Rain saves forests from fire this summer
BENGALURU: Copious pre-monsoon rain has reduced the risk of forest fires in the state this summer. In the past two months, Karnataka has seen no major incident, according to the forest department. Though
Nagarahole NP
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Panel for Odisha model of tribal education
As primitive tribes continue to be in a state of acute poverty, ‘schedule area’ status for settlements of evicted tribals from Nagarahole National Park will favour their development. The status will also solve the problem of representation of tribals in political institutions, which will help them benefit from the welfare programmes aimed at them, said Muzaffar Assadi, Chairman of the High Court-appointed Committee on Tribal Issues of Rajiv Gandhi National Park.
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Quick fix to water woes in forests draws flak
Filling It Artificially Will Save Animals, Say Officials | A Wrong Move: Experts Bangalore: The government’s proposal to artificially replenish water holes in national parks, sanctuaries and tiger reserves has drawn flak from wildlife experts. The proposal was floated last month due to drought-like condition and water crisis in forest areas. In a letter to Dipak Sarmah, the principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) and chief wildlife warden, Karnataka forest department, the experts said it’s disastrous to have water tankers enter wildlife reserves
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Yet again, anthrax fear grips forest reserves
Disease Claims 10 Cattle Two Months After Elephant’s Death On Bandipur Forest Fringes Mysore: Anthrax scare has returned to haunt tiger reserves in the state after the death of 10 cattle heads on the fringes of Bandipur forest. Forest officials are perplexed as this comes just two months after anthrax claimed a 10-year-old tusker in Thalavadi range in Sathyamangalam forest bordering BRT tiger reserve in November last year.
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‘Reach out to local communities to prevent forest fires’
Advocacy group submits memorandum to the Forest Department The Forest Department has been urged to hire people from the local communities as fire watchers in view of a prolonged dry season and the threat of forest fire in national parks. It has also been suggested that funding could be sought from State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority.
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15 tigers died in State during 2012 NTCA report
‘Criminal tribes’ target big cats in protected reserves The year bygone has proved to be unsafe for wildlife in Karnataka. As many as 15 tigers died in the State’s protected forests in 2012, according to a report of the National Tiger Conservation Authority. The tiger census conducted in 2010 disclosed that Karnataka had 300 tigers. Of the 41 tiger reserves in India, five are in Karnataka - Bandipur, Nagarahole, Bhadra, Anashi-Dandeli and Biligiri Ranganathaswamy protected tiger forest.
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Tiger population in India increases significantly: WCS
Tiger population in India has significantly increased in the wild, thanks to protection of additional habitat of the big cat and stringent anti-poaching patrols, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said. In south-western India, where WCS research and conservation efforts began 25 years ago, a major rebound of tigers in the Western Ghats region of Karnataka has taken place. In Nagarahole and Bandipur National Parks, tigers have actually reached saturation levels, with surplus young tigers spilling out into forest-reserves and dispersing using secured forest corridors through a landscape that holds over a million human beings.
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Saving the tiger becomes a 'core' issue
1,706 tigers today, up from 1,411 in 2007 Should the approximately 1,700 tigers left in India be treated as sacrosanct, not to be exploited by India’s tourism industry? Or, should they be looked at as valuable commodities, responsible for filling the coffers of the state? This is the firestorm of a debate that Ajay Dubey sparked off, when he, through a public interest litigation filed in the Madhya Pradesh High Court in September 2010, asked that tourism be banned in ‘core’ tiger areas — zones where tiger density is particularly high — in line with the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and its 2006 amendment.
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Captured tiger had highest home range, says expert
‘Realignment of highways in forests will prevent big cat deaths’ The recent capture of a ‘man-eating’ tiger at Bommalapura hadi in HD Kote taluk in Mysore district (near Nagarahole Tiger Reserve) makes a case, once again, to defragment critical wildlife habitats. The tiger, according to wildlife experts, had a home range larger than any in its species. It was frequently spotted on the Mysore-Mananthavadi highway as camera trap evidences show.
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Man-eater was pushed out of its territory
The big cat, spotted at a waterhole in May, strayed into agricultural fields of HD Kote The tiger that was captured at HD Kote by the Forest department on Sunday, was aged, injured and pushed out of the forest by a dominating male, Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS) has revealed. The big cat identified as NHT-222 was frequently camera-trapped since May 2005 in various parts of the tiger reserve, said a press release issued by Dr K Ullas Karanth, Director, CWS.
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Ban on tourists no boon for tigers
The recent ban by the Supreme Court on tourism in core areas of tiger reserves in India raises some fundamental questions: 1. Is tourism, however intense, the real culprit behind the killings of tigers and their seemingly low breeding capacity? 2. If after four decades of implementing the Wildlife (Protection) Act, and efforts by Project Tiger and the National Tiger Conservation Authority, tigers are near extinction today, can banning reserve tourism reverse the situation? 3. Can people be denied the right to visit national parks to watch the most admired animal in the world?