Young Simbas establish huge kingdom.

Himanshu Kaushik, TNN Jul 11, 2012, 04.32AM IST

AHMEDABAD: Like in the movie Lion King, young Simba has come off age. Three-and-a-half-year-old Sandipan and his unnamed brother have established the largest kingdom in the Sasan Gir, spread over 100 sq km and including 32 big cats.
These are the two youngest rulers who have captured the biggest pride in the sanctuary. And, both have been accepted as rulers, even by other adult males.
Experts who have been monitoring Gir for years say this is unusual. H S Singh, additional principal chief conservator of forest and an expert on lions, calls this a rare phenomenon. "Usually a lions captures his own territory only after he is five years. Capturing a territory at such a young age is only possible if the opponent is weak and the new king is brave enough to take risks," Singh said.

Of the six groups present in the territory - spread over Dedakadi, Karambha, Paniya and Dedia villages - Sandipan and his brother have already mated with five females. Deputy conservator of forest Sandeep Kumar, who is monitoring the take-over in the tourism zone, said, "In my entire career, I have never come across an incident where lions this young have captured the territory and are being easily accepted by older big cats."
In May last week, the two brothers had established their supremacy over the biggest pride of the Gir forest and instead of pushing the old lion out, the duo stayed close to him until he died.
The last bastion, Paniya, which has presence of two adult lions, was conquered without any bloodshed. "We were expecting a fierce battle between these adults and the brothers. But, the take-over was very smooth with the two adults accepting the Sandipan's supremacy," said Kumar.
Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-07-11/flora-fauna/32632323_1_big-cats-lion-king-sasan-gir

Wildlife tour operators, resorts to shell out conservation fee .

Author(s): Kumar Sambhav S...

Date: Jul 11, 2012

Fund so collected will be spent on conserving forests, managing human-wildlife conflict and generating livelihood for local communities

Tour operators and resorts near national parks and sanctuaries will have to pay at least 10 per cent of their turnover as conservation fee (Photo: Sayantoni Palchoudhuri)
Hoteliers and tour operators who have been cashing in on wildlife tourism without bothering about local communities and resources might finally have to part with a good share of their profit for wildlife and forest dwellers. The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has decided that hotels and resorts within a five kilometre radius of national parks and sanctuaries should be charged a minimum 10 per cent of their turnover as local conservation fee. The fund thus collected will be spent by states on conservation of forest resources, managing human-wildlife conflict and generating livelihood for local communities.
The move comes in the backdrop of a Supreme Court case where the apex court is considering whether tourism should be allowed in the core areas of tiger reserves. In March last year, Bhopal based non-profit Prayatna filed a public interest petition in the apex court, pleading that critical tiger habitats should be kept inviolate of all kinds of human disturbances, including tourism. The National Tiger Conservation Authority of the ministry supported the petition, saying tourism should be phased out from the core areas. Regulated tourism can be allowed in the buffer areas, it said. The court, however, directed the ministry to finalise the eco-tourism guidelines for the protected areas, due since June last year before it would decide the matter.
MoEF finalises eco-tousim guidelines
In the new guidelines, finalised on June 12, the ministry has reiterated that tourism should be phased out gradually from the core areas. As an interim measure, it suggested that for tiger reserves with the core areas of more than 500 sq km, community-based tourism can be allowed in a maximum of 20 per cent of the core zone. In return, 30 per cent of the buffer area will have to be restored as wildlife habitat. For core areas smaller than 500 sq km, 10 percent of the core can be opened for tourism subject to the condition that 20 per cent of such area is restored as wildlife habitat.
The ministry told the court that the mushrooming of high-end tourist facilities around protected areas in recent years has led to exploitation, degradation, disturbance and misuse of fragile ecosystems, causing “further alienation of local people”. The guidelines, thus, aim to make  tourism in such areas community-based and community-driven. “Any core area in a tiger reserve from which relocation has been carried out will not be used for tourism activities. Forest dwellers who have been relocated will be given priority in terms of livelihood generation through community-based eco-tourism,” the guidelines say. Local home stays will be exempted from the conservation fee.
The guidelines prescribe roles and responsibilities for the state governments, protected area managements and the resort owners. They direct the states to formulate eco-tourism strategy within one year to ensure local community participation and benefit-sharing and ensure that forest and wildlife is conserved in the ecologically sensitive areas and in the critical wildlife corridors. A state-level steering committee under the chief minister, which would include the chief wildlife warden and representatives of local communities, tribal welfare department, Panchayati Raj institutions and civil society institutions, will periodically review this strategy.
The guidelines say every protected area should have an eco-tourism plan which demarcates the area open for tourism, estimates carrying capacity of the area and fixes the number of tourists accordingly and sets in place a monitoring mechanism to asses impact of tourism. The guidelines say that tourism infrastructure must be low key comprising low-impact architecture, renewable, waste recycling, water management and made in a way sensitive to the corridor value of the area. At least 50 per cent of the energy of the resorts should be generated from renewable sources. The guidelines say a local advisory committee of the officials at the division/district level, local experts and community members should be formed to monitor the practices of the resort owners.
Source: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/wildlife-tour-operators-resorts-shell-out-conservation-fee

