Press on Environment and Wildlife

Tiger, panther skins seized; three held (January Week 2 (2006)) Police seized a tiger hide, two panther hide and a hyena skin in a trap to nab suspected traders in the Omti area in Jabalpur. Three people have been arrested
In another incident, the Uttar Pradesh police on Tuesday, acting on a tip off provided by the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, seized 14 panther skins in Kanpur.
According to Jabalpur Superintendent of Police Sriniwas Rao, the police had received information that Ravinshankar Barkede, resident of Kundam, was involved in trading in animal parts. The police laid a trap and a decoy customer was sent to buy a tiger skin. Barkede arranged the skins from his contacts based in Dindori district.
On Tuesday, Jeeru Baiga and Agnu Raidas from Dindori arrived in Jabalpur and were called at the designated spot by the decoy customer. Barkede also accompanied the duo. The three accused were arrested after they handed over the skins. Interestingly, the accused were trying to pawn off a hyena skin in the name of a tiger skin.
The police are investigating if the traders have links with an organised poaching gang, reports The Pioneer.

Concern over move to open quarry near Kaziranga (Issue of the week, January Week 1 (2006)) Concern is mounting over the news that the Forest Department has invited tenders to open a quarry at a site named Mikir Chang inside a prime wildlife habitat not far from the Kaziranga National Park. People closely associated with wildlife and environmental issues have condemned the decision to allow quarrying as a serious threat that would have long lasting effects.
Padmeswar Gogoi, Member, Elephant Task Force Assam, speaking to The Assam Tribune today criticized the decision saying that it would harm a sensitive area close to one of the country’s richest wildlife habitat. “It is a move that has grave implications for some very rare and endangered wildlife,” he said.
“The site where the proposed quarry would be located is inside an old elephant habitat that also acts as a corridor for their movement. New activities inside the area would have a devastating effect on them,” he mentioned.
He pointed out that the site for the proposed quarry would also affect the tiger population of the Kaziranga National Park because newborn tigers were seen with their mothers in that habitat. Female tigers generally preferred the safety of that area after their cubs were born.
The territorial extent of the National Park was already diminishing due to erosion caused by the Brahmaputra and in such a backdrop it was wrong to give permission for a quarry so close to the Park. He said that it was high time for the State Government and the Forest department to objectively analyse their motives. “The high-ranking officials should be clear about their priorities, whether they want short term commercial gains or environmental security.”
Among those who have resented the move to set up the stone quarry, Arup Goswami, Honorary Wildlife Warden, Assam, said the site is inside a no-development zone on the outskirts of Kaziranga National Park. The no-development zone was declared in 1996 following international outcry over threats to the Park from the Numaligarh refinery.
Providing details about the area where the quarry was to be opened he said Mikir Chang was a place “through which elephants travelled between Kaziranga and Nambor Doigurong Wildlife Sanctuary, Nambor Wildlife Sanctuary and Gorompani Wildlife Sanctuary.” In his view the quarrying operations will seriously threaten the wildlife of a large area.
Talking to this reporter Dr Bibhab Talukdar of the NGO Aaranyak stated that the quarry will be of 2.5 km in length and this would totally halt the movement of elephants from Kaziranga to Golaghat putting extra pressure on the grassland ecosystems of Kaziranga National Park.
Significantly, he pointed out that elephants would not be the only species to be seriously affected. Other endangered species found in the habitat include Tiger, Leopard, Clouded Leopard, Himayalan Black Bear, Hoolock Gibbon, Capped Langur, Indian Bison, King Cobra, Slow Loris, Chinese Pangolin, Greater Pied Hornbill, Pallas’s Fishing Eagle, and the elusive Winged Wood Duck.
When asked for the version of the Forest department, the Chief Conservator of Forests (Territorial), Suresh Chand said the decision to allow quarrying was at present kept in abeyance following representations from NGOs and critical news reports that appeared in the media.
He denied that there were any pressures on his office to allow quarrying inside an environmentally sensitive zone and added that he acted only after receiving a request from the State PWD suggesting the Forest Department must help in locating quarrying materials.
When asked to comment on the controversy over Mikir Chang, the spokesperson of the Forest Department, MC Malakar, who is also the Chief Wildlife Warden of the State, said that he was yet to receive any official intimation about the proposed quarry from the Territorial wing that was responsible in giving the green signal to the project.
The new quarry would see the extraction of 10,000 cubic metres of stones from Mikir Chang to be used primarily in the Bogibeel project. Those who are keeping a watch on the situation agree that the site was not the only one from which stones could be procured. They favour quarrying in other areas, which are far removed from sensitive environmental zones like the one at Mikir Chang.

