65 S Gujarat villages declared eco-sensitive.

TNN Nov 23, 2013, 12.20PM IST

SURAT: Mining of natural resources can't be done in the 65 villages of the three districts of Dang, Navsari and Tapi of south Gujarat. No township and industrial estate can be set up in these villages, not even a thermal power station. The construction projects will have to be smaller than 20,000 sq metre now on in the 40 villages of Dang, five in Vasda taluka of Navsari district and rest of Songadh, Utchal and Vyara talukas of Tapi district as they have been declared eco-sensitive by the Forest and Environment Ministry of the Union Government on November 13.
"This step is to protect the Western Ghats areas that fall in six states. This will help improve environment in these 65 villages of south Gujarat, which too are in Western Ghats," an official of Forest and Environment Ministry said.

Navsari district collector Sandhya Bhullar said, "We are yet to receive the Union ministry notification."
Dang district collector GR Chaudhary too said he has so far not received any communication in this regard declaring the villages in the district as eco-sensitive.
This announcement has created discontent among some sections of rural and tribal population in the three districts. "There is not much development in Dang compared to other districts. Now if some villages in Dang are declared eco-sensitive, then the youth would be forced to migrate from there to some other place for employment opportunities. The issue of migration for employment is already acute in Dang," a young tribal from Ahwa said.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-11-23/surat/44389141_1_dang-s-gujarat-villages

Curative petition gives lifeline to Gujarat.

Thursday, Nov 21, 2013, 11:48 IST | Place: Ahmedabad | Agency: DNA

DNA Correspondent 

The Supreme Court disposing of Gujarat government’s review petition in the lion translocation matter has not come as a surprise to many forest officials. In fact, according to them the decision was expected.
They, however, also believe that all is not lost as the government now plans to file a curative petition along with the new International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) guidelines, to turn the tide in their favour.
“The SC rarely reverses its decision, as is seen in 90% of such cases. But the curative petition may hold some hope. Unlike the review petition, the court will have to hear both the parties before pronouncing its verdict. Also, the IUCN guidelines will exert pressure in form of stringent measures preceding the translocation,” said a forest department official, requesting anonymity.
Former chief wildlife warden of Gujarat, GA Patel, too, agreed that dismissal of the review petition was not a surprise. “That is how most of the review petitions end but we can still prove our point in the curative petition. Also, the new IUCN guidelines demand fulfillment of certain conditions.  In this case, as far as I know, Madhya Pradesh will fall short of fulfilling these,” said Patel. A wildlife activist also agreed about the IUCN guidelines role as the clincher. “Even the SC in its verdict agreed that IUCN guidelines need to be followed which are not being fulfilled in this case. This may help Gujarat’s cause,” said the activist.
Lavkumar Khachar, a prominent member of the state wildlife board, said that in the debate, the main question of the safety of the lions is being ignored. “Today in Gujarat, the lions have grown in numbers and spread beyond their original territory and are yet safe. Will that be possible in the Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary? I doubt, because had that been the case, tigers would have been spreading out in Madhya Pradesh, which is not happening,” said Khachar.
He further added that he was not happy with the way lion conservation programme was being handled in Gujarat. “It can still be improved. In fact the wildlife institute of India should be helping the Gujarat government help conserve the lions better,” he said.

http://www.dnaindia.com/ahmedabad/report-curative-petition-gives-lifeline-to-gujarat-1922565

Gujarat to question MP's claims on prey base.

TNN Nov 21, 2013, 04.29AM IST

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat government plans to file a curative petition seeking another look at the Supreme Court order of Tuesday which rejected the state government's review petition against the April 15 apex court order allowing the translocation of some of Gir lions to Madhya Pradesh.
The basis of Gujarat government's curative petition is likely to be its argument that the Madhya Pradesh forest department's data claiming that the prey base in Kuno-Palpur was growing was not reliable. The Gujarat forest department wants to pose a question before MP officials that if the prey base in Kuno-Palpur had increased manyfold, why was the population of predators not increasing?

Sources in the forest department said on Wednesday that the signed order of the Supreme Court's Tuesday verdict had not been received, either by the advocate or the department officials. After it gets a signed order, the department will send it for the opinion of a senior advocate. The opinion of a senior advocate is mandatory before filing of a curative petition.