Gir sanctuary: Another maldhari relocation project on the cards.

ADAM HALLIDAY

Posted: Jul 12, 2012 at 0512 hrs IST

Ahmedabad A large, competing population of livestock and wild ungulates in and around Gir is overcrowding the area and leading forest officials into discussions about what can be done, much like in the early 1970s when maldhari, or pastoralist, families had to be relocated.
An internationally-funded study had then counted 21,000 domestic herbivores devouring much of the plants there, resulting in a low wild ungulate population of just a few thousand.
After maldharis were relocated, the population of wild ungulates (chital, sambar, nilgai, wild boar, four-horned antelope, langur and chinkara) increased dramatically and their total population now stands at nearly 70,000.
“Livestock population has reached the 1970 levels again, and there is increasing competition between domestic and wild herbivores, leading to degradation of patches in the forest area and more cases of carnivores (the Gir region hosts Asiatic lions, leopards and hyenas) attacking the maldharis’ livestock,” said a veteran forest department official, adding the central government has been apprised of the situation.
Although a second maldhari relocation project is on the cards, top forest officials contend there is still much to debate before a full-fledged plan is laid out (in fact, the revised management plan being currently debated for the sanctuary and national park does not contain such a plan).
“On top of the list is the financial costs that will be required to move and resettle thousands of humans and tens of thousands of animals,” said another senior official involved in the discussions.
The second is the resistance such a plan is likely to trigger, and even if that can be settled, rehabilitation packages will have to be negotiated, he said, somewhat wary that demands for such packages are likely to be exaggerated in some cases.
The third is whether or not the political class or agencies in the central government will fully back such a relocation project. Foresters say they will have to test the waters even if they take the entire onus of carrying out the groundwork themselves.
In the transition years of the 1960s and 1970s, the state forest department and a trio of institutions — Bombay Natural History Society, Smithsonian Institution and Yale University — had initiated a research, “The Gir Lion Project”.
Aided by forester Sanat A Chavan, who has since retired, researcher Paul Joslin had recorded “about 21,000 domestic livestock graze within the (Gir) sanctuary and this number gets doubled or trebled during the dry season”.
This had dire consequences. The research noted there was “very low ungulate biomass due to heavy grazing and browsing by domestic livestock” and lions fed “almost exclusively” on maldharis’ livestock in the absence of their natural prey.
Meanwhile, the Asiatic lion population had dropped from 177 to 285 in just five years. And later, between 1972 and 1986, hundreds of maldhari families were shifted from the area and a rubber wall was erected to stop animals from grazing inside the sanctuary. Besides, wild ungulates were bred and introduced as prey for the carnivores.
From less than 10,000 in 1974, the wild ungulate population reached 69,972 by the time the lion population was estimated to be 411 in 2010.

The protected part of Gir forest covers 1,412 sq kilometres, which includes the national park and sanctuary.
Source: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/gir-sanctuary-another-maldhari-relocation-project-on-the-cards/973435/

Endangered Asiatic Lions May Be Overly Guarded In India's Gir Sanctuary.

