Indian Wildlife Club Forum

"Yes this sounds like what the world was like during my childhood and what Manali and its environs were like when I had first visited it in the 1960s.

The present sad state of things here is the result of the huge amount of spraying done on the almost monoculture of apples in the ’Valley of the Gods’. Kangra would have been badly damaged had it not been for the fact that fruit farming is not very reliable on account of the strong hail storms that occur there as a result of the interface between the hot lowlands of the Punjab and the almost sudden verticle rise of the Dhaula Dhar range.

 I would however like to know how many large Ficus trees are there and what is the state of the water in the very many rivulets flowing down from the mountains into the Rana Pratap Sagar. Such concentrations of birdlife should be, and most certainly can be, existing along with human communities. That they do exist in locations should not lull us into a feeling of welbeing.

Do post this on your portal on my behalf."

Comment by Lavkumar Khachar on the article " Chintpurni, Dharamshala, Pragpur……(Himachal Pradesh)

Taking a cue from global companies, our own CII ( Confederation of Indian Industries) is writing to 100 large companies in India to measure, manage and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Around the world, The Carbon Disclosure Project secretariat has requested disclosure on risks and opportunities presented by climate change from 500 largest companies.  

This disclosure is made part of investor relevant information for investors.

CAUGHT IN THE HEADLIGHTS Broadcast Premiere on Montana Public Television

Caught in the Headlights, 53 minutes, 2006
<http://www.highplainsfilms.org/fp_caught.html>


CAUGHT IN THE HEADLIGHTS, which documents the conflict between wildlife and automobile culture will have its broadcast premiere, June 7 at 7 pm on Montana Public Television <http://www.montanapbs.org/>. Repeat broadcasts at 4:30 pm on June 9 and 8:30 am on June 10.

In the United States where over four million miles of roads cross the landscape, an animal is killed on the road every 11.5 seconds - with one million vertebrate animals falling victim to automobile collisions annually.

Through the voices of six individuals who are intimately familiar with vehicle-wildlife conflicts, CAUGHT IN THE HEADLIGHTS is a quirky, informative exploration of automobile culture. Two Department of Transportation employees combine humor and sensitivity while taking the viewer on a tour along Montana’s state highways.

A Wildlife rehabilitator since childhood turned raptor educator, painter, and welder, shares her work and perspective of the hardships that birds face in a world where car collisions are the leading cause of injury and death for raptors.

Raising a child as a single father may be hard; try combining that with an hour long commute to work through prime deer and elk habitat. One auto-body painter tells stories of close calls with wildlife on the road while warning of societal stubbornness.

A road ecologist from the Netherlands studies opportunities for creatures to cross roads safely while providing his own social commentary on the past, present and future of our transportation infrastructure.

Another man seeks apology and ceremony by turning roadkill into bronze sculptures.   His bold artwork challenges us to examine our dependency on the automobile through death preserved on the walls of a Seattle-area gallery.

CAUGHT IN THE HEADLIGHTS weaves together these diverse voices united in their reverence for the long ignored casualties of the highway.

More Information:
High Plains Films
P.O. Box 8796
Missoula, Montana 59807
(406) 728-0753
<yak@highplainsfilms.org>

Both orangutans and chimpanzees share about 96 % of their DNA with humans.

 In a recent study, orangutans have been named as the world’s most intelligent animal.

Once widespread throughout the forests of Asia, they are now confined to just two islands, Sumatra and Borneo.

The study has opened up the question-would it be possible to compare different species of primates for intelligence?

(From a report in Sunday Times London)

Encouraged by the number of butterflies visiting the JNU campus, the Jawaharlal Nehru University is all set to develop a Butterfly Park within its premises to attract more species.

More than 50 species of butterflies can be seen fluttering around the University in the Spring season. Rare species like Red Pierrot, Common Jay and Peacock Pansy are often spotted.

Source: The Indian Express, 11 April, 2007

The Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC) has made many significant interventions where forests lands are concerned.  It has gone against the wishes of the Ministry of Environment and Forests(MoEF) many times, and rejected proposals that would endanger India’s already dwindling forest cover. 
The term of CEC is unlikely to be renewed, sources say.

The proposed environment tribunal bill  being set up is expected to be peopled with " yes men", to ensure that Environment Impact Studies go through speedily.  To ensure that the concerns of environment and of people are addressed, activists may turn to public Interest Litigation more than ever. 

source" The Hindu", 23 March, 2007

CSE invites you to a two-day media briefing workshop to understand the condition of India’s rivers, examine existing river cleaning programmes, learn from them, and discuss strategies that could bring our rivers back to life. The Yamuna river will be taken as a representative case. The workshop will bring together river pollution experts, civil society representatives and government officials to debate and demystify key issues.

