Govt plans to import African cheetah

NEW DELHI: Armed with 'scientific evidence' that the African cheetah is 'not an alien species' and can survive in India, the government is planning to petition the Supreme Court to allow the import of the animal that became extinct 60 years ago.
The environment ministry's proposal comes after the apex court last month quashed the Rs 300 crore project to import and re-introduce the Namibian cheetah in India. The court had termed the environment ministery's decision as 'arbitrary and illegal' and a clear violation of the Wildlife Protection Act.

The first batch of cheetahs from Namibia was to reach India by mid-2012 and was to be reintroduced in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno Palpur wildlife sanctuary. But the idea was dropped after the apex court's slammed the ministry for poor planning.
Eager to import the cheetah, the ministry has now decided to present "scientific evidence" to support its project to import the lithe and one of the fastest animal.
"We have decided to approach the Supreme Court based on scientific evidence that the African cheetah is not alien to India and can survive here," a senior ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), which is handling the programme, has called a meeting of the Project Cheetah task force on May 23.
"The task force will discuss it and give clearance," the official said. The task force will convey its decision to Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan. She will then give a go-ahead for the proposal to be convyed to the Supreme Court," the official said.
As the Supreme Court had rejected Kuno Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary for re-introducing the cheetah on various grounds, including the fact that the Asiatic lion from Gir is also being re-located there, the ministry has now proposed two new sites as the habitat for the cheetah.

"We are proposing Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuaries (in Madhya Pradesh) and Shahgarh Landscape (in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan) after our first choice was rejected," the official said.
The sites were selected in 2009 based on a detailed study by the wildlife experts.
The official defended the earlier proposal of re-locating the cheetah, saying the apex court was "not properly appraised" about the scientific evidence that backed the project.
"The cheetah which existed in India is only genetically different from African Cheetah and not an alien species. It can survive in the sites that our wildlife experts have selected," the official said.
Today, the cheetah is found only in the arid regions of eastern Iran in Asia and in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.

Tiger reserves to get full-time wildlife vets

NAGPUR: In a bid to tackle man-animal conflict and give conservation a boost, the state government has decided to hire independent wildlife veterinarians in all four tiger reserves in the state. After recent deliberations over raging man-animal conflict in Chandrapur, principal secretary (forests) Praveen Pardeshi, chief wildlife warden SWH Naqvi and field directors of tiger reserves decided to appoint wildlife vets. Directions to recruit trained vets on contract basis in Tadoba, Melghat and Pench in Vidarbha have been issued on May 7. Pardeshi has asked field directors to recruit vets from funds under tiger conservation foundations (TCFs) on a honorarium of Rs 30,000. They have been asked to get in touch with deans of veterinary colleges and teachers to get suitable candidates. Help has also been sought from state animal husbandry commissioner.

Presently, the department has only one wildlife vet, Chitra Raut, posted at Nagpur. In case of emergencies, help from senior experts from Nagpur Veterinary College is taken. Although vets in Nagpur respond immediately, on many occasions doctors were not available in case of emergencies, proving fatal for wild animals.
Recently, when a tiger cub was hit by a speeding train and shifted to Nagpur, Raut had gone to Chandrapur to bring the animal back.
"We are making provision in the TCF budget to appoint wildlife vet on contract. There is also plan to redesignate posts of medical officers available with the department," said Virendra Tiwari, chief conservator of forests (CCF) and field director of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve ( TATR) in Chandrapur.

However, Sarjan Bhagat, additional principal chief conservator of forests (subordinate cadre), said there are six posts of medical officers with the forest department but only one from Yavatmal Circle could be made available as officers at other places like Gadchiroli and forest training colleges have said they need posts of medical officers for staff and villagers.
"We will send a proposal in this regard to the government," Bhagat said.

Russia to test drones to track wildlife, poachers

MOSCOW: In a bid to track its wildlife and hunt down poachers, Russia is all set to test unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at a nature reserve on the country's Pacific coast this summer.
The drones in question, weigh about two kilogramme each and have a range of 60 km. They would be equipped with inexpensive cameras capable of snapping a shot every two seconds.

"UAVs are silent and can fly at a very low altitude to produce high-resolution imagery and detect poachers, their boats and vehicles," said Alexandra Filatkina, deputy director for development at the Kronotsky nature reserve on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

The peninsula is in far eastern Russia, lying between the Sea of Okhotsk on the west and the Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea on the east. Its area is approximately 140,000 sq. miles (370,000 square km).
Kamchatka's mineral resources include coal, gold, mica, pyrites, sulfur, and tufa.
Aerial imagery makes it possible to spot not just the trails of motor vehicles, but illegal logging sites and waste dumps as well, Filatkina added.

The drones will be "road tested" at Kronotsky to see whether they can be used in other wildlife sanctuaries across Russia, especially in patrolling for poachers and other lawbreakers, as well as to detect and contain forest fires, she said.
The plan's authors likewise hope the drones will greatly reduce the cost of aerial monitoring, necessary for track certain animal populations - like brown bears, reindeer and snow sheep.
Last year, the South Kamchatka Federal Reserve spent over $32,000 on monitoring brown bears alone.