THE RISE AND FALL OF USTAD

Environment ministry needs to monitor norms while clearing projects: Expert

Environment ministry needs to monitor norms while clearing projects: Expert

H.S. Singh, member of Union environment ministry’s standing committee of the NBWL, pointed out the need to pay attention to stipulated norms while clearing projects

India has over 600 protected areas—national parks and wildlife sanctuaries—across 161,221 sq.km, which is around 4.9% of the country’s total geographical area

New Delhi: The Union environment ministry is often attacked by green activists for not monitoring stipulated norms while clearing projects.
Now, a member of the expert wildlife panel has complained to environment minister Anil Madhav Dave to find a solution for it.
The issue arose during the recent meeting, which was held in January, of the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) when one of its expert member H.S. Singh highlighted the issue.
“H.S. Singh explained that standing committee recommends the projects/activities, on a case to case basis, subject to certain mitigation measures to minimise the adverse impact on wildlife. He lamented that there is no monitoring of the terms and conditions stipulated while recommending the projects/proposals,” said the minutes of the meeting of the NBWL’s standing committee.
NBWL is the highest body related to wildlife matters, and is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
However, its work is handled by NBWL’s standing committee since the board does not meet regularly.
The standing committee, which is headed by minister Dave, is entrusted with responsibility of giving green clearances to projects that pass through protected areas like tiger reserves, wildlife sanctuaries and also those falling within 10-kilometre distance of the wildlife sanctuary or national parks.
During the meeting, Singh also highlighted that India needed to enhance the protected area network in accordance with Aichi Targets to 17% from 4.9% (of its geographical area).
India has over 600 protected areas—national parks and wildlife sanctuaries—across 161,221 sq.km, which is around 4.9% of the country’s total geographical area.
As per targets set in Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) conference in Nagoya in Aichi province of Japan in 2010, by 2020, it has to be increased to 17%.
He also mentioned that a network of marine protected areas needed to be created.
“The member secretary brought to notice that advisory has been issued to all CWLW (chief wildlife wardens) of states to put effort to identify and notify such forest areas as community reserves. After discussions, the standing committee decided to hold a separate meeting exclusively for the policy matters. The committee also requested other members to submit policy proposals for consideration in that meeting,” the minutes noted.
A senior official of the wildlife division of the ministry said many issues are pending for a decision and soon a meeting will be convened to address all such policy matters. (Courtesy : Livemint.com)

Mass campaign launched to fight forest fires

KOZHIKODE: With forests facing increased threat of fire outbreaks due to intense summer and a deficient monsoon, Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) officials have adopted a mass campaign mode with grassroots-level participation for preventing them.
 As many as 800 volunteers, including students and members of nature clubs in schools and environmental activists, have already visited around 18,000 houses in 100 settlements in the forest fringes to sensitise villagers about the dangers of forest fires over the last weekend. Apart from telling the villagers about the steps to be taken to prevent forest fires, hotline numbers to be contacted in case of sighting them were also provided. "We decided to take up a mass campaign as the support of the local community is vital in combating forest fires. The department alone cannot ensure a fire-free summer season," said P Dhanesh Kumar, warden, WWS. The programme under the slogan `Save Water, Save Forest' has been organised by the forest department, in association with the Wayanad Prakruthi Samrakshana Samiti and Bengaluru-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
 Dhanesh Kumar said that the department is in the process of implementing an intensive programme to build 259 check dams and revive the 134 ponds inside the forests to ensure water availability inside the sanctuary .
"Already the effects of intense drought in the adjoining wildlife sanctuaries of Nagarahole and Bandipur are visible with a steady flow of wild animals to WWS in search of water and fodder. The animals are likely to stray into human habitations if there is water scarcity in the sanctuary," he said.
 Also 16 eco development committees and 107 tribal hamlet committees have been pressed into service to maintain round the clock vigil against forest fires. That apart, regular department work like laying of fire lines, deployment of additional fire watchers and intensification of patrolling in fire-prone areas have been completed.
 "This is the biggest participatory fire-prevention campaign to be conducted by the forest department in the state. We would be visiting the remaining houses in the forest fringe villages over the next weekend and plan to extend the campaign to the North Wayanad and South Wayanad forest divisions," said Arul Badusha, field officer of WCS.
 According to FSI data there were 165 forest fires in the state during 2016. The highest number of fire outbreaks were recorded in Wayanad and Idukki districts (30 each) followed by Palakkad (28).
Stay updated on the go with Times of India News App. Click here to download it for your device. (Courtesy: Times of India)

