Press on Environment and Wildlife

PTTs glued to seven Olive Ridleys (March Week # (2007)) Platform Terminal Transmitters (PTT) were glued to seven Olive Ridley turtles in mid sea near Rushikulya rookery coast by wildlife experts.
According to Berhampur Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) S.N. Mahapatra, this has been done because Olive Ridleys are not venturing to the coast for mass nesting this year. But they can still be seen in sea a few km from the coast. Usually, the PTTs that can be tracked by satellites are fixed to turtles when they come over to the coast to nest. Mr. Mahapatra says the PTTs may unravel the reasons for which Olive Ridleys are not coming to their preferred nesting zones on the Orissa coast. There has been only one mass-nesting spell at Gahiramatha. But the Devi rookery and the Rushikulya rookery coasts are yet to experience mass nesting.
Forest officials still have hopes that the turtles would come and nest till April as they are at sea near the coast. In the past, mass nesting had been seen in April also.
This year, over 70 PTTs are being glued to Olive Ridleys near the Orissa coast under a research project of New Zealand-based SIRTRACK, wildlife trafficking experts. Each PTT costs some $ 2,000.
Wild Life Institute of India and the State Forest Department are involved in this research project. The information received from these modern communication devices would unravel the unknown facets of their life, especially during their nesting period.
It would also hint at the protection and management efforts needed at shore and sea for the Olive Ridleys coming to Orissa coast to nest, said Mr. Mahapatra. These endangered turtles are highly vulnerable as some studies say that one out of 1,000 hatchlings of Olive Ridleys survive to reach adulthood.

SOURCE : The Hindu, Monday, March 19, 2007

Dolphins a big draw for tourists at Chilika (March Week # (2007)) Chilika, the largest inland brackish lake in Asia, is a natural aquarium for 170 varieties of fish, which provide food to the growing population of Irrawady dolphins. In fact, the Chilika lagoon is the natural abode of Irrawady dolphins, with the cetacean being the flagship species. It is a highly endangered species and the total population in the world is estimated to be less than 1,000, of which there are 135 in Chilika, said latest estimates.
Of late, Satpada, which lies 120 km from Bhubaneswar, is emerging as a major tourist destination for both national as well as international tourists.
State Tourism Minister Debi Prasad Mishra said, "We will be providing house boats at Satpada in line with the Dal Lake in Jammu and Kashmir." More and more fibre boats would be provided to the tourists and facilities would be improved soon, he added.

SOURCE : The Pioneer, Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Read more about dolphins at the link
Year of The Dolphin-2007
http://www.yod2007.org/en/ Start_page/index.html

Ridge not affected by Metro: Minister (March Week # (2007)) The Delhi Metro has not affected the city's green lung, the Delhi ridge, and will only infringe a very small area in it due to unavoidable reasons, the Minister for Environment and Forests, Mr Namo Narain Meena has told Parliament.
In a written reply, he told Lok Sabha that the Metro rail had not affected the ridge area so far. However, the proposed Central Secretariat-Qutab Minar-Gurgaon corridors, already approved by the government, would infringe the ridge area at three locations, he added.
These infringements were unavoidable and involved only a small area of the ridge measuring 5.56 hectares on permanent basis and 2.17 hectares on temporary basis during the construction phase only.
During construction, it would be ensured that a minimum number of trees were affected in the ridge area. Besides, compensatory plantation for the trees being felled will be taken up. The construction methodology would be such that there was least disturbance to surrounding areas, the minister assured.

