Great Indian Bustard sighted in Chelugurki

Two Great Indian Bustard (GIB) (Ardeotis nigriceps) were sighted on Friday, foraging in a field in Chelugurki village, 25 km from Bellary, by budding naturalist Preeth Khona (17). It was Preeth’s lucky day as he spotted the birds, not while on a search mission, but while heading to Bangalore.

The news of fresh sighting of the Great Indian Bustard, which is critically endangered, has brought cheer to ornithologists, birdwatchers and wildlife activists.

Chellaguri is located 60 km south of Siruguppa taluk, where the bird was spotted in 2006 and sighted again in 2008. It was also found that they were breeding.

In addition to Siruguppa taluk, situated on the banks of the Tungabhadra in Bellary district, Bellary taluk has emerged as one among the few pockets in the country where the Great Indian Bustard survives.

Santosh Martin and Samad Kottur have been documenting and researching these birds since 2006, and Preeth, Shruthi Punyamurthy and Sunaina Martin are members of a search team that they lead.

The team had earlier combed Chelugurki village and had interacted with the residents while searching for the Great Indian Bustards and caracal (a cat species).

LAST SIGHTING

GIBs were last sighted in Chelugurki 10 years ago by Vijay Mohan Raj, Director, BRT Tiger Reserve. But after that, several searches did not yield any results. Mr. Martin, who is also District Wildlife warden, told The Hindu.

According to him, these birds migrate between the black buck habitats of Rollapadu and Adoni in Andhra Pradesh and Siruguppa, Chelugurki, Koppal, Gadag and Rannebennur in Karnataka. However, the Ranebennur Blackbuck Sanctuary has not had any sightings in the last 15 years.

“Karnataka has a good breeding population of GIBs and their conservation has to be taken up by the government. No significant effort has been made so far,” Mr. Martin said.

Courtesy:The Hindu

India loses a leopard a day

More bad news for India's wildlife: 252 leopards died in the first nine months of 2012 - one every day.

This is a big jump from the figures between 2000 and 2010, during which about four leopard deaths were reported every week. The finding comes two days after


HT reported that 69 tigers and 39 rhinos have died in the first nine months of this year.
Data with the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) shows that leopard deaths in 2012 have been highest since the data was first made available in 1994. More than half the deaths were because of poaching, the NGO claims.

Though leopards are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, their killing continues unabated.

"Without a strategy to tackle illegal trade, leopard numbers may decline as rapidly as tiger numbers," says Divyabhanusinh Chavda, member of National Board for Wildlife and chairman of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), India.

Uttarakhand has emerged as a major source of leopard body parts while Delhi is the epicenter of illegal trade.

About 90% leopards are poached for their skin, which is eventually traded to Myanmar, Laos, China, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times

Koka sanctuary proposed in Bhandara

NAGPUR: It is raining wildlife sanctuaries in forest and biodiversity-rich Vidarbha. With state government showing interest, Bhandara forest division has prepared a proposal for 92 sq km Koka wildlife sanctuary, just 20km from Bhandara.

In the last two years since November 2010, government has notified at least five wildlife sanctuaries - Mansinghdeo, New Bor, New Nagzira, Navegaon and Umred-Karhandla. Koka will be sixth. Koka is a dense forest and has rich wildlife including tigers and leopards besides wolves and herbivores like gaurs, chitals and sambars. The area also has some natural water bodies and supports dispersing populations from Nagzira and New Nagzira.

The Koka proposal has been sent by deputy conservator of forests (DyCF) R V Karnan to chief conservator of forests (CCF) for Nagpur Circle S H Patil. "I forwarded the proposal two days ago to additional principal chief conservator of forests (APCCF) for wildlife (East) A K Saxena," Patil told TOI. The proposed sanctuary includes 28 compartments with an area of 8,984.156 hectares leased out to Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (FDCM) and one protected forest compartment of 250.167 hectares of Bhandara forest division. The total sanctuary area comes to 92.35 sq km, equivalent to 4,941 football fields.

Three months ago, during his visit to Navegaon-Nagzira, principal secretary (forests) Praveen Pardeshi had evinced keen interest in Koka forest and had asked the officials to prepare a sanctuary proposal as the area was contiguous to newly declared 151.33 sq km New Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary. Accordingly, then DyCF Yasbir Singh had prepared a proposal of 110 sq km, but as it included three villages - Chandrapur, Sonegaon and Dudhara - it was revised recently by Karnan to 92 sq km by excluding these villages.


"There are no villages in the proposed area now. If declared a sanctuary, it will ease pressure on Nagzira and New Nagzira. Pitezari gate of Nagzira is hardly 20km from Koka," said Karnan.

