Lion axed to death near Gir

RAJKOT: In a bizarre incident, a lion was axed to death by some villagers in the greater Gir concept area of Junagadh district on Monday. Before it was killed, the lion had attacked seven people, including three of its attackers, who were hospitalised after the incident, forest officials said.


“It appears to be an act of self-defence,” said in charge deputy conservator of forests Anita Karne of Junagadh Sasan Gir.


The lion, aged between three and five years, was first spotted near Chorvadi village, 4 km from Gir sanctuary. Deputy sarpanch Mahesh Baldaniya, 65, was attacked and injured on his leg by the lion, which then walked into a farm in Mandalpar village. On way, it reportedly attacked Chandu Chovadiya, 45, a farm labourer, Gopal Mor, 70, and a forest beat guard PD Gharsanda before it was found dead at 11am in the farm.



Karne said, “Foresters found a felled tree next to the lion’s carcass. From the wounds it appears to have been attacked by a sharp object, possibly an axe, which cut the blood stream to the brain.”



The attackers — Karim Pathan, 42, Salim, 32, and Abdullah Pathan, 45, all residents of Junagadh — are woodcutters.

“Preliminary investigation suggests that these persons — labourers hired to fell trees before monsoon — were working when the lion attacked them,” Karne said, adding that the spot falls under the revenue area and not the sanctuary. It’s not yet certain how many woodcutters were present.



In charge conservator of forests Sudhir Chaturvedi said, “This kind of a multiple attack on humans by a lion is extremely rare. It needs to be studied as to whether there was any provocation”.

Spece technology to identify whale shark of Gujarat

New Delhi, Feb 19 (IANS) Indian scientists will try to distinguish individual whale sharks off the Gujarat coast, using a technique employed by NASA to identify galaxies.

Just as each tiger is distinguished by its stripes, whale sharks too can be identified through a unique pattern of spots that form points of numerous triangles on their bodies, say experts.

As the whale shark grows, the distance between these spots increases, but angles of these triangles remain the same, thus identifying the whale shark.


“The whale shark aggregation is less understood but from the satellite images it is clear there are large plankton blooms off the coast of Gujarat compared to any other maritime state and this could be the reason for such frequent sightings,” Joshi told IANS.


“To date, Ecocean has identified 2,109 whale sharks worldwide, from 9,800 whale sharks sighted in 43 countries. Many identified sharks have been re-sighted on several occasions,” Norman told IANS.


Ecocean has received support from the UN Environment Programme to promote the global whale shark library.

March 20 to be celebrated as World House Sparrow Day

March 20, 2010 will be observed as World House Sparrow Day (WHSD) to focus on raising awareness about the decline of the common House Sparrow and to throw light on the problems faced by the House Sparrow in its daily fight for survival.

The World House Sparrow Day (WHSD) is an international initiative by Nature Forever Society in collaboration with Bombay Natural History Society, Cornell Lab of Ornithology (USA), Eco-Sys Action Foundation (France), Avon Wildlife Trust (UK) and numerous other national and international organisations across the world.

In India, Mohammed Dilawar of India's Nature Forever Society, is heading the World Sparrow Day. He is also working for the return of the winged beauty back everywhere.

Mohammed Dilawar, an award-winning, Nashik-based former lecturer of environmental studies, said: "We've noticed a rapid decline in house sparrows in India. Some places used to be home to hundreds of them but they're rapidly disappearing." Scientists first started to notice a decline in the number of House Sparrows in the 1990s.

The theme for WHSD 2010 is, “We will save our House Sparrows. We invite all national organisations, NGOs, clubs and societies, universities, schools and individuals across the world to highlight WHSD 2010 by organizing awareness-raising programs, festivals or other related events on this year's topic during the weekend of 20 March 2010,” Dilawar said.

The UK celebrations for the first World House Sparrow Day on 20 March will be lead by Avon Wildlife Trust. The Bristol-based charity will be working longside organisations from as faraway as India, Kenya and Hong Kong.

The trust is asking people to report their House Sparrow sightings, so they can build up a picture of where the bird is surviving in the region.

The House Sparrow (passer domesticus) is a species of passerine bird in the sparrow family Passeridae. In India, it is popularly known as goraiya in the Hindi speaking districts. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala it is known as kuruvi and also known as chittu kuruvi.

In Telugu it is known as the pichhuka, and in Kannada, gubbachchi. The Gujaratis call it chakli whereas the Maharashtrians call it chimani. It is known as chiri in Punjab, chaer in Jammu and Kashmir, Charai Pakhi in West Bengal, and gharachatia in Orissa. In Urdu it is called chirya while in Sindhi, it is known as jhirki.

Many reasons are attributed for their apparent “disappearance”: The introduction of unleaded petrol is one, as the combustion of which produces compounds methyl nitrite, which is highly toxic for small insects that forms a part of a chick's diet.

Old houses had eaves and tiles that were comfortable perches to build nests on. External wirings and framed pictures too were “habitats”. But sleek modern concrete structures no longer have these and so “feathered neighbours” lost their habitats.

Mushrooming supermarket culture in urban areas, replaced the old fashioned grain shops which offered their spills as feeds. Urbanisation has done away with home gardens, which had worms and insects for the young sparrows. Besides extensive use of pesticides have proved lethal for their survival. The most recent reason for their disappearance is the mobile phone towers, the waves from the tower, it is said, are capable of destroying the life in the eggs.

Asiatic Lion

Asiatic Lion is one of the seven sub-species of lions on this planet. Its scientific name is "Panthera Leo Persica". Gir, popular name for part of Gujarat in India is the only place where this magnificent animal is found today.
Asiatic lions feed on wild pigs, cattle, antelope and deer in the wild. Present population of Asiatic Lion is 359 and is increasing every year because of conservation efforts of local people and Government of Gujarat...