumbai will need 3,13,400 more trucks.  This will have serious implications for traffic and roads.

.......  Cities that have seriously considered the issues of urban poverty, environment, and food security have made plans to allow for more agriculture within their urban and peri-urban areas.  Bangkok has 60 percent of its metropolitan area as agriculture land, as has Madrid.  Beira in Mozambique has a high percentage of about 88 percent of its green spaces used for family agriculture.  Ottawa has 5,000 hectares of agriculture land within city limits...........

The famous marshes of Xochimilco, located on the outskirts of Mexico City, are fed by treated wastewater from the city.  This water is used for irrigating flowers and vegetables and also recharges the aquifers.....The East Calcutta wetland is an example worth looking at. This 3,900 hectare wetland located in the peri-urban area is used for fisheries.  The many ponds are benefited from the 1,300 million litres of treated wastewater discharged from the city.  About 13,000 tonnes of fish are harvested and about 60,000 people provided a livelihood.  In addition, 150 tonnes of vegetable are also produced daily.  Pigs and ducks are reared as well.........

A.Srivathsan(The Hindu 27 June 2006)

Community -based approaches to management of protected areas are increasingly being implemented in many areas. In a research study published in the journal Environmental Conservation (2005), the effectiveness of community- based approaches for conservation of biodiversity was examined in Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) Nepal.

"A combination of ecological and social surveys were undertaken both within and outside ACA, enabling areas under community-based management to be compared with adjacent areas under traditional forms of land use.

Forest basal area and tree species diversity were found to be significantly higher inside ACA, associated with a decline in use of fuelwood as an energy source over the past decade. Social surveys also indicated that wild animal populations have increased inside ACA since the inception of community-based conservation. Observations of animal track counts, pellet counts and direct observations of selected species such as barking deer and Himalayan tahr indicated higher abundances within ACA."

It will be interesting to know the increase/decrease of wildlife population inside ACA before and after adoption of community based management.

( Ref: Effectiveness of community involvement in delivering conservation benefits to the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal. by S.B. Bajracharya et.al Environmental Conservation, 32(3): 239-247, 2005)

The National Wildlife Board met on 19th June 2006 under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister of India.

 The Board decided to give legal powers under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 to Army Commanders for containing poaching in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast. (The Hindu, June 20, 2006)

According to Ashish Kothari of 'Kalpavriksh', an environment action group, the expansive definition of traditional forest dwellers, provides scope for state governments, land mafia and local elites to claim large areas of recently encroached land as legitimate.

It could also exacerbate local conflicts, e.g. in the North- eastern states, where people from outside have occupied forest land recently, at the expense of the local tribal communities.

( Hindustan Times, June 20, 2006)

On 18th June 2006 we had an online chat on the "Tribal bill". The chat log can be read by clicking on the link below.

http://www.indianwildlifeclub.com/chat/chat-archive.aspx?cid=40

This BLOG invites comments from all our members on the issues concerning our forests if the Bill is enacted in its present form.

Why should it be every citizen's concern to protect endangered species, and how can one be of assistance? Not just by volunteering with NGOs working for the cause, but are there ways in which we can contribute in small measure? The readers must be told why at all should they bother, and possibly, how? (Question: Shirley Abraham)

Each person can contribute -drops in the ocean make up the ocean. Most of us in our busy life are unaware of the BIG ROLE nature plays in our well being. The amount of oxygen in the air, the purity of water we drink -these are the basic threads of life.

The forests with all the life in it make these basic things posssible. The oceans with all the marine animals in it control our climates. Without animals the forests will wither away. Taking away just the tiger or the elephant which seemingly threaten human life around the forests will change the forests forever. Without the marine creatures like the whales at the apex, the ocean we know will be changed for ever.

Be aware and knowledgeable-taking action will come naturally. Finally it is the harmony of man animals and life which keep us going. Man is intelligent enough to enumerate the endangered animals. He should also be sensible enough to know that protecting them is the only way forward.

Ethanol is a renewable fuel distilled mainly from corn. In the near future, ethanol may also be produced using agricultural and wood waste, of which there is an abundant supply for both in agricultural states and counties throughout the U.S. and beyond.

Because of its comparatively high oxygen content, ethanol is cleaner burning than regular unleaded gasoline and can be blended to 10 percent without having to modify standard engines. A 10 percent blend also substantially reduces carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, benzene and other exhaust emissions as well as related greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

Before we can celebrate ethanol as a viable alternative to petroleum, one simple fact must be considered: producing ethanol requires more fossil fuel energy than the petroleum it would replace. This result was confirmed researchers at Cornell University and the University of California. The reason? It takes a lot of energy to grow crops and transform them into ethanol.

Regardless, ethanol has a lot of political support, and despite building evidence to the contrary, the U.S. Department of Agriculture believes that ethanol delivers more energy than is consumed in making it.

Sources: American Coalition for Ethanol, Growing Expectations, and Cornell University News Service.

Why is the impending exinction not being checked through the legal system? India is a party to CITES, has its own Wildlife Protection Act. Where are the gaps? Implementation..Conviction..?( Question:Shirley Abraham)

The gaps are there in implementation. Lack of convictions spur more poachers and their accomplices to take up the trade.

Western Ghats is one of the two hot spots of India. Like many other tropical countries, very little is known about the diversity and distribution of invertebrates from India. This poor understanding of our invertebrate diversity is amply reflected in our national and regional conservation policies and goals, which is essentially formulated for large and charismatic vertebrates.

 Centre for Insect Taxonomy and Conservation (CITAC), ATREE, Bangalore, along with the Western Ghats Invertebrate Research and Conservation Group- a network of invertebrate researchers of the region - has decided to bring out an edited volume "Invertebrate diversity and conservation of the Western Ghats". This proposed volume is expected to provide an overview of on going studies on the diversity, ecology, evolution, behaviour and conservation of invertebrates of the Western Ghats.

We envisage this volume to be a benchmark publication on invertebrate diversity of the region. We are inviting manuscripts both from national and international researchers working on the invertebrates of the Western Ghats for this volume.

Broad thematic area

1.. Status review of taxa

2.. Ecological studies.

3.. Behavioural ecology.

4.. Invertebrates and Ecosystem function.

5.. Invertebrate conservation.

6.. Invertebrates in conservation education.

For more details pl. visit http://www.atree.org/idc_wg.html

80 page Concise Version plus CD with all documents: Rs. 150; US$ 15.

CD alone (containing all documents): Rs. 100; US$10. Postage extra Contact: Swati Arjunwadkar, Kalpavriksh, Apt. 5 Shree Datta Krupa, 908 Deccan Gymkhana, Pune 411004, India; Tel/fax: 91-20-25654239;

( Information courtesy yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bngbirds/)