Environment Ministry to soon declare Agastyamalai a biosphere reserve (January Week 1 (2006)) The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has decided to notify the ecologically fragile Agastyamalai range in the Western Ghats as the country's newest biosphere reserve (BR).
With a notification expected soon, Agastyamalai (which includes the forest ranges of both Tirunelveli/Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and Kollam/Trivandrum in Kerala) will join the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve and the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve as the third BR in the State. It will also be the second inter-State reserve after the Nilgiris. Two more BRs — one each in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — will also be notified soon, taking the total number in the country to 14, according to a Ministry official.
Agastyamalai, spread over a 1,300 sqkm at 1,868 metres above the sea level on the Western Ghats, is a classified biodiversity hotspot as its natural vegetation (ranging from scrub to evergreen rain forests) includes a number of endemic plants.
The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has decided to notify the ecologically fragile Agastyamalai range in the Western Ghats as the country's newest biosphere reserve (BR).
With a notification expected soon, Agastyamalai (which includes the forest ranges of both Tirunelveli/Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and Kollam/Trivandrum in Kerala) will join the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve and the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve as the third BR in the State. It will also be the second inter-State reserve after the Nilgiris. Two more BRs — one each in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — will also be notified soon, taking the total number in the country to 14, according to a Ministry official.
Agastyamalai, spread over a 1,300 sqkm at 1,868 metres above the sea level on the Western Ghats, is a classified biodiversity hotspot as its natural vegetation (ranging from scrub to evergreen rain forests) includes a number of endemic plants.
A certified faunal gene pool sanctuary, it is a natural greenhouse for 2,000 varieties medicinal plants out of which at least 50 are rare and endangered species, including orchids. Agastyamalai is also home to the Kanis, one of the oldest surviving ancient tribes in the world.
The area already hosts the wildlife sanctuaries of Neyyar, Peppara, Chenthuruny, and the Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. Repeated anthropogenic stress and lack of adequate documentation and preservation of rare plant varieties have severely compromised the biodiversity of the region, said to be even older than that of the Himalayas, conservationists say.
According to The Hindu, the BR status is expected to bring in better infrastructure support and more Central funding for conservation.
"The call to declare Agastyamalai a BR was raised as early as 1992 when researchers found many endemic fauna were on the brink of extinction. The notification, though belated, will help conserve what remains," observes a biodiversity expert.
The State Forest department, which forwarded the proposal to the Centre, is mapping the geographical boundaries of the BR, says C.K. Sridharan, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden.

70 eagles killed in 3 days at dumping site near Ranikhet (January Week 1 (2006))
The Indian Express reported the mysterious death of over 70 eagles in the past three days in Ghinghalikhal area near Ranikhet has forced the Uttaranchal wildlife authorities to put up a cordon around the site and send the carcasses for lab tests. According to the wildlife officials, more than 70 eagles were found dead at a garbage dump near Ranikhet.
Almora District Veterinary officials, after conducting a post-mortem of the birds, have sent some samples to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, Pantnagar University, Bhopal to know the exact cause of the deaths.
Uttaranchal Chief Wildlife Warden Srikant Chandola said that the entire area has been cordoned off. ‘‘Probably, the eagles died after consuming some poisonous substance in the garbage. But the exact cause can only be known from the laboratory reports,’’ Chandola added.
Locals believe the eagles died after consuming poisonous meat. ‘‘We have found traces of poultry in the birds,’’ Dr Ashok Bisht, Veterinary Officer, Ranikhet, said.
Innards of poultry and meat residue from the nearby Kumoan Regimental Centre (KRC) of the Army and Ranikhet town is dumped at the site, along with garbage.

Centre shelves Pamba-Vaippar river-linking project (January Week 1 (2006)) The Union Government has shelved the controversial project to link the Pamba and Achenkovil rivers of Kerala with Vaippar river in Tamil Nadu, reports The Pioneer.
Mr Radhakrishnan said here on Wednesday that he had received a letter in this regard from Union Minister Sontosh Mohan Dev.
The Kerala Legislative Assembly and the State Government have been appealing to the Union Government to give up the river linking project.
The letter from the Union Government says: "It has taken note of the resolution of the Kerala Legislative Assembly and has decided not to treat the Pamba-Achenkovil-Vaippar Link as a priority link, for consensus-building purpose."
The letter also criticises the State Government's earlier stand and specifically mentions the role of former Water Resources Minister TM Jacob who had agreed to the project in 2003.
"After detailed deliberations of the 19th annual general meeting of the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) Society held on March 26, 2003, which was also attended by Mr TM Jacob, Minister for Water Resources, Government of Kerala, the president of the Society decided that the NWDA and the Government of Kerala jointly carry out a study for the Pamba-Achenkovil and Vembanad wetland system.
The Government of Kerala subsequently expressed its inability to abide by the decision."
Terming the Union Government's decision to stop the project as a moral victory for Kerala, Mr Radhakrishnan thanked all the political parties and organisations for the combined effort in raising such a need. He also requested similar consensus on all matters relating to changes in the age-old inter-state water-sharing agreements, which affect Kerala's interests badly.

Poacher Sansar Chand charged (January Week 1 (2006)) The Indian Express and The Telegraph reported that the CBI has filed a chargesheet against wildlife smuggler Sansar Chand and his four associates for poaching tigers from Sariska wildlife sanctuary.
CBI filed a chargesheet against wildlife smuggler Sansar Chand and his four associates under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) — used for the first time in wildlife cases — and Wildlife Protection Act for poaching of tigers in the Sariska tiger reserve.
Chand, also known as the Veerappan of north India, was arrested on June 30 last year. The CBI then took him in custody.
He is believed to have revealed during interrogation that an organised crime syndicate exists across wildlife reserves in the country
The chargesheet was filed on December 23. The court has posted the matter later this month for taking cognizance of the chargesheet. While under the Wildlife Protection Act (1972), maximum punishment for poaching doesn’t exceed seven years, if convicted under MCOCA, the accused could be imprisoned for life.
Meanwhile, the SC today wanted the Madhya Pradesh government to hand over all wildlife cases related to Panna tiger reserve to the CBI. The Environment Ministry has already decided to ask CBI to investigate the poaching cases related to Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve.