69 vultures, ropeway site await Jairam at Girnar

Ahmedabad: Finally, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest is likely to take a call on whether or not to allow the Girnar Ropeway project in Junagadh. Minister of state MoEF Jairam Ramesh is expected to visit Junagadh for a site visit to the Girnar Hill where a ropeway is slated to pass though to take thousands of pilgrims to Jain temples atop the hill. This was decided at the meeting of the National Board of Wildlife in India on Monday in New Delhi.


Ramesh's visit has been scheduled since a long time, but was being delayed. The project has been lying in limbo since over a decade after its inception. Wildlife activists are protesting against the project on the premise that the trees on the hill are home to 69 vultures - a highly endangered species on the verge of extinction.

The ropeway, they have contested, will disturb their nesting and they will perish. On this contention, the MoEF had earlier denied permission. But with the Gujarat government resending the proposal, Ramesh has decided to personally visit the site to decide whether wildlife will be hampered or not by the project.

Even though the Congress and BJP are united on bringing this project, sources have confided that a recently submitted report by the NBWLI is not much in favour of the project. "However, the minister will take the final call. He will meet the locals there, officials of the company that will implement the project and of course, the forest department officials and gauge the situation," a source said.

The ropeway project was given to Usha Breco, the company that operates the ropeway in Pavagadh, to be implemented at a cost of Rs89.31 crore. With 18 cabins, the ropeway will be able to transport 2,000 people in an hour. The ropeway is expected increase the tourist flow to the area substantially, which will directly benefit the local community, which explains the unanimous political support. "But the increased human activity will in fact not disturb the wildlife as they will be in the air.

Currently, pilgrims walk up the hill, disturbing the wildlife, with the ropeway, the disturbance on ground will stop," a senior forest official has said by way of explanation.

The other thing on agenda at the NBWLI meeting was the diversion of 0.43 ha of forest land in Narayan Sarovar Sanctuary for laying Optical Cable line by Reliance Communication Ltd, which was cleared.

Gujarat sets up special task force to check illegal mining

Ahmedabad, Jan 21 (PTI) The Gujarat government has informed the High court that it has formed a special task force (STF) and grievance redressal committees at state and district levels to check illegal mining.


Information regarding this was placed in form of an affidavit before the division bench of Chief Justice S J Mukhopadhaya and Justice Akil Kureshi, while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) against illegal mining in Gir forest region. The PIL was filed by RTI activist Amit Jethva a few days before he was shot dead.

The court in its order of December 21 had directed the Principal Secretary, Mines and Minerals Department, to remain present and had also ordered government to file an action taken report (ATR) with regard to the implementation of Gujarat Mineral (Prevention of Illegal Mining, Transportation and Storage) Rules, 2005.

Following the order, Principal Secretary Maheshwar Sahu remained present before the court and the government also filed an affidavit along with ATR.
According to the affidavit, government has formed a special task force and grievance redressal committee at state and district levels through a notification dated January 17.

The government further said it will hold police personnel, revenue staff and officers of Geology and Mining department of the concerned area accountable and liable for negligence, if there was detection of illegal mining activities in their area.

World losing biodiversity at unprecedented rate: UN

Chennai, Jan 7 (IANS) The extinction of biodiversity due to global warming is thousand times higher than natural extinction and irreparable degradation may take place if ecosystems are pushed beyond certain tipping point, a UN official said here Friday.Citing the third report on Global Biodiversity Outlook, Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of UN Convention on Biological Diversity, said that the state of main ecosystem is particularly worrying as increasing impacts of climate change and ocean acidification are becoming apparent.


“We are losing our biodiversity thousand times faster than natural extinction, leading to widespread and irreversible loss of natural ecosystem,” Djoghlaf said while addressing a session on Biodiversity-Focus on Fragile Coastal Ecosystem at the Indian Science Congress here.

He said that in October 2010, the international community had gathered at the convention’s 10th meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP 10) at Nagoya, Japan, to adopt a new strategic plan for protecting the biodiversity during 2011-2020 period.

“Building on our success and failures to date, the new strategic plan incorporates a 2020 biodiversity target and sub-target, and contains a means of implementation as well as a monitoring and evaluation mechanism,” he said.

The UN official called for Indian research community becoming a leader in achieving Nagoya vision. India will host the next meeting on Conference of Parties (CoP 11) in 2012.

“The stakes could not be higher, what we do, or fail to do, over the next 10 years will influence the well-being and prosperity of billions of people for generation to come,” he added.

10 held for fishing near turtle nesting site

Bhubaneswar, Jan 8 (IANS) Ten fishermen were arrested for fishing near the prohibited area of the Gahirmatha turtle nesting site in Orissa’s Kendrapada district, an official said Saturday.The men were fishing using a mechanised trawler near the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary, about 175 km from here, Friday evening.


“Police and wildlife officials arrested them. The fishermen will be produced before a local court,” Divisional Forest Officer (wildlife) Manoj Mohapatra told IANS.

He said the trawler was seized.

Gahirmatha is one of the world’s largest turtle nesting sites, where 700,000-800,000 endangered Olive Ridley turtles arrive and congregate in the sea waters between October and November and nest between December and March.

Thousands of turtles get killed every year mostly by mechanized trawlers. The Orissa government has imposed a seven-month fishing ban along 120 km of the state’s 480 km coastline from Nov 1 to May 31.