UN Conference adopts a new conservation strategy to protect the sea cow
Bonn/Abu Dhabi, 7 October 2010 – Dugongs are believed to have been at the origin of mermaid legends when spotted swimming in the water from a distance. Now the remaining populations of this seemingly clumsy sea mammal, commonly known as a sea cow, are at serious risk of becoming extinct within the next 40 years.
At an international meeting this week on dugongs convened by the Convention on … Read More
BHUBANESWAR: In the last 19 years in Orissa, 231 elephants fell victim to poachers while 166 were killed in accidents and 173 more died from natural causes, says a wildlife NGO. While the government gives more conservative estimates, experts say there is enough cause for alarm.
Biswajit Mohanty, secretary of NGO Wildlife Society of Orissa , who gave IANS the figures, said at least 155 of the elephants died due to electrocution in over 10 years.
“Immediate measures are required … Read More
The Railways and the Wildlife officials of both the West Bengal government and Centre today unanimously agreed to declare the entire 164-km stretch between Siliguri and Alipurdiar on the North East Frontier Railway as an “elephant corridor” and put a speed restriction of 45 kmph on all the trains – day and night.
Both the sides formulated and agreed on a number of other steps to prevent recurrence of such animal dashing by speeding trains, official sources said.
On Wednesday … Read More
Incident once again raises questions over movement of trains along the elephant corridor.
Seven elephants of a herd died after being hit by a goods train in the Banarhat area of Jalpaiguri district (West Bengal) on Wednesday night.
While four were killed on the spot, the rest died on Thursday. The dead include a sub-adult and two juvenile elephants, Divisional Forest Officer (Wild Life II) Sumita Ghatak told The Hindu over telephone.
The incident has once again raised questions over … Read More
JAIPUR: The Indian gazelle population in an around Jodhpur district is facing threat of extermination and the danger, surprisingly, is not from poachers but stray dogs which have turned predators. According to an estimate there are a thousand cases annually of dogs attacking and killing gazelles, the State Animal of Rajasthan. Against this, poaching cases are only one third of that number.
“The entire race of gazelles in the Jodhpur countryside may vanish in the coming five to seven years … Read More
With an estimated 26,000 elephants India is home to half the world’s population of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). These pachyderms are spread over a geographical area of about 110,000 sq km, sixty percent of which have been declared as 32 Elephant Reserves (ER).
A different concept from the conventional Protected Areas (PAs), ERs consist of a mixture of land categories. PAs (30%), Reserved Forests (40%) and private lands (30%) form the land tenure of ERs. Securing this landscape in pursuit … Read More
Notwithstanding the “elephantine” efforts proposed by the Project Elephant in its elaborate report ‘Gajah’ to secure the future of jumbos in the country, “elephanticides” continue in Odisha. In the latest incident, two elephants died in the State — one due to electrocution and the other shot dead by suspected poachers — in the wee hours on Monday.
Official sources in the State forest department confirmed the killing of two tuskers, of which one had been electrocuted at Hindol in Dhenkanal … Read More
Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra recorded the highest number of leopard deaths, stated the NGO Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI).
There have been reports of 240 leopard deaths so far.
Across the country, 17 leopards were killed
India is a fascinating country. Not only is it is home to the largest number of languages, religions and cultures but also supports some of the richest biodiversity areas in the world. If we consider just the large carnivores, India has 4 species of large cats, 4 bears and 6 in the dog family. If we compare this to all of Europe, they have only 4 species of large carnivores. Even at a human density of more than 300 people … Read More
The elephants stood at the stream’s edge. As the adults drank in measured trunkfuls, calves gambolled in the water. Just above them, on the slope, a large sambar stag emerged silently from the undergrowth. From a cluster of trees above came the scolding call of a giant squirrel, as a troop of Nilgiri langur foraged in the canopy. Just as we were slipping into a reverie, imagining ourselves in pristine wilderness, a woman called loudly to her children playing nearby … Read More
A wild gaur that fell into the ground level farm well died at Kovil Athupatti village at Paaganatham panchayat in Vadamadurai block near Thoppanasamy hill forest range in Tanil Nadu. Acute water crisis was the prime reason for the incident.
Earlier, the wild animal invaded a hut and attacked two out of eight persons who were sleeping inside. S. Sankan (60) and P. Siva Sankar, native of Kovil Athupatti were injured.
Sankan was admitted to the Dindigul Government Hospital for … Read More
JAIPUR: Even as India struggles to keep its tigers alive, in a shocking incident, two 17-month-old cubs were found dead, allegedly poisoned by villagers on the outskirts of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve on Sunday. Forest officials said it could have been revenge by the villagers, upset over the killing of their livestock by tigers. Officials say that such incidents may happen again, as straying of tigers from the over-populated reserve was expected. The tiger population in Ranthambore reserve has now come … Read More
Man, tiger and cattle battle for survival where the land, river and sea meet.
This is not a pretty travelogue, though there is no place more exotic and wilder than the Sundarbans. Because nowhere else is the man-animal conflict—one of the biggest issues confronting wildlife conservation—as acute or as complex as in the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve, where people and “man-eating” tigers are engaged in a prolonged, bitter battle for survival.
Occupying 2,585 sq. km of the … Read More
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