Forest department caged two leopards from Veraval in Junagadh and Rajula in Amreli in past 48 hours. One of the big cats died of heat. The big cat that died was a female caught in Savani village near Veraval on Wednesday morning. “The leopard used to prey upon village cattle and had been thwarting our attempts of caging her. As a last-ditch effort, we had set up a cage with a live goat as bait inside it in an orchard. Attracted by constant bleating of the goat, the leopard got inside the cage at 5am and was trapped,” said Jokhia, in-charge range forest officer of Veraval.
However, the leopard appeared seriously ill and after spending a few hours in the cage it died. Preliminary investigation of the forest department attributed heat wave as the cause of the death. The big cat’s body was sent to veterinary hospital in Sasan Gir for postmortem to ascertain the exact cause of death.
The deceased leopard appeared about three years old, five feet long and two feet high. Meanwhile in Rajula, a male leopard was found caged on Tuesday morning. The leopard had killed four goats and an equal number of dogs on the outskirts of Rajula and Jhampadar village in the past 10 days.
By : Timesofindia
Friday, April 30, 2010
By identifying India’s first individual whale shark, Gujarat has taken a big step forward in understanding this often misunderstood...
Whale sharks — the world’s biggest fish species — swam the waters of the world even before dinosaurs evolved. And yet scientists today don’t even have basic statistics on this endangered species. Exact numbers? Your guess is as good as anyone else’s. Besides, breeding grounds of this mammoth fish are a mystery and no one has photographed a newborn whale shark. Its reproductive system was understood as late as 1996.
It is for this reason that marine scientists are excited about India identifying its first individual whale shark recently along the Gujarat coast as part of the Whale Shark Conservation Project. Detailed photographs taken of the fish will be sent to ECOCEAN, which maintains the global whale shark database and coordinates international research.
“To preserve this prehistoric species, we need to understand its habitat, migratory patterns, its DNA and breeding grounds,” says Dhiresh Joshi, coordinator of Wildlife
Trust of India (WTI), one of the partners on the conservation effort. “Gujarat has already done a lot in conserving the whale shark, but with this endeavour, we are joining hands with the global community.”
Once the ECOCEAN database has enough numbers, scientists hope to get details on whether the schools found in Asia, the Caribbean, Australia and the Far East are individual communities that never meet each other or if they breed with each other. They also want to know migratory patterns. One recently, a radio-collared whale shark travelled 13,000 km within a few months, giving some idea of the long distances they travel.
“Gujarat will play a crucial role in conserving the whale shark because the species congregates in unusually large numbers here,” Joshi adds. “Satellite imaging from Isro has shown the Gujarat coast is ideal for plankton breeding, the whale shark’s favourite meal, but we need to understand the food highways better.”
In Vietnam, the whale shark is the deity ‘Ca Ong’, which translates as ‘Sir Fish’
In Kenya it got the name ‘papa shillingi’ from the myth that God threw shillings upon the shark which are now its spots
Javanese also refer to the stars by calling it ‘geger lintang’, meaning ‘stars on the back’
COOL CUSTOMERS
Although massive, whale sharks are docile fish and sometimes allow swimmers to hitch a ride. In fact, fishermen often take advantage of the fish’s cool nature, sail close to it and harpoon it to death
WHERE THEY LIVE
They are found in all tropical seas and migrate every spring to Australia given the abundance of plankton there. They are sighted in large numbers along the Gujarat coast as well
UNDER THREAT
In Gujarat, fishermen killed this species to use its liver oil as waterproofing in traditional boats. In the Far East, its fin is used for the infamous shark-fin soup
WHAT THEY EAT
Fortunately human beings are not on the menu of this fish! Its favourite meal is plankton or drifting organisms and plants that it gulps down with huge amounts of water
In a unique endeavour, Gujarat made Ram Kathakar Morari Bapu ambassador of the ‘Save the Whale Shark’
It is for this reason that marine scientists are excited about India identifying its first individual whale shark recently along the Gujarat coast as part of the Whale Shark Conservation Project. Detailed photographs taken of the fish will be sent to ECOCEAN, which maintains the global whale shark database and coordinates international research.