SOURCE : The Tribune, Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Move to save pygmy hogs through captive breeding (Issue of the week, November Week 1 (2006)) The critically endangered pygmy hog (Sus salvanius) could well have a new lease of life thanks to an innovative conservation plan. The variables remaining unchanged, some captive bred pygmy hogs may soon be released into a few Protected Areas of the State. While the captive breeding programme is going on at Basistha in Guwahati, eight of the captive bred animals are being reared near Nameri National Park. The next step is their release in a bigger enclosure where they would have to fend for themselves before being freed in the wild.
Talking to this correspondent, Goutam Narayan of Ecosystems India, one of the stakeholders of the pygmy hog conservation programme, said that the animals at Nameri are adapting well to the new environment. They have started foraging and have even developed a distance with the persons monitoring their activities.
“We want them to adapt with a situation where they have no ties with human beings. They have to rely on their own instinct in order to survive in the wilderness,” Narayan, a conservation zoologist, said.
A lot of research preceded the captive breeding programme and their subsequent rearing at Nameri. First, the earliest population had to be carefully selected from the Manas National Park, where a few of them still remain. Thereafter, they were shifted to a facility at Basistha, where breeding was done under constant monitoring.
“We went the extra mile to ensure that we picked up healthy and unrelated males and females. The animals were micro-chipped so that their identity remained clear. Breeding was carried out among animals of different lineage. All this was necessary to ensure that the gene pool was wide in range,” Narayan stated.
The captive breeding programme has been a success, even though it initially met some resistance. Today, the captive breeding centre at Basistha has around 60 pygmy hogs, while the breeding programme started with only six animals in 1996.
Conservationists have been interested in the pygmy hog conservation programme for several reasons. Not only is the species highly endangered, and endemic to the State, it is perceived as an indicator species. If the pygmy hog and its grassland habitat could be restored, then a range of other species would have suitable living space.
Realising this crucial link, several leading groups joined hands to conserve the species, including Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, State Forest Department, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, IUCN and Ecosystems India.
Significantly, during the Sixties of the last century the pygmy hog was believed to be extinct, and it was only a chance ‘discovery’ of an animal that led to renewed interest. Subsequently, wild populations were located at Barnadi Wildlife Sanctuary and at Manas National Park.
Several attempts at rearing and breeding them in captivity were tried thereafter, but results were never encouraging till the latest project at Basistha. At the captive breeding centre, constant monitoring yielded a wealth of data regarding the species.
Apart from documenting their breeding habits, it was possible to know about their behaviour, and also about the kind of habitat they preferred. It was found out that babies in the captive breeding programme had a survival rate of about 64 per cent.
The challenge now is to ensure how the species and its habitat could be managed when the captive-bred population is released into selected sites.
SOURCE : Assam Tribune, Monday, November 6, 2006

Henkel to contribute 20,000 euros for environment management centre (November Week 1 (2006)) Prof Ulrich Lehner, Chairman, Henkel KGaA of Germany, on his maiden visit to India, has announced that Henkel India would constitute a chair for Environment Management with the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad.
The company would also contribute 20,000 euros towards the Centre of Excellence that it has jointly set up along with the institute, he added.
Mr Satish Kumar, Managing Director of Henkel India, speaking at the International Conference on Green Competitiveness for Sustainable Development (ICGC), 2006, said, “We are happy to announce that Henkel will contribute 20,000 euros towards the initiatives planned for the Centre of Excellence for Environment Management with IMT, Ghaziabad.”
“We at Henkel are extremely proud of being a part of a global organisation that is committed to environment protection and sustainable development,” Mr. Kumar added.
The ICGC 2006, jointly organised by the Henkel India Ltd. and IMT, Ghaziabad, concluded with the creme of the academia and industry sharing their views and strategies for key environment issues.
SOURCE : The Tribune, Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Drinking water crisis to deepen by 2021: ICAR report (November Week 1 (2006)) Himachal to face scarcity due to melting of glacier
The drinking water crisis is likely to deepen in Himachal Pradesh by 2021 due to excessive melting of glaciers in the Himalayan region and increased demand from developing industrial areas and other parts of the State, an Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) report sreport said.
The drinking water scarcity, which was eight crore liters per day at present, was likely to increase to 13 crore litres by 2021, the report stated.
The increased pace at which the glaciers in the Himalayan region was melting and demand for drinking water from the developing industrial areas was likely to aggravate the crises, it said.
The report said drinking water crisis along with power problems were likely to rise in the Satluj basin over the years due to the construction of a dam over the Pareechhu river in Tibet by the Chinese authorities.
According to the report, the demand for drinking water in the urban areas of the State was likely to reach 15.04 crore litres per day, while for the rural areas it would be almost four times to 57.59 crore litres.
Of the 15 crore litres demand in the urban areas, about one-third of it would be required to fulfil the drinking water
needs of the people in Shimla town, it said.
The Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) report says that a person in the rural area would only be provided 41 litre water per day as against 70 litres being provided as of now.
Since there would be a huge gap in demand and supply of the water in the state in the years to come, agitations and violence could not be ruled out, it said.
The report said the water level in the rivers of the State was declining due to excessive melting of glaciers in the Himalayan region, adding that, a part of this could be attributed rising temperatures and global warming in the world.
The water level in the Satluj river was likely to fall by 40 per cent after the construction of dam over the river, it said.
It has to be noted that even on an earlier occasion, the State Irrigation and Public Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur has already said that all habitations in the State would be facing drinking water crisis by 2008.
During his visit to the State, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised Rs 500 crore aid to Himachal to provide drinking water to all habitations in the State. However, according to sources, due to industrial development, the problem seem to become more grave and needs the attention of the concermed authority.
SOURCE : The Pioneer, Monday, November 6, 2006