"Since the department has to depend on the same arguments as it had put forward in the previous petitions, the curative petition would like to catch the MP government on its own turf - its claim that prey base in Kuno-Palpur was growing. During the hearing in the apex court, the Madhya Pradesh government had claimed that the prey base in Kuno-Palpur was more than that of Gir protected sanctuary. The April 15 Judgment has noted that prey base, including feral cattle, has increased from 63.97 animals per sq km in 2006 to 85.91 in 2011," he said. This was an increase of about 23 animals per sq km.
Gujarat officials say that the MP forest department has claimed that the population excluding feral cattle has increased from 17.5 animals per sq km in 2004 to around 70 animals in 2013. Officials said that the department will raise a question that if the prey base was increasing, why was there no permanent population of leopards and tigers in the Kuno Sanctuary? Kuno was earlier known for tiger and leopards.
The officials further said that the behaviour of lion pride would be given importance in the curative petition. The officials said that the department will also reply on the recent report of two members of the Supreme Court-appointed committee set up to monitor translocation. Citing this report, the department will again emphasize on Kuno's gun culture and drive home the point that lions are not safe in Kuno Palpur.
Apart from arguing about the new translocation guidelines of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Gujarat government will also reply on the Wildlife Protection Act. The government intends to put forward a technical argument that the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act-1972 had been violated.
The act says that no translocation process can be started without the permission of the chief wildlife warden of the state where the animal belongs. The permission has to be sought even if one animal has to be shifted for research. The Gujarat government alleges that no such permission was sought and yet the Madhya Pradesh government had started investing in Kuno-Palpur.
Gujarat forest officials said that they will also quote from the study, 'Genetic variation in Asiatic lions and Indian tigers' jointly prepared by the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad; Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata; and Center for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-11-21/ahmedabad/44325820_1_prey-base-curative-petition-kuno-sanctuary

Soon, action plan to conserve threatened plant species in Gujarat.

Himanshu Kaushik, TNN Oct 31, 2013, 09.10PM IST

AHMEDABAD: The state is starting to prepare its own list of threatened and near extinction plant species. The state forest department and the Gujarat Ecological Education and Research (Geer) Foundation have begun putting together a list of the 40 most threatened species.
Gujarat has around 2,400 plant species. The state's threatened plant species have already been listed by the Botanical Survey of India and even the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
"The department has decided to have its own list for wild angiosperm plants of the state. Once our own list is ready, we will prepare conservation assessment and management plan for the plant species which are on the verge of extinction or are threatened," says principal chief conservator of forest C N Pandey.
The department will gauge the value and usefulness of the plant and draw up an action plan. If the usefulness of the plant for the people is more it would be preferred during the various tree plantation drives. The others would be grown in the botanical gardens to be set up in the state.
As concern for environmental degradation increases, the need for conservation action has become imperative, an official says. What species to conserve and how and where to conserve, are some of the issues that need to be addressed urgently.
Earlier similar attempts at conservation were based on research conducted by individual scientists or botanists and confined to a few species. The process of red-listing is long and time consuming and involves in-depth and intensive field studies of each species.
Geer Foundation director Bharat Pathak says, "We have identified 272 species which are threatened. Now with the help of experts, we are going to shorten the list and then prepare a complete report on each of the plant species, its importance and other aspects included in the count. Once this is completed, the department will prepare a final list of 40 species."
According to international guidelines, regional assessment of threat status of species has to be carried out, thus prompting conservation action in every geographical region. For the 40 species that are put on the list, information on range distribution, extent of occurrence, trade, habitat specification, forest cover and its loss will be collected and compiled from different sources.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-10-31/ahmedabad/43559433_1_species-action-plan-final-list

Plastic invades lion’s abode.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/environment/flora-fauna/plastic-invades-lions-abode/articleshow/26388094.cms

Supreme Court dismisses review plea on shifting of Gir lions.

Wednesday, Nov 20, 2013, 11:53 IST | Place: Gandhinagar | Agency: DNA

Sumit Khanna

Curative petition is now the only legal resort left with the state govt to try and retain its pride of Asiatic Lions.

- Shamshad Alam/DNA

While the chief minister may be roaring loud across election rallies in Madhya Pradesh, the Supreme Court, however, turned his government’s roar, seeking a review of its April order on translocation of Asiatic Lions, into a whimper recently. It dismissed the state government’s plea to re-evaluate the apex court’s April order to shift the big cats from Gir to MP’s Palpur-Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary. Undoubtedly, the court’s decision dealt yet another blow to Gujarat’s hopes of not having to part with its pride.
The SC had in April dismissed Gujarat government’s petition opposing translocation of lions. It had noted that the species was under threat of extinction and needed a second home. The court had given six months time for the translocation. However, the government had filed a review petition in the Court, which too has now been dismissed. “The review petition was rejected by the Supreme Court in the first week of November. The Bench did not find merit in the petition and rejected it,” said a senior official.
HK Dash, additional chief secretary of forest & environment department, confirmed that the review petition has been disposed of by the Supreme Court, but said that they haven’t received the detailed order.
Asked about the future strategy of the government as far as the case is concerned, Dash said, “The state government will take the required action after holding consultations with experts in the field.”
Officials said that the state government still has the option to file a curative petition before the Supreme Court as a last legal resort to avoid parting with the big cat.
According to officials, there are around 400 Asiatic lions in the Gir sanctuary currently.
The search for a second home for Asiatic lions was started in the early 1990s over concerns of losing the entire lion population to an epidemic or a natural calamity. The Wildlife Institute of India had carried out a survey in 1993-94 and zeroed in on Palpur Kuno for translocating some of the lions. Even as MP readied the sanctuary, Gujarat was reluctant in sharing the lions, as a result of which, the dispute landed in court. In court, Gujarat government had opposed shifting of lions to MP, saying they would not be safe there as the central state had failed to conserve its own tiger population in the Panna reserve forest. It had also contended that it had sufficient infrastructure and will to conserve the lion population and it was not advisable to translocate them. However, the government seems to have been left with limited choice after the twin setbacks in apex court.
After the Guj govt lost the battle in the SC in April, its manner of handling the issue had drawn criticism from various quarters. Many wildlife experts had opined that Gujarat’s pitch in Apex court had shifted from scientific arguments to emotional ones, particularly by equating the Asiatic Lions with Gujarati Pride.