“To preserve this prehistoric species, we need to understand its habitat, migratory patterns, its DNA and breeding grounds,” says Dhiresh Joshi, coordinator of Wildlife
Trust of India (WTI), one of the partners on the conservation effort. “Gujarat has already done a lot in conserving the whale shark, but with this endeavour, we are joining hands with the global community.”
Once the ECOCEAN database has enough numbers, scientists hope to get details on whether the schools found in Asia, the Caribbean, Australia and the Far East are individual communities that never meet each other or if they breed with each other. They also want to know migratory patterns. One recently, a radio-collared whale shark travelled 13,000 km within a few months, giving some idea of the long distances they travel.
“Gujarat will play a crucial role in conserving the whale shark because the species congregates in unusually large numbers here,” Joshi adds. “Satellite imaging from Isro has shown the Gujarat coast is ideal for plankton breeding, the whale shark’s favourite meal, but we need to understand the food highways better.”
In Vietnam, the whale shark is the deity ‘Ca Ong’, which translates as ‘Sir Fish’
In Kenya it got the name ‘papa shillingi’ from the myth that God threw shillings upon the shark which are now its spots
Javanese also refer to the stars by calling it ‘geger lintang’, meaning ‘stars on the back’
COOL CUSTOMERS
Although massive, whale sharks are docile fish and sometimes allow swimmers to hitch a ride. In fact, fishermen often take advantage of the fish’s cool nature, sail close to it and harpoon it to death
WHERE THEY LIVE
They are found in all tropical seas and migrate every spring to Australia given the abundance of plankton there. They are sighted in large numbers along the Gujarat coast as well
UNDER THREAT
In Gujarat, fishermen killed this species to use its liver oil as waterproofing in traditional boats. In the Far East, its fin is used for the infamous shark-fin soup
WHAT THEY EAT
Fortunately human beings are not on the menu of this fish! Its favourite meal is plankton or drifting organisms and plants that it gulps down with huge amounts of water
In a unique endeavour, Gujarat made Ram Kathakar Morari Bapu ambassador of the ‘Save the Whale Shark’
campaign. This was the first time that a spiritual leader was roped in for an environmental cause and was effective in convincing fishermen not to kill the species.
India has put the whale shark under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act (1972) and banned its fishing and trade in 2001. Maximum punishment for killing a whale shark is seven years imprisonment.
Gujarat’s pride: Lion count touches 405
“We are putting the number at around 405,” said a source. The final count would be declared by senior officials who would take a call on Friday morning before the data is submitted to Chief Minister Narendra Modi by 4 pm.
Sources further said there was much hue and cry over the large number of lions moving out in the fringe areas of Gir. However, according to officials, the count in Gir forest was around 290 lions while another 25-odd lions were spotted in the Girnar and Mityala sanctuaries.
Officials said the three sanctuaries put together would account for around 315 lions, while the remaining were in Khamba, Mahuva, Palitana and parts of Amreli district.
A senior forest official said this was exactly the figure which was derived at during the nine-month exercise which began before the census. Officials said that of the 90-odd lions which venture out of the Gir sanctuary, about 25 are in Mahuva, while another 30 are in Khamba. Interestingly, not a single lion was sighted in the coastal belt from Veraval to Mangrol.
The four-day census exercise, which began on April 24, covered a large area spread over 10,000 sq km. No less than 1,300 forest officials and volunteers were deployed for the exercise using global positioning system and digital photography.
Officials said photographs taken by volunteers had helped forest officials cut down on the time taken previously to complete the census. “We have been able to arrive at the final count in less than 72 hours of the completion of census,” said a senior official.
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