Environment ministry has no intention of banning tourism in tiger reserves

Tourists are not the problem

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh has got this one right. He has said that his ministry has no intention to ban tourism in tiger reserves, as demanded by some sections of the environment department. Those in favour of the ban have argued that an increased number of tourists and tourism-related construction was proving to be disastrous for tigers and their habitat, resulting in dwindling numbers. This is a flawed argument.

Indeed, the only way to save the tiger is to ensure that the economic

value of a live tiger is much higher than the profit to be made from killing it for body parts. This can be done primarily by making tigers and tiger reserves a tourist draw.

The worrying fall in the number of tigers in India – which stands at around 1,400 – has little to do with tourists. This has happened because of poaching and encroachment of the tiger habitat. These are the real issues that need to be tackled. Our ill-equipped and poorly paid forest guards are fighting an uphill battle against poachers. Besides, forest conservation laws are regularly flouted.

All over the world tourists flock to see animals in their natural habitat without any adverse impact. Indeed, the money from tourism is funnelled back to protecting the animals. In India, some of the mostvisited national parks such as Corbett also have the highest number of tigers. However, no one is arguing that tourism

in national parks should be unregulated. Tourists in tiger reserves must be accompanied by trained guides. Tourism-related infrastructure should not be allowed inside the core area of national parks and activities in wildlife resorts must be strictly regulated.

The Indian tiger is in dire straits. The only way to save it is to highlight how precious it is. Encouraging more tourists to tiger reserves will only help this cause.

So, the lid’s been put on the tiger tourism fracas. Official talk about turning ecologically sensitive tiger reserves into no-go zones irked the tourism lobby. That lobby’s won this round. None of this alters the fact unregulated wildlife tourism is a migraine for conservationists the world over. Yes, we love to look at untamed animals; if we can be billed for it, it’s a business to boost like any other. Only, right now, there’s a bigger priority: staving off tiger extinction. Just about 1,400 remain in natural habitats. Who knows how many will go the Sariska and Panna way?

Tiger tourism, some say, can be micro-managed. But if it’s been a neardisaster till now, what’s the chance we’ll change stripes? We all know the scandal of hotels and lodges being built on tiger corridors, damaging grasslands and causing loss of precious habitat. We all know unsupervised tourists turned picnickers and wedding guests harass the big cats and disperse their prey. As for tourism as a tool against poaching, law enforcers must net poachers anyway. If anything, serious issues like poaching and encroachment risk getting obscured in the wildlife tourism spat.

It’s argued that tiger protection needs money, and foreign tourists especially bring top dollars. That’s sophistry drawing on economic reductionism to give animals their due. It’s like saying non-human species have a ‘right’ to exist only if bred for food or fur, hunted for sport or shackled in zoos and amusement parks. Without ‘value’ extraction, who’d care for crocs or dolphins? Here’s the counter-argument. Species need conserving for their intrinsic worth. They have a life, a subjectivity and a purpose that are irreducible and inalienable. So, their ‘value’ doesn’t depend on how many of us will pay to exploit them.



By : Times of india

74 big cats outside Gir sanctuary

Gandhinagar: The 2010 census has found 74 lions in the revenue areas of Amreli, Bhavnagar and Junagadh.


Forest department officials said that the figure could have gone up to about 85-90 as those in the revenue area around Sasan were included in the count for Gir National Park. They said the state government is in process of developing new sanctuaries, including the Barda Dungar in Porbandar.

Apart from the Gir National Park, the government has declared Paniya, Mitiyala and Girnar as sanctuaries in 1984, 2004 and 2007 respectively. The area of these three sanctuaries put together is around 235 sq km. Another 190 sq km is the area of Barda, which is ready and lions would soon be moved in there.

Officials said the department was waiting for the lions to move to Barda on their own. This has delayed completion of the Barda Dungar project.

Senior forest officials admitted that the human interference was causing problems for the wildlife. With 90-odd lions moving outside the Gir Sanctuary, the attacks on the human and animal were also on the increase.

Revtubha Raijada, former member of the Wild Life Board, said, “Gir’s carrying capacity is just 270-odd lions and as of now it has well above 400 lions. The lions are moving out because they need food and also there may be a fight for the territory.”

He said that for lions, getting prey in the sanctuary was becoming increasingly difficult and it is easier to get a catch outside. “Once the animal gets used to easy killing, it will not move back to the sanctuary. Even if the lions are caught and forced back to the sanctuary, they will sneak out and come closer to the human habitat,” he said.

A senior forest official agreed with him that the animals were moving out of the sanctuary for food and territory. An adult lions requires an area of 30-40 sq km and, hence, there is always a fight for territory which results in the weaker lion coming out of the sanctuary and coming in direct conflict with the human beings, he said

NO LIONS FOR MADHYA PRADESH: MODI

Chief Minister Narendra Modi made out emotion pitch against giving some Gir lions to Madhya Pradesh lions in his first ever official statement on the issue.


While announcing the latest lion census figures on Sunday he said, “After the 2007 poaching incident in Gir, I had visited lion territory and wanted to talk to the people in and around the sanctuary. But they refused to talk to me until I promised them that not a single lion would be given to Madhya Pradesh. When I told them that the lion was killing their cattle, they said they were ready to suffer the loss as the wild cat had become part of their family.”