http://www.dnaindia.com/ahmedabad/report-supreme-court-dismisses-review-plea-on-shifting-of-gir-lions-1922001

Protecting Gir's lions: Kuno's gun culture worries experts.

Himanshu Kaushik,TNN | Nov 18, 2013, 12.54 AM IST

AHMEDABAD: Two lion experts, Ravi Chellam and YV Jhala, have expressed concern in their report over the gun culture, anti-social activities and poaching that is rampant around Kuno wildlife sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh where some of the Gir lions are to be shifted.

The report, 'Action plan for the reintroduction of the Asiatic lion in Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary Madhya Pradesh,' recommends that the gun culture in the region needs to be dealt with appropriately without disturbing local socio-economic customs.

"A large majority of the people in the area own weapons, mostly licensed guns," says paragraph 19 of the report. It states that people from lower economic strata depend on livelihoods based on forest products. These people have to be provided with alternative livelihood options.

The report says that 40% of the revenue generated from the lion reintroduction project should percolate to local marginalized communities if anti-social activities are to be reduced and gun culture restricted. "This will substantially prevent them from joining in anti-social activities. Deliberations should be made to dissuade the local gangs of dacoits and poachers and rehabilitate them in the mainstream of society," the report suggests.

The report raises concerns over poaching incidents.

Experts said that Kuno has people who, on an average, eat meat once a week or once a month. A large number of residents eat meat daily, the report says. People in the area own guns, bows and arrows and catapults. "If the natural prey base [for the lions] is to be enhanced, poaching activities will have to be controlled," states the report.

It further says that a proper rehabilitation plan for awarding market-based compensation against the death of livestock and destruction of crop have to be designed.

Chellam and Jhala have said that there are chances of people getting severely injured or killed during the initial years of reintroduction of the lion as the local community in Kuno does not have any memorable experience of living with either lions or tigers.

"Gir lions attack and maul humans in accidental interfaces. An ex gratia compensation scheme has to be introduced and revised regularly so as to circumvent hostility among local communities," the report says. It goes on to suggest that victims of a lion attack or their kin have to be provided employment with the forest department.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Protecting-Girs-lions-Kunos-gun-culture-worries-experts/articleshow/25958831.cms

Kuno lion translocation report mum on conservation.

Himanshu Kaushik,TNN | Nov 15, 2013, 04.18 AM ISTAHMEDABAD: Gujarat is being forced to share its pride - the Gir lions - with Madhya Pradesh just so that the neighbouring state becomes a more attractive tourist destination, and not to protect this species from extinction. This is how experts are reading the latest 50-page report by two wildlife experts who have been asked to draw up a protocol for the translocation. The report focuses on benefits from tourism and conservation of other flora and fauna in the region.

The Supreme Court had approved the translocation to Kuno Palpur sanctuary to preserve the lions. The first line of its April 15, 2012 order states: "We have been called upon to decide the necessity of a second home for Asiatic Lion, an endangered species, for its long term survival and to protect the species from extinction..."

Page three and four of 'Action Plan for the reintroduction of the Asiatic Lions in Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh', prepared by two lion experts Y V Jhala and Ravi Chellam, lists six aims for translocation. But conservation is missing.

In fact, it gives 'developing capacities of local communities to coexist with wild animals' as one of the aims, implicitly admitting that villagers there aren't used to large carnivores next door. TOI had reported earlier that the villages around Kuno Palpur have some of highest guns per capita in the country.

Chellam told TOI, "This is a draft report. We are open to suggestions. The report was prepared under tremendous pressure and certain points may have been missed."

An expert, who is part of the 12-member committee appointed by the SC for translocation said, "The committee should have listed conservation as the main and long-term aim, instead of talking of tourism and benefits to local people."

He further pointed out that the report talks of 3,330 sq km area as a landscape for the lions, but the current area at Kuno Palpur is just around 345 sq km. No one has a clue where the additional 2,980 sq km will come from.

AIMS OF LION TRANSLOCATION IN KUNO WILDLIFE SANCTUARY
--Provide adequate security to local flora and fauna --Better protection of the habitat within Kuno sanctuary. This will enable conservation of other endangered species --Build capacity of MP forest department in habitat and prey management --Generate benefits for local people through development of wildlife tourism and ancillary activities --Develop capacities of local communities to coexist with wild animals