‘Religion’, ‘animal thirst’ cited as reasons to approve infra projects in wildlife areas


About 50 projects in and around India’s critical tiger and wildlife habitats have been approved nod at a meeting of the standing committee of the national board for wildlife.

Religion, quenching animal thirst and public interests are some of the reasons cited by an environment ministry panel to recommend big ticket projects in and around India’s critical tiger and wildlife habitats.

About 50 such projects got nod at a meeting of the standing committee of the national board for wildlife (SC-NBWL) headed by environment minister Anil Madhav Dave, the minutes of the meeting released this week revealed.

Religion was invoked to allow widening of a road through Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve in Andhra Pradesh. The project is dubbed “public utility for the devotees” as it would provide better connectivity between Atmakur to Kolanu Bharathi Temple.

The minutes of the meeting held on January 3 said the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) recommended the project after due feasibility assessment carried out by a team of officers and scientists.

While allowing a check dam at Balaram Ambji sanctuary in Gujarat, the committee maintained that the water stored there will help wildlife to quench their thirst during dry season.

A large area of the sanctuary will be utilised for building the dam.

The committee recommended an approach canal through Shoolpaneshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Narmada district of Gujarat, stating it will provide irrigation facilities to farmers of 10 villages.

The panel also allowed conversion of meter gauge line to broad gauge through Melghat Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra as Indian Railways claimed that an alternate route would result in “felling of thousand of trees”.

The minutes showed that the railway’s claim has not been vetted by any expert agency and the concerns of the NTCA on impact of the faster train line through the reserve on tiger dispersal, habitat connectivity for genetic exchange and protection failed to find much consideration.

Minister Dave overruled the concerns and allowed the project saying the mitigation measures by the NTCA would be enforced through a memorandum of understanding with railways.

Pushp Jain of non-government EIA Resource Centre, however, said the government has failed to provide any assessment of the habitat loss because of the alternate route that could have benefitted people in districts of Akola, Amravati and Bhandara.

Conservationists say the conversion will also result in cutting of the trees on 161 hectares of the forestland but the convoluted minutes fail to provide details.

Ravi Singh, chief executive officer of World Wide Fund (WWF) for nature said the standing committee was within its rights to take these decisions as they did not violate any law. “One has to consider the pressure of devotees or demand for development by locals. But, it does not mean that the government should not improve habitat for wildlife,” he told HT.

The NDA government has modified rules to expedite approvals in and around the wildlife areas for ease of doing business especially for mining, irrigation and linear projects.

An analysis of approvals by the highest advisory body of the environment ministry by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) showed that close to 400 projects have been approved by the NDA government in two-and-a-half years as compared to 260 by the UPA government in five years.

The rejection rate fell from 11.9% to 0.01% in the same period indicating that projects in green habitats have suddenly become feasible.

The CSE had said the ministry has introduced new norms to control pollution from these projects but panel members have expressed concern over monitoring its implementation. (Credit : Hindustan Times)

Elephant habitats shrink in India as encroachments increase

GAUHATI, India (AP) — Wildlife activists say human encroachment in the forests of northeast India have forced elephants out of their natural habitats, triggering conflicts with locals.
Conservationists have urged the government to prevent encroachments and free corridors that are used by elephants to move across forests in search of food. In recent years, there have been many incidents where wild elephants have entered villages, destroyed crops and even killed people.