Modi added that even the Maldharis were ready to sacrifice their cattle to ensure that the lions stay in Gujarat. The Gujarat government has even opposed a PIL in the Supreme Court asking for some wild lions to be shifted to Madhya Pradesh. The court is slated to hear the issue later this week.

Madhya Pradesh government’s argument has been that three to four per cent per cent of the Gir lions die of unnatural death every year. Given these circumstances, there was no harm in shifting five lions to the Kuno-Palpur forest. The counter affidavit filed by Madhya Pradesh has stated that many lions were dying by falling into open wells, poaching and were even getting electrocuted.

However, Modi made it clear that only one unnatural death was reported in the last year and that too a cub had died after falling in a well.

The Gujarat government has been opposing the move on technical grounds as well, stating that tiger and lions cannot stay together. Gujarat has stated in the Supreme Court that relocating lions from the Gir sanctuary could cause irreparable damage to the sociology of lions and asserted that Madhya Pradesh could not manage the relocation as it had failed to protect its own tigers.

Roaring success: Lion numbers leap in Gujarat

Gandhinagar: Increased numbers, improved sex ratio and more areas conquered — the lion king is healthy and prospering in Gujarat. Chief Minister Narendra Modi declared the lion census figures of 2010 on Sunday which showed that there were 411 of the big cats in Gir sanctuary and surrounding areas. This was a jump of 52 over the previous census in 2005.

 

In fact, the lion is reclaiming territory much further away from the Gir sanctuary than originally thought. As many as 33 big cats were counted 250 km from Gir National Park in semiforest areas of Mahuva and Palitana in Bhavnagar. No less than 74 lions are now roaming outside the sanctuary near human habitation. These are fast turning into the new habitats of the big cat. Coastal areas of Rajula and Jafrabad in Amreli have also recorded sizeable population. Wildlife experts are excited about a number of findings. For instance, there are 97 males and 162 females. The rest are cubs. Youth power seems to be on the rise as there were 77 lions aged less than one year. Another 75 of them are categorised as subadult cubs — in the age group of 1-3 years.

 

Modi said the maximum number of lions — 297 — were found in Gir National Park and adjoining areas.

 

The sex ratio too has improved. While there were 1.2 females for every male in 2005, the 2010 census put the number at 1.67 females for every male. Taking a dig at the skewed sex ratio in several parts of the country, including Gujarat, Modi said humans should take a lesson or two from the lions.Among their new dens, the lions have shown a special liking for Girnar sanctuary. Established in 2007, the new abode has 24 lions. In the 2005 census Girnar was not a sanctuary.

 

PROWLING GLORY

1. The big cats recorded 14.4% growth over last census
2. Male-female ratio at one male for every 1.67 females is the highest ever
3. Lions found in Bhavnagar, 250 km from Gir national park
4. 18% found outside the sanctuary
5. Only one incident of a cub falling in an open well in 2009; in past years an average of 10 cubs died annually
6. More than 13,000 open wells capped
7. Census covered 10,000 sq km

 

 

 

Two leopards caught from Veraval, Rajula

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

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’

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

Ahmedabad: Gujarat, the last abode of the Asiatic lion, has added some more to the big cat pride. Forest officials involved in the lion census in Gir and surrounding areas said an increase of 12-15% has been recorded in the number of lions compared to the 2005 census which had put the count at 359.


“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.

Fund crunch blocks move to shift Maldharis from Gir sanctuary

Ahmedabad: It will be a good few years before the Asiatic Lions are able to enjoy complete privacy in their abode in the Gir sanctuary in Junagadh.
The 376 Maldhari families currently living in the sanctuary area with their livestock will continue to stay there till the state government receives funds from the Centre to facilitate their relocation.

Recently, a grant of Rs50 crore was approved by Union ministry for environment and forest for Gujarat for the purpose of lion conservation.

This, however, is a fraction of the Rs236 crore sought by the state for several conservation projects.
Principal Chief Conservator of forests Pradip Khanna said plans to be funded by the grant had already been prepared.
The task of relocating the maldhari families will take more than the sanctioned amount, he added.

“We will take up other projects such as eco-development, gene pool project, etc,” Khanna said. “Relocation of Maldharis will not happen for now.”

The presence of Maldharis is believed to have detrimental effect on the lions, driving them out of the sanctuary area. The department estimates that the cost of rehabilitating one Maldhari family would come to at least Rs10 lakh.

“The crucial part is to get all of them to agree to be relocated,” said a former forest official from the region. “And if they agree and are given land outside the sanctuary, then it has to be ensured that they do not leave the land allotted to them and return to the forest, as has happened in the past.”

The recently released CAG report highlights similar irregularities in the relocation of Maldharis.
The report states that, between 1972 and 78, 588 families were shifted out of the Gir protected area.
Each family was given eight acres of cultivable and grazing land, 600 sq meters of residential plot and Rs 6050. A total of 257 families were not shifted.But of the 588 families that were relocated, 87 returned to the forests and reside with authorization in the protected area.
According to the CAG report, the forest department had said that a scheme for the rehabilitation of Maldharis had been approved and would be implemented on availability of funds from the Centre.

But adequate steps to prevent relocated Maldhari families from returning to the protected area were not taken, the CAG report says.
“Consequently, the expenditure that was incurred on their earlier relocation towards farm lands, housing plots and cash, proved to be infructuous,” the report has commented.