Wildlife buffs are delighted about the move. Bhandara honorary district wildlife warden Rajkamal Job said Koka had tremendous tourism potential. "It will be 80km from Nagpur and will divert excess flow of visitors from Nagzira," Job said. The three villages around Koka can reap benefits with the help of eco-development committees (EDCs), he added.

According to Prafulla Bhamburkar, manager of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), Koka was declared a reserve forest in 1879. It was a shooting block during the Raj era. "The area has good prey base. If similar protection is granted to Lendezari-Gaimukh then entire Pench corridor would be protected," Bhamburkar felt. The committee on 'Rationalization of boundaries of PAs' has already asked the state to increase protected area (PA) network in lieu of reduction of 8,496 sq km Great Indian Bustard (GIB) sanctuary in Nanaj in Solapur to 1,222.61 sq km.

Courtesy:Times of India

India to host first-ever international conference on bears

BLACK BEAR

NEW DELHI: India will host its first international Conference on Bear Research and Management in Delhi next week. The conference, held every 18 months, had its last two editions in Ottawa ( Canada) and Georgia (USA).

The five-day conference starts Nov 26 and will be hosted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in collaboration with three wildlife conservation NGOs ,Wildlife Institute of India and the Central Zoo Authority. A National Bear Conservation and Welfare Action Plan will be launched at the conference.

The national plan is a compilation of 26 state welfare action plans. "The national bear action plan outlines directions for conservation of bears in the country. Whether or not it becomes a standalone project depends on the ministry," says Rahul Kaul, chief ecologist, Wildlife Trust of India, one of the NGOs involved in formulating the bear conservation plan.

Close to 170 paper presentations by national and international bear experts from 35 countries are expected to take place in the conference on themes ranging from bear-human interactions and bear rescue and habilitation. A pre-conference workshop will look at developing a "conflict mitigation toolkit" in Srinagar.

There are currently four species of bears in the country. Of these, black bears are on the endangered list of the IUCN ( International Union for Conservation of Nature). Bears are poached for body parts in north and central India. Bear bile is a constituent of traditional medicine. In the north-east, they are also poached for meat.

                                                                                                                                                        Courtesy: Times of India

*LEOPARDS: THE FORGOTTEN BIG CATS*

Last week I visited the Assam State Zoo cum Botanical Garden. I

did not get  the chance to visit the zoo for the last couple of years; and as some of my

friends informed me that a few big cats were added to the collection
recently, I was pretty excited. Of course, they were right; the zoo had a
nice collection of tigers and lions, which included a couple of rare white
tigers. They were rightfully provided with a big spacious enclosure, which
look very similar to their natural habitat in the wild. The authorities at
the Assam State Zoo have indeed done a great job. However they, along with
the layman, seem to have forgotten one “thing”; the most successful of the
big cats- Leopards.

The leopard is the smallest of the four “big cats”. It was once found
across eastern and southern Asia and Africa; but because of hunting and
loss of habitat, its range of distribution has decreased radically. The
leopard is the most successful of the “big cats”. The species’ success in
the wild is part due to its opportunistic hunting behavior, its notorious
ability of stealth and its unequaled ability to climb trees even when
carrying a heavy carcass. One of the major reasons behind its success is
its adaptability to habitats. Its habitat ranges from rainforest to desert
terrains. The leopard is one of the most beautiful animals that one will
have the good fortune of seeing in the wild. In the words of the great Jim
Corbett “There is no more graceful and interesting animal in the jungles to
watch.”

However, the zoo authorities seem to have taken them for granted. Whereas
the lions and the tigers are provided with vast enclosures, the leopards
are kept in groups in small cages which are insufficient for them. These
poor creatures can be seen pacing to and fro in these enclosures, which
even restricts the movement of two at the same time. To add to their
misery, some of the visitors are also seen molesting them, as they can get
very near the animals. These people seem to obtain great satisfaction by
making them growl. And as there are no guards near the leopard enclosure,
these actions are carried out unhindered by anyone. Even the locks in the cages are in need of immediate replacements.The Assam State Zoo has a long history of animals escaping from their cages. It was only last year that a tiger got out and caused panic inside the zoo.  

I, personally, don’t know why the authorities don’t provide the leopards
with bigger enclosures just like the other “big cats”. There is ample space
inside the zoo for this purpose. Leopards are very shy animals in the wild;
one can stay many weeks in the jungle and yet he may not see one. By
keeping them so close to the people, their natural behavior is severely
disturbed; and this in turn may affect their health adversely. The time is
ripe for us to take necessary measures, otherwise the day is not far away
when we will lose this majestic and graceful creature...