International team of wildlife biologists fear many species are moving towards extinction

A 43-member team of wildlife experts from Australia, China, India, Kenya, and the US have predicted that several species of wildlife is under threat of extinction. Their joint study reveals that India tops a list of 24 countries where nearly 40 per cent of large herbivores and carnivores are threatened.
They have called for renewed conservation efforts.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 15 March 2017.

The tiger, elephant and rhinoceros are among India's threatened species while the nilgai, kiang and the leopard are among non-threatened species. As far as China is concerned, its threatened species include the giant panda, Asian elephant and the snow leopard.
In the opinion of the scientists, the reasons attributed to this situation are expansion of farm and livestock areas, illegal hunting, deforestation and human population growth which means loss of habitat for the animals.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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A tiger holds up a bus with 30 pilgrims in forests of Adilabad

It was a rare occasion when people got a chance to observe a tiger in the wild in natural surroundings from really close quarters. It was a spine chilling experience on a chilly winter night deep in the forests of Jinnaram in Adilabad district for the group of 30 pilgrims who were returning home in a TSRTC bus from the Sammakka-Saralamma tribal fair at Medaram in Warangal district. The bus belonged to the Nirmal depot and was on its way to Jinnaram village via Luxettipet when the big cat was spotted at Pidepally forest area around midnight.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 22 February 2016.

The pilgrims were fast asleep at the time and woke up after the driver brought the vehicle to a screeching halt and they saw the two glowing eyes of the big cat - it was a nightmare experience for the 30 passengers in the bus. And they wee joined by three more. They were friends and were on a two-wheeler. Once they came to know about the tiger, they abandoned heir vehicle and entered the bus. And, a total of nearly 15 vehicles were stranded in the middle of the forest as the tiger staged a `midnight sit-in' for 45-minutes.
Jinnaram falls under the Kawal tiger reserve and these animals do occasionally stray into the area from neighboring Maharashtra in search of food and water.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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The lion could soon replace the tiger as India’s national animal

#indianlions #nationalanimal #lion #tiger #NBWL If the Narendra Modi government has its way, very soon, the tiger would be replaced by the lion as the national animal. The tiger had held that coveted status since 1972 and a proposal is under consideration to make lion India's national animal.
The proposal had been put up by a Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand who is also an industrialist. The proposal had been sent to the environment ministry who passed it on to the National Board for Wild Life (NBWL), which functions under the ministry. Incidentally, this is having many members from Gujarat.
The idea has not been taken kindly by wildlife activists because, if the proposal goes through, it would adversely affect the campaign to save tigers and would, instead, pave the way for clearance of industrial projects near tiger sanctuaries. As revealed by a member of NBWL, tigers are found across 17 states in India, whereas lion is found in only one.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 18 April 2015.

True to tradition, any new government wants to show to the public, who have voted them to power, that the new group would ring in changes, even if they be cosmetic changes. And, the Modi government has not been able to break away from the tradition. Almost everything of the old political group has been discarded as faulty and, in the last 10 months that they have been in power, the Modi government has packaged old wines in new bottles with remarkable ease.
Moreover, it has also taken credit for successful completion of projects that had been initiated by the old UPA government – an example is the Mars Mangalyaan launched in November 2013.
Another is the Japanese bullet train project between Delhi and Chennai. It appeared to be a feather in the cap of the Modi government but, in fact, it was already on the anvil of the UPA. The creation of a separate entity called High Speed Rail Corporation of India Ltd in July 2013 would mean that work had already been taken up by the UPA and, after coming to power, the Modi government followed the same route.

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Tiger poachers caught in Pilibhit with tiger body parts

#pilibhit #tiger #poacher Tiger poachers are active in Pilibhit. Based on reports, a team of Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) New Delhi, Pilibhit forest department and special task force has arrested eight poachers. They were in possession of tiger body parts like tiger meat, bones, and teeth.
Four of their accomplices still on the run and police are trying to nab them. These arrests have come after two poachers from Uttar Pradesh had been arrested in Nepal – they had with them 37-Kg of tiger bones and skin and, on interrogation, had confessed to have poached tigers in Pilibhit. As per Kailesh Prakash, divisional forest officer, Pilibhit tiger reserve (PTR), the police in Nepal had informed that the poachers had killed two adult tigers in November and December 2013 in Barahi range of PTR. They had made use of poisoned buffalo meat as bait to trap the big cats.
The team has also seized other material from these two – they had with them 5-Kg of tiger bones, teeth apart from antlers of swamp deer.
Pilibhit is on the border with Nepal and, hence, the reserve is not safe for the big cats - in the 2014 tiger census report, the Pilibhit tiger reserve has shown "improvement". As per the count of 2011, there were 35 to 40 tigers. However, encroachment of humans and proximity to Nepal has made it dangerous for the tigers.
In May 2012, two tigers were poisoned there within 24 hours and, in February 2009, a young tigress was shot down by forest department in Faizabad because it had strayed out of the forests and turned into a man-eater.