Date: June 14-15, 2007
Venue: India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

Eligibility criteria:
- The workshop is only open to journalists and media professionals
- Seats are limited. We have the resources to support the travel and accommodation of a few candidates on a first-come, first-served basis. Therefore, please apply immediately

To apply, e-mail/fax your resume to:
Shachi Chaturvedi <shachi@cseindia.org>
Fax:  011-29955879

Last date for applying: June 1, 2007

For more information >>
http://www.cseindia.org/programme/media/yamuna_workshop.htm

"Four or five years ago you couldn’t give environmental and conservation programmes away, but in the past 18 months, the increase in concern about global warming has changed that, and international broadcasters are increasingly asking what we’ve got coming down the line," says Ian Jones, president of distributor National Geographic Television International (NGTI).

Looking ahead, National Geographic US will make its Earth Report - a signature year-end programme that premiered at the end of 2006 - an annual event. Essentially, it is an audit on sustainability and quality of life indicators across the planet, specifically looking at the impact of human activity on the Earth in the previous year. For 2007 there will be an extended web component and the National Geographic magazine will initiate a major push, as will all of the National Geographic channels. In addition, National Geographic is working on a major society-wide global warming project, and it is also preppinga sequal to the series Strange Days on Planet Earth, with many episodes set to have a definite green tinge.

However, based on projects in development now, the lion’s share of programming in 2008 will focus on what people are doing, and what we can all do to reverse the effects of global warming. Broadcasters are shying away from doomsday warnings, and are instead using terms like ’empowering,’ ’inspiring,’ ’aspirational,’ and ’proactive’ to describe the programming they’re after.

New programming throughout the coming year will also likely look at the economic repercussions of going green, from the impact of energy and fuel conservation on our own wallets to big decisions that politicians face, like enforcing clean industry and promoting train transport above air travel.

Source: http://www.wildfilmnews.org

 Project Tiger has been reviewed by the Tiger Task Force constituted by the
National Board for Wildlife, Chaired by the Hon¹ble Prime Minister. 

• The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has already come
  into force w.e.f. 4th September, 2006. 
• Apart from above, all the Tiger Reserves have been evaluated by a panel of independent experts based on a set of criteria (45) developed by the World commission on Protected Areas, as adapted for Indian conditions.  The evaluation has been peer-reviewed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).  Both the assessment as well as peer-review have been placed in both the Houses of Parliament.
• The process of All India estimation of tigers, copredators and prey animals using the refined methodology, as approved by the Tiger Task Force, is ongoing in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India.  The said process on completion, would indicate the status of tiger population, its copredators, prey animals and habitat in the country.
• Assessment of tiger habitat status in the country at Taluka amplification in the Geographical Information System (GIS) domain in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India. Comparative appraisal of forest cover status in and around tiger reserves (upto a radial distance of 10 kms.), in collaboration with the Forest Survey of India for evolving reserve specific restorative strategies involving local people in the peripheral / buffer areas.
• Bilateral agreements have been signed with Nepal and Republic of
  China for controlling trans-boundary illegal trade in wildlife.

Source: Information  given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment and Forests,  in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on March 9, 2007

The organized environmental movement has been almost totally ineffective at protecting the environment since the mid 1980s. 

The big groups have been successful at protecting some resources in certain regions—staving off the drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge and gaining more wilderness designation in the Green Mountain National Forest are two notable successes in the U.S.A—but in terms of protecting the major ecosystems and the general environment, they have largely failed.

There are many other environmental crises including loss of species diversity, loss of natural resources like wetlands and forests, and the collapse of ocean fisheries. 

A large coalition of environmental groups in 1970 endorsed a resolution stating that, “population growth is directly involved in the pollution and degradation of our environment—air, water and land—and intensifies physical, psychological, social, political and economic problems to the extent that the well-being of individuals, the stability of society and our very survival are threatened.”

The connection between population growth and the environment is perhaps best expressed through what is known as the foundation formula or the environmental impact equation,

I=PAT.

What this says is that any environmental impact is the result of three factors; the size of the population, the affluence or wealth of that population and the technology or type of consumption that the population spends its wealth on.

What has happened is that environmental organizations have disregarded the population part of the equation and focused almost entirely on the technology part of the equation, be it driving more fuel-efficient cars or encouraging “smart growth.”

 Source: The Environmental Magazine

http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3734