Non-violence in Lion Kingdom

Inscriptions At The Rock Edict In Girnar Give An Insight Into The Mind Of Ashoka


Frown on animal slaughter

Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, has caused this Dhamma edict to be written. Here (in my domain) no living beings are to be slaughtered or offered in sacrifice. Nor should festivals be held, for Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, sees much to object to in such festivals, although there are some festivals that Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, does approve of.

Green revolution
Wherever medical herbs suitable for humans or animals are not available, I have had them imported and grown. Wherever medical roots or fruits are not available I have had them imported and grown. Along roads I have had wells dug and trees planted for the benefit of humans and animals.

Saving is good
Everywhere in my domain the Yuktas, the Rajjukas and the Pradesikas shall go on inspection tours every five years for the purpose of Dhamma instruction and also to conduct other business. Respect for mother and father is good, generosity to friends, acquaintances, relatives, Brahmans and ascetics is good, not killing living beings is good, moderation in spending is good.

For successors to follow
This edict has been written so that it may please my successors to devote themselves to promoting these things and not allow them to decline. Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, has had this written twelve years after his coronation. This Dhamma edict has been written on stone so that it might endure long and that my descendants might act in conformity with it.

Keep up the good work
To do good is difficult. One who does good first does something hard to do. I have done many good deeds, and, if my sons, grandsons and their descendants up to the end of the world act in like manner, they too will do much good. But whoever amongst them neglects this, they will do evil. Truly, it is easy to do evil.

An alert ruler
In the past, state business was not transacted nor were reports delivered to the king at all hours. But now I have given this order, that at any time, whether I am eating, in the women's quarters, the bed chamber, the chariot, the palanquin, in the park or wherever, reporters are to be posted with instructions to report to me the affairs of the people so that I might attend to these affairs wherever I am.

Religious harmony
All religions should reside everywhere, for all them desire self-control and purity of heart. But people have various desires and various passions, and they may practise all of what they should or only a part of it. But one who receives great gifts yet is lacking in selfcontrol, purity of heart, gratitude and firm devotion, such a person is mean.

Generosity pays
What does bear great fruit, however, is the ceremony of the Dhamma. This involves proper behaviour towards servants and employees, respect for teachers, restraint towards living beings, and generosity towards ascetics and Brahmans

Don’t kill, don’t deport
Indeed, Beloved-of-the-Gods is deeply pained by the killing, dying and deportation that take place when an unconquered country is conquered.

by:timesofindia

State to convert 11 villages on Gir periphery to revenue land

Activist warns of commercial exploitation, increasing man-animal conflicts

The state government has decided to limit the Gir Sanctuary area, deleting 11 villages on its periphery and converting them to revenue land. This comes in the wake of a previous effort to create an extended Gir by increasing the boundaries to accommodate the increasing lion population.

Officials said the state government has in principle approved a proposal for the ‘Rationalisation of Boundaries in Gir Sanctuary’. This proposal essentially means 1939.38 hectares of forest settlement villages will be converted to revenue land, while the reserve forest area to be declared as sanctuary will be limited at 2141.40 hectares.

There are 14 forest settlements in the sanctuary and 11 of these villages are located on the periphery. The other three villages are located inside the sanctuary. The proposal aims to convert the 11 villages on the periphery to revenue villages and delete the areas from the sanctuary limits.

The rationale behind the move is that these areas are under cultivation and no negative impact on the habitat is expected as a result of their deletion as they are not available to wildlife in any way.


“There are forest areas that are contiguous to the sanctuary. These may be added to the sanctuary for efficient wildlife conservation and provision of additional suitable habitat to wildlife,” said P M Christian, Deputy Secretary, Forest and Wildlife Department.

He added: “The proposal is pending with the Government of India so its status is not known. The proposal is yet to get a final clearance.”

Mahesh Pandya, an environment activist said the proposal of converting villages on the sanctuary periphery to revenue land will promote faster conversion of farm land to non-agriculture ones and promote commercial construction of hotels and the like.

“This will limit the space for wildlife and create major obstacle and increase man-animal conflicts. The Forest Department’s logic that the areas are under cultivation and not used by animals for habitat is misleading. Lions and other animals have been restricted by villagers in the areas and fatal incidents have also been noticed in the past. Instances of lions falling in farm wells have also been reported which shows that lions and other animals can use the land if allowed

By Times of india

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.

Dear All

It’s the New Year, which means a lot of new beginnings, some strong new resolutions and some old ones which still need to be worked on. Doing something better for the planet certainly features on my list of New Year resolutions.


This planet is all we have but the growing greed for unplanned development and big profits is killing it. Every action taken to protect the environment is a step towards saving the planet. It is an investment in a cleaner and greener future.

2011 marks the end of a decade and the beginning of a new one. Let’s hope the new decade is green, peaceful and sustainable. This is our little New Year wish and greeting for those who inhabit this precious planet


Thanks & Regards,
GNYC...

Great Indian Bustards in peril

With Only 300 Left Number Has Reduced By Half Since 2000

Pune: The Great Indian Bustard, which has been listed as a critically endangered bird, is steadily moving towards extinction.

A global population count reveals that there are just around 300 birds left, compared to 600 in the year 2000 and 1,260 in 1969.

In Nannaj, Maharashtra, the recent count was nine compared to 21 last year and 24 in 2008. Bustards endemic to the Indian subcontinent are seen in just six states, compared to 11 historically. They are seen in Rajasthan (shared with Pakistan), Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. They are no longer seen in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu.

The largest population of 100-125 birds is in Jaisalmer, Barmer and Bikaner districts of Rajasthan. Other places have fewer than 35 birds each. These findings were published in a recent paper, titled “Running out of time? The Great Indian Bustard”, of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). The figures were compiled from statistics taken from the forest departments of different states. Experts say the drastic fall in the number of bustards brings up the need to develop core breeding areas and a landscape conservation strategy for the birds.

WII researcher Sutirtha Dutta told TOI that while there is no “robust monitoring” of the bustard count, the rapid decline in numbers is pretty evident. “Human intervention like infrastructural development (roads, electricity poles), conversion of agricultural land and hunting are factors contributing to the declining bustard population,” he said. “Bustards are terrestrial and low-flying birds.

They can collide with electricity poles or get hit by vehicles. These birds prefer wide, open, short grass plains and open scrubland with scattered trees. During mid-summer and the monsoons, they congregate in traditional areas to breed and avoid human disturbance. In crop lands, it is speculated that pesticides have a detrimental effect
on their reproduction and survival.”

The Great Indian Bustards are slow reproducing species, Dutta said. “They have a long life span and lay just one egg a year. There is no telemetry study (useful for monitoring threatened species at the individual level) done to know their movements,” he said.

Scientific experts have stressed that there is a need to initiate a conservation breeding programme for the bird. Such breeding has been taken up in Europe and Africa. The paper states that closer home, the bustard haven in Maharashtra has seen rapid industrialization and an increase in human population over the last 30 years.

The shift in the agricultural practice — from monsoon crops like sorghum and millet to sugarcane and grapes now — has resulted in a severe habitat loss for the bustards. Pramod Patil, who works for the conservation and protection of bustards in the state, said the bird’s future lies in the proper protection of core breeding grasslands and promotion of traditional organic farming.

When contacted, M K Rao, conservator of forests (wildlife), Pune, said no eggs of the Great Indian Bustard have been found in Nannaj over the last three years. “We are not sure whether the eggs were destroyed. Bustards need an environment free of disturbance to lay their eggs. Grazing and the movement of vehicles and people affect them,” he said.