Every year, thousands of Demoiselle Cranes visit Khichan village in the Rajasthan desert during winter. They arrive by October-November and stay on till the end of March. Khichan and the areas around were filled with open high tension wires. Every time these beautiful cranes flew, they would come in contact with these high tension wires and die. The images show such electrocuted cranes.
A Khichan native — Sevaram Malli Parihar — took it upon himself to get these high tension … Read More
38 half-dead Spiny-tailed lizards were seized from three poachers near Beermadera village in Pokhran subdivision of Jaisalmer district. The forest department received information of a poaching gang catching Spiny-tailed lizards from their burrows. The department team immediately reached the spot and caught the three poachers and recovered the lizards, which had their spines broken and were packed tightly in bags.
Department officials state that the poachers cook and eat these lizards (considered a delicacy) after extracting oil (by burning their … Read More
The Red-necked Falcon (Falco chicquera) is a widespread resident in India and adjacent regions as well as sub-Saharan Africa.
Once mating of this bird commences, the female suspends or minimises hunting and the male hunts and provides her with food, mainly birds. Here, a male brings a kill to the female. The female then starts de-feathering the dove. It is ironic that in doing so, the female doesn’t let the male come close to the prey. We see … Read More
This leucistic Indian grey mongoose or common grey mongoose (Herpestes edwardsii) was seen regularly from the summer of 2011 till the monsoon of 2012 near Gular ki kui area in Ranthambhore national park. Unlike other mongoose inside the park, this one was very shy and almost never came near the tracks. I got my first picture of this individual after several sightings. We are still not sure about its sex and we had never seen this one with … Read More
This unusual image of a Greater Flamingo chick on the back of its mother (?) was taken by me on 22 January in Dholpur, Rajasthan, at the Hussain Sagar water body. The waterbody derives its name from Hussain Pur, a nearby village, and is fed by rain water. Even though there is anthropogenic disturbance at this site — buffaloes enter the water and people wash their clothes here everyday — a small group of Greater Flamingos have been at the … Read More
Would you walk away from a tiger lying 10 feet in front of you? Well, I did and only for the lure of that elusive, enigmatic predator – the leopard. We were at Ranthambore, face to face with a handsome male tiger (T6 aka Romeo) when our guide Hemraj suggested that we head off to a nearby waterhole to wait at a leopard’s spotted deer kill. The reluctance was momentary, the chance of a leopard on a kill was too … Read More
The Indian subcontinent records both Red (or Grey) Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius) and Red-necked Phalarope. Both are Arctic breeders that spend the non-breeding (winter) season at sea in the south Pacific, with the Red-necked Phalarope also in the Arabian Sea, and Red off West Africa. Red-necked Phalaropes migrate overland in Europe and Asia, and are encountered in inland wetlands, but Red Phalarope is a vagrant and occur inland only when storm-driven.
On 18 April 2012, Range Forest Officer (RFO) … Read More
A leopard was captured in a village from Bauli Tehsil of Sawai Madhopur District and released in Sawai Mansingh Sanctuary, 40 km away from the leopard’s territory. The leopard was just spotted by villagers and summoned the forest department to remove it. After 3 days, the leopard found its way back to its homerange as typically happens. On the way back, it encountered villagers and accidentally injured a child. A chaos ensued, and during the (second) forest department rescue operation, … Read More
Jiwan Das, an associate of the notorious poacher Juhru was sentenced to five years imprisonment by a court in Alwar, Rajasthan. He is accused in six cases of tiger poaching. The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) has assisted in the prosecution related to a case pertaining to the poaching of a tiger in Sariska on May 24, 2003. Jiwan Das was also fined Rs 40,000. Proceedings are also ongoing against two of his accomplices. Jiwan Das has also been sentenced … Read More
An illegal construction of a canal to connect the Kushalipura nalla to the Manasarovar dam, threatens to destroy a corridor that connects Ranthambore National Park to the Sawai Mansingh sanctuary. Wild animals can cross the two protected areas that run parallel to each other, at only two points, as high hills and three villages block the other points. The canal is all set to block the most often used of the two points.
Ex-forest minister NN Meena laid the foundation … Read More
An endangered male Lesser Florican (Sypheotides indicus) displays in the Sonkhaliya grasslands in Ajmer, Rajasthan. Most of Sonkhaliya have been converted into agricultural fields and the remaining into shrub land of the invasive Prosopis juliflora. Surprisingly, in a recent survey more than 150 male floricans were seen in the Sonkhaliya area of about 100 square kilometers. This author (G.S. Bhardwaj — a scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India) who conducted the survey in NW India observed … Read More
Atleast five army jawans participating in an exercise in the Indo-Pak border have been found to have hunted chinkara for meat. After being informed by villagers, officials from the state forest department rushed to the army camp and recovered the severed heads of the gazelles besides the uncooked meat. The officials also recovered the vehicle used in the hunting, which had bloodstains on it. The jawans fled the camp when the officials conducted the raid. They have been booked under … Read More
The rare Yellow-eyed Pigeon, at the turn of the 19th century, used to migrate to India in swarming flocks during winter. However, habitat destruction and unrestrained hunting had driven them out of their wintering grounds in India. But now, the highly vulnerable species is making a comeback and favors the Tal Chhapar wildlife sanctuary in Churu district, Rajasthan. In 2009, the pigeons had flown into Tal Chhapar in small groups and repeated the act again in 2010. This year, the … Read More
A recent study by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) says that Ranthambore’s tigers show a loss of genetic diversity over the years, due to the tigers being an isolated population without any genetic exchange. Ranthambore’s tigers used to take the Chambal river route to the Kuno sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. But due to the flattening of the river banks, the tigers stopped using this route for dispersal and there has been no gene flow between the two tiger populations. … Read More
Sariska national park in Rajasthan faces a shortage of officials willing to stay on as District Forest Officers (DFO). Officials do not want to stay in the park because of the big responsibility and the possibility of more tiger deaths. So soon after appointment, they start pulling strings to get transferred to a new location. Rajasthan’s Chief Conservator of Forests, P.S. Somshekar contends that there is a shortage of senior officials who can take up the DFO post. Three out … Read More
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