Apart from poaching and habitat loss, climate change-induced droughts have been threatening the rhino population in Africa, pointed out a new report. On the other hand, climate disruptions in Asia can lead to the deaths of rhinos. Increased precipitation, longer monsoons and seasonal floods are already resulting in stranding, drowning …
Poaching of endangered animals has a lot in common with drug trafficking. It has added fillip to the international medicine trade based on animal parts -an organised crime stretching from North America to Asia. Policing the activity is difficult, although there have been seizures by IUCN/WWF supported TRAFFIC-international, and India's …
Elephants in Thailand were recently treated to a jumbo feast at the Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang, 535 km north of Bangkok. It was an elephantine version of the Thai tradition of Thai khan toke, a meal at which diners share food from a common bowl. They gorged on more …
THE one-horned rhinos of Kaziranga National Park, Assam, may yet get a fresh lease of life. Park officials, dismayed by poaching incidents, have demanded an additional 400 sq km area to the park to prevent poaching. In 1995 alone, the poachers had killed 25 rhinos. Every year during the floods …
ALARMED by the increased rate of tiger poaching in 23 tiger reserves through-out India, a proposal to create a Special Strike Source for tackling the menace by the Project Tiger Steering committee, headed by the Union minister for environment and forests, Kamal Nath, has finally been green signalled by the …
India and China have signed a protocol in the first week of March in Beijing to cooperate in stopping the poaching of tigers, and curbing the smuggling and illegal use of tiger bones and other parts. The partly mythical values attached to tiger products, like its bones, claws, teeth and …
YOU might as well declare it open season for the anachronistic remnants of royal gamehunters and lowly poachers. Conventional laws against the illegal trade in wildlife are so porous that they left officials from the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) grousing about their Indian counterparts. A frantic …
Australia's burgeoning kangaroo population seems in for a hard time. Already unpopular with farmers (Down To Earth, September 15, 1995), the country's national symbol may end up soon as a major industry. With government support, kangaroo meat processors, tanners and leather goods manufacturers are applying the final touches to a …
Sandalwood smuggler Veerappan's charter of 10 demands to the Tamil Nadu government as the precondition for releasing 3 hostages may provoke the final offensive against him by authorities. In a message sent through his brother Arjunan, Veerappan has declared his acquiescence to surrender and release of deputy superintendent of police …
Two months ago, customs and wildlife authorities had announced one of the largest hauls of poached tiger bones -- 162 kg -- in India when they arrested Pema Thinley in Delhi. Recent information leaked from the Union home ministry suggests that Thinley may have been an agent for the national …
The one-horned rhino population in Nepal's Royal Chitwan National Park has crossed the 450 mark despite widespread poaching, a recent rhino census carried out in the park indicates. The eradication of malaria strains in the Chitwan valley in the '60s opened it up for human settlement. The casualty was the …
A report on the illegal wildlife trade in the country by a special committee formed by the MEF has galvanised the ministry into considering several new options to control poaching. The high-powered committee, chaired by S Subramanian, founder of the National Security Guards, submitted its report to the MEF in …
IT'S DARK, almost midnight, and in the darkness a torch flashes light over the dark waters of Paraguay. The global detective is lying in waiting for the crime to take place. All is silent except for the gentle sound of the waves. Then, in the space of a second, the …
THE WORLD Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) gutsily staged a street play in January this year in enemy territory, Delhi's Sadar Bazar -- the core of animal skin trader Sansar Chand's territory. Chand, who masterminded the biggest poaching network in north and east India, was nabbed by Delhi police in …
THE MINISTRY of environment and forests (MEF) has decided to launch a target-based action plan to stop the dwindling tiger population in the country. Measures proposed include hiking fores staff salaries by Rs 100-400, creating new tiger reserves, setting up special anti-poaching teams and forming a Global Tiger Forum. The …
EVER SINCE a 3-km straight-cut was dug into the Upputeru channel to speed up draining of water from Kolleru lake into the Bay of Bengal in 1972, soil erosion has plagued the tiny island of Chinna Gollapalem, situated where the lake waters meet the sea. The gushing waters of Upputeru …
EVERY DAY at 5 am, Sridevi picks up all the pots in her house in the Mandaveli slums of Madras city and places them at the end of the street, as she has been doing for the past 12 years. She must ensure that her pots are among the first …
IN APRIL 1983, the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu governments signed the Telugu Ganga project agreement, under which Madras would get 15 tmc ft of water from the Srisailam reservoir between February and September. Government indifference and lack of funds delayed the project, but it has been revived recently. A …
CHILIKA LAKE, Orissa: Remote-sensing studies indicate the area of Chilika has shrunk from 2,200 square kilometers originally to about 915 sq km now. The northern mouth of the brackish lake, reported to be India's largest inland lake, has been choked by heavy siltation. Nearly 200 sq km of the waterspread …
IN THE Vaddi villages of Kolleru, life is almost totally monitered and controlled by a Kula panchayat. The panchayat is headed by a pedda vaddi (sarpanch), who is assisted by a maximum of seven peddalu or peddas (members), depending upon the population. The kula panchayat enjoys total power and can …
KOLLERU lake is no ordinary wetland. Located in Andhra Pradesh, it is one of the country's largest freshwater lakes and a bird sanctuary, hosting 193 species of birds and a variety of flora and fauna, including medicinal plants. However, Kolleru today is threatened by economic and industrial development, expanding fisheries …
