Indian Wildlife Club Forum

Hi,

 I wanted to tell the IWC community about an online resource "Scholars without Borders" that I have recently set up. The site www.scholarswithoutborders.in

 lists a number of books on Natural History that are published in India and makes it possible to order these easily online... Also links to a range of Open Access material, journals and newsletters that are published in the subcontinent (e.g. BushChat from the Nature Conservation Foundation, the Himalayan Journal of Science from Nepal, Etc.). If you have suggestions of what books to carry (all of Salim Ali is more or less there!) please write in and let me know, at

mail@scholarswithoutborders.in

 Thanks,

Ram Ramaswamy

Find ways to rescue the Mumbai Leopard and its habitat.

Dear friends

Do not think that u are not doing anything unless some body is not with you, or unless a team is there. The thing is "what I am doing". Whenever and wherever we can support wild life, we can conserv environment we must be ahead for that. Someone has to bigin so think that "I" only the beginner. When we will walk people will join us, unless we walk how can we hope for others to join our walk. Small thing matters, so whatever we can do we must do...Keep hope and we will do it.

I believe that the Narmada issue has to be looked at as a landmark case seen in the perspective of a much larger project of "Interlinking of Rivers in India".

Narmada basin dams took over a half century to be built. Today we have modern and faster building techniques available. Finance is no longer a problem thanks to foreign investment pouring into infra structure projects in India. If rehabilitation and environmental issues were neglected in a long drawn out project( where all concerned had sufficient time to implement the agreed steps), one dreads to think what will happen in the coming Ken-Betwa /Kali-Chambal and many other imminent projects.

As a concerned citizen, I have been reading up on the issue as much as I can. It is easy to see why the media and the common man is swayed easily by the development vs rehabilitation or development vs environment debate. It is time the rational brains of this country ( whether living here or abroad) took a more balanced view by entering into an informed discussion /debate.

There is a yahoo group atcalled Water Watch which is worth being a part of, to gain insights from various thinking people

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WaterWatch/

Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have jointly formed a committee to look into the viability of river linking project for linking Kali Singh and Chambal rivers. The body would submit a report within 60 days.

When asked whether there is any threat to ecology due to the river-linkage programme, Mr Mishra stated that he did hear about this, but the Non-Government Organisations should come forth with presentation as how it would affect the ecology.

(Anup Mishra is Madhya Pradesh Minister for Water Resources)

On a recent visit to Rishikesh when I stayed at one of the mountain resorts, I decided to trek the mountain slopes along with one of the workers at the resort-who was a cook cum coolie at the place.

As we walked along, I was surprised to hear him talk about the uses and medicinal values of almost every plant that grew around there. He said he and his family members have never visited a doctor.

 As we came back, he wanted to know if I can help him get a job in Delhi. I felt ashamed and helpless. Tried explaining to him that the knowledge he has and the air he breathes in is so much superior to what we urbanites have to offer.

I do not think he was poorly off. Is there anything we can do to empower him- to respect him for his knowledge?

I recently went to the Sriram School in Gurgaon where a screening of "Curbing the Crisis" by Tiger Watch was held. What came as a pleasant surprise was hearing that the "Junior Tiger Task Force" as the young tiger activists in the school call themselves, have got into the act to do something at grassroot level.

They are helping a Mogia family to find an alternate way of earning income. The Mogias are a tribe from Ranthambore who have hunted wild animals for a living for centuries. They also have a "Guggle Project"-helping planting local trees in rehabilitated villages.

Environmrnt education or awareness does not necessarily stop at refining the Automobile exaust gases or stopping an industry from spewing smoke from their chimneys. Environment awareness has to be addressed as a whole.

The need today is to inculcate an environment friendly attitude into people.  One effective way is to share the knowledge, educate- through visuals and talk shows to school children by volunteers and teach them that Flora and Fauna are something to be respected and protected. 

The Gram Panchayat platforms could be urged to hold slide-shows and teach the rural people to protect their environment for their own benefit and diversity. All this could be done with the involvement of a few like minded people to volunteer and campaign.  We have to come together first.

Mr. Ankur Chaturvedi seems to have a good way of keeping elephants at bay from straying into plantations or any other human settlement.

True, like he says we are in the way of the elephants and not the other way. 

I would like to know what method Mr. Chaturvedi has in mind to keep elephants from harms way.  May be, if has to be discussed with a lot of like minded people and if found very appropriate, urge the Govt. authorities to implement the same.  We can campaign for such causes from the IWC platform itself, with all the subscribers and members making an e-mail campain to implement the idea.  There is a lot we can do, we only have the first few steps.