FILE- In this Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017, file photo, wild elephants stand amid grass as Indian villagers try to chase them away from their Misamari village on the outskirts of Gauhati, Assam state, India. Wildlife activists say human encroachment in the forests of northeast India have forced elephants out of their natural habitats, triggering conflicts with locals. Conservationists have urged the government to remove encroachments and free elephant corridors that are used by the beasts to move across forests in search of food. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath, File)

Forest official D.D. Gogoi said Friday that in the latest incident, forest guards had to set fire to wild grass to drive back three wild elephants that came out of the Amchang Reserve forest in Assam state.
Villagers pelted elephants with stones but were chased away by the animals until forests guards came to their rescue.

FILE- In this Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017, file photo, wild elephants chase back Indian villagers who were trying to chase them away from their Misamari village on the outskirts of Gauhati, Assam state, India. Wildlife activists say human encroachment in the forests of northeast India have forced elephants out of their natural habitats, triggering conflicts with locals. Conservationists have urged the government to remove encroachments and free elephant corridors that are used by the beasts to move across forests in search of food. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath, File)

"It's an alarming situation. The elephants rampage through villages in search of food as their habitats are being overtaken by people," said Mubina Akhtar, a wildlife conservationist. "The government has to order the clearance of the elephant corridors."
According to the 2011 elephant census, there were 5,620 wild elephants in Assam. The state is preparing to hold a fresh elephant census next month, Gogoi said.
Elephants are increasingly coming into contact with people in India, as the human population of 1.3 billion soars and cities and towns grow at the expense of jungles and other elephant habitats.

FILE- In this Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017, file photo, a wild elephant flees after villagers set fire to grass to chase them from their Misamari village on the outskirts of Gauhati, Assam state, India. Wildlife activists say human encroachment in the forests of northeast India have forced elephants out of their natural habitats, triggering conflicts with locals. Conservationists have urged the government to remove encroachments and free elephant corridors that are used by the beasts to move across forests in search of food. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath, File)

India's elephants are also threatened by speeding trains and illegal poachers looking for ivory to sell on the black market. Last year, 67 elephants were killed in Assam, after 118 were shot dead the previous year.
Forests guards are also trying to drive away elephants from railway tracks near the Amchang reserve area.

In a first, dummy tigress rears orphaned cubs in Bandhavgarh, Madhya Pradesh

Poachers had killed the tigress and buried it in the forest after being spotted by forest officials

Two cubs drink milk from a dummy adult tigress fitted with milk bottles, at a Bandhavgarh National Park in MP.

The authorities at the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh have been using a dummy toy tigress to raise three 40-days old orphaned tiger cubs, after the death of their biological mother recently.

The toy tigress, especially designed to substitute the real mother and to keep human interference to bare minimum, has been fitted with synthetic nipples and a milk bottle to feed the tiger cubs. The real mother of these cubs had been found dead on January 19 in a non-forest area in Shahdol district. Five people have been arrested for electrocuting the tigress.

Poachers had killed the tigress and buried it in the forest after being spotted by officials. However, a post-mortem conducted on the big cat later revealed that she had delivered three cubs a few weeks before her death. Forest officials launched a search operation to look for the cubs. The cubs were eventually traced to a small cave in the forest.

Director of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, Mridul Pathak said, "The cubs were born about 40 days back. After locating the strayed cubs following the killing of their mother, we placed them in an enclosure in the forest area, where this specially-designed dummy toy tigress was kept." 

"The dummy tigress has been fitted with artificial nipples and milk bottle hidden in the foam and cotton wool. After the initial hiccups, the cubs started to suckle as if they are having it from their own mother," he further added.

Initially the cubs were hand-fed milk and the required medicines by the staff of the forest department. But eventually, the administration decided upon reducing human interference.

Pathak said, "In a bid to reduce the human interference, we decided to keep the cubs with the dummy toy tigress." 

He said that the cubs now play with their dummy mother just as they would with their real mother. This is the first of its kind of experiment in the country. While two of the cubs have now gained strength are are capable of digesting hard food like meat, the third cub still remains weak and survives only on a liquid diet fed through the dummy.