K.Ullas Karanth and Krithi Karanth on the lessons learned from resettlement projects in three important protected areas in the Western Ghats — Nagarahole, Bhadra and Kudremukh.
Forests in the Western Ghats occur as fragmented strips within a larger landscape matrix of crops and tree plantations. Reserves in the Ghats cover only twelve per cent of total area and the average reserve size is 243 sq km; the fourteen legally protected areas in the Ghats cover a total of only 6400 … Read More
Leopards are a highly adaptable species that live in and around many human- dominated, agricultural landscapes. It is a daunting challenge to ensure the peaceful coexistence of leopards among high densities of humans of the order of 200 or more to a sq.km. Research indicates that even in such high human density areas, attacks on humans and domestic animals in most cases can be kept to very low levels. The goodwill and trust of people especially in rural areas are … Read More
300-400 irate villagers in Dhamdhar village in Kalagarh Forest Division, Corbett Tiger Reserve doused a captured leopard with petrol and burnt it to alive. Apparently, there were 35 wildlife officials and 4 policemen, but they were overpowered by the mob and could not prevent the act. The leopard was alleged to be responsible for three deaths, but according to Chief Wildlife Conservator of Uttarakhand, S. K. Chandola, the leopard had strayed from Corbett National Park and attacked three people causing … Read More
Relocation, resettlement and displacement of people have been carried out for several reasons in India and the history of such efforts goes back forty years. In India it is estimated that resettlement for conservation is a small fraction (less than one percent) of the more than sixty million people relocated for other reasons. The nature of these efforts has ranged from forcible eviction to voluntary relocation and they have ranged from abject failure to mixed success.
Relocation and resettlement of … Read More
Devappa was born when the Jagara Valley was a hunting ground of the British. When he was small, the valley had elephants, gaur, and tigers. Within it were villages such as his, sparsely distributed with few people.
In 1951, this 198 sq km area was declared Jagara Valley Game Sanctuary. The population of the villagers inside the reserve was low and the extraction of forest resources was more for self-subsistence than for the market.
In the sixties, a reservoir was … Read More
A five-foot long dolphin weighing more than 150 kgs washed ashore the Marina beach in Chennai. It appeared to have died from serious head injuries. The range officer who examined the body said that it could have died due to an injury from a trawler. Supraja Dharini, the founder of an NGO called Tree foundation says that this is the third such incident in Chennai in the past three months. She said that in-depth studies must be carried out to … Read More
Dr. K Ullas Karanth, Senior Scientist, Wildlife Conservation Society, and Dr. Rajesh Gopal, Member Secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) explain how conflict between humans and tigers can be reduced.
Wherever wild tiger populations survive and come into contact with landscapes dominated by humans, they pose a threat by preying on livestock, and, less commonly, on people. In most parts of India, people are remarkably tolerant of wildlife damage compared with elsewhere in the world, but sometimes, in … Read More
Is human–elephant conflict on the rise?
Yes, it seems to be. We have failed to reduce crop depredation loss and injury to human life, which has made people living around wildlife habitats more hostile towards conservation.
As a consequence, there has been a constant increase in the retaliatory killing of elephants. In Karnataka alone 16 elephants were killed in 2006–07, 46 in 2008–09 and 41 in 2009–10. The compensation paid by the Karnataka Forest Department for loss to life and … Read More
This was published in Oryx, February 2011.
India is home to a population of c. 26,000 Asian elephant Elephas maximus over an area of c. 110,000 km2. Currently 65,000 km2 of this area is declared as 32 Elephant Reserves across Protected Areas (30%), Reserved Forests (40%) and private lands (30%). Securing this landscape for the elephant is a challenging task in a country that has an expanding economy and over a billion people competing for space, some of it with … Read More
Two highways pass through Bandipur Tiger Reserve. NH-67 (Gundlupet-Ooty Road) and NH-212 (Gundlupet-Sultan Batthery Road) and both those highways experience heavy traffic. The traffic on NH-67 is typically tourist traffic from Karnataka to the hill resort of Ooty, while on NH 212 there is heavy passenger and truck traffic plying to northern Kerala.
Due to speeding vehicles several animals mostly chital, nocturnal animals such as civets, black-naped hare, mouse deer were killed in large numbers. Roadkills shockingly included the illustrated … Read More
How can wildlife be conserved in India? At first appearance, simply eliminating all pressures on wildlife should be enough. But, is this at all realistic?
Two important forces – subsistence and commerce – drive India’s wildlife declines. Take any wildlife habitat. To the local user, its subsistence potential reigns paramount. To the entrepreneur, its development potential. To the conservationist, its intrinsic ecological potential. All are important, and none can be trifled with.
However, here I proceed under the premise that … Read More
A leopard was run over by a heavy vehicle on the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) Road, connecting Bannerghatta Road and Kanakapura Road. It shows how much the urban sprawl have begun infringing on wildlife habitat. Forest officials and the Bannerghatta police, who visited the spot visit in the morning, said that the leopard sustained head injuries and died on the spot. The forests urban department which has ordered a probe is in the process of identifying the vehicle from … Read More
Once a killer track, Rajaji Park has seen no elephant deaths in six years.
Over the past seven years, over 75 elephants have been killed in train accidents across India — more than those killed by poaching, at least officially — and the carnage continues in Assam, North Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Yet, in the same period, no blood was shed on the track that cuts through Rajaji National Park (Uttarakhand) and its Chilla-Motichur elephant corridor. This … Read More
The Gujarat forest and environment department has banned entry of vehicles on the roads passing through Gir National Park and Sanctuary, the last abode of Asiatic Lions, at night.
The move by the forest department will give a much needed relief to the wildlife in the Gir as about 10 important roads pass through the sanctuary. This step will decrease the risk of accident to animals and also save it from disturbance and noise pollution.… Read More
JAIPUR: The beauty of the Aravalli-flanked Sariska Reserve may soon be a thing of past with Rajasthan government granting 40 new mining leases in the eco-sensitive zone, something that’ll leave the area pock-marked with quarries and pose a threat to an ambitious tiger rehab project.
The government sanctioned the leases on Tuesday on a plea that Aravalli range, where stone mining had been sanctioned, had contours less than 100 feet, which is not considered as a hill as per state … Read More
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