AP  |  By KATY DAIGLE Posted: 07/05/2012 1:06 pm Updated: 07/05/2012 3:30 pm

GIR SANCTUARY, India (AP) — A peacock shrieks. A monkey scrambles higher into the fire-colored canopy of a kesudo tree. And an Asiatic lion — one of the last few hundred in the wild — pads across the dusty earth of a west Indian sanctuary that is its only refuge from the modern world.
Within the guarded confines of this dry forest in Gujarat state, the lions have been rescued from near-extinction. A century ago, fewer than 50 remained. Today more than 400 fill the park and sometimes wander into surrounding villages and farmland.
But the lions' precarious return is in jeopardy. Experts warn their growing numbers could be their undoing. Crowded together, they are more vulnerable to disease and natural disaster. There is little new territory for young males to claim, increasing chances for inbreeding, territorial conflict or males killing the young.
Conservationists agree these lions need a second home fast, and far from Gir. Government-backed experts in the 1990s settled on a rugged and hilly sanctuary called Kuno, where lions historically roamed with tigers in the neighboring state of Madhya Pradesh. Millions were spent preparing the park. But Gujarat rejected the plan. And no lions were sent.
Now, the uncertain fate of the Asiatic lions — once dominant in forests from Morocco and Greece across the Middle East to eastern India — rests in the hands of bureaucrats.
"We are the only ones who have lions. We have managed without interference until now," Gujarat's environment secretary, S.K. Nanda, said proudly from behind an enormous desk in an office complex decorated with lion posters reading: "Gujarat's pride; World's envy."
"Can we humans be arbiters of where these lions should live? Should we move the mountains and the rivers, too?" Nanda said. "If the lions want to move, let them move on their own."

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The subject of saving lions is an emotional one in India. The lion also holds iconic status in religions and cultures. The multi-armed Hindu warrior goddess Durga is traditionally shown with a lion as her mount. Four lions make the national emblem — symbolizing power, courage, pride and confidence. Even the common Sikh name "Singh," shared by the current prime minister, means "lion" in several languages.
The Asiatic lions, a subspecies, are nearly as large as their African cousins, though the males' manes are less fluffy and their tails have larger tufts.
By the 20th century, they had nearly been wiped out by trophy hunters. The last Asiatic lion outside Gujarat was gunned down in Iran in 1942.
Within India, hundreds of thousands of lions, tigers, leopards and wolves were killed over decades of frenzied hunting, encouraged by British colonials. Three years after independence, the country's Asiatic cheetahs were extinct.
But the lions in Gujarat got a reprieve. A princely ruler banned hunting of the few dozen lions left in 1901.
The state created Gir Sanctuary over more than 1,400 square kilometers (540 square miles), relocating all but a few hundred buffalo herdsmen who lived peaceably with the predators, mainly by giving them wide berth.
The sanctuary became a model in conservation, with constant patrols against poachers and cultivated grasslands for the lions' prey: spotted deer and blue-hued antelope. A veterinary hospital was built. The lions thrived.
Tourists from India's newly minted middle class now flock to the park, riding open-topped jeeps to see lions lazing under trees or teaching their butterfly-chasing young to stalk small prey.
A few dozen trackers keep count of the animals and fill artificial water holes.
"Not everyone gets a job like this," said Raju Vajadiya, idly swinging a stick, the only defense he and his colleagues usually have or need. "It is a godly thing to give a lion water on a hot day."
Protecting the lions has been popular with locals, who consider the predators docile when not harassed. Farmers welcome them in their fields. Newly married couples visit them for good luck. Families break park rules to picnic by Gir's streams, unaware or unconcerned that they are water sources for the big cats.
"The lion is like a god to us," peanut farmer Sadik Hasein Chotiyara said. "If the lion attacks, it's because that person made a mistake."
At the same time, locals in general are more open to sharing the lions with other states than Gujarat's leaders are.
Gujarat officials insist lion attacks on humans don't happen. Nonsense, say scientists and residents.
Research indicates confrontations are increasing, as the growing cat population has pushed one in four lions into new mini-sanctuaries they get to by riverbeds that snake through farms and villages.
Droughts that kill prey can make matters worse. After a drought in the 1980s, there were 120 lion confrontations in 1989-91 killing 21 people — five taken as lion food, said biologist Ravi Chellam.
Most of the estimated 15 lion attacks each year happen outside the park, where people are less lion-savvy, scientists say. In April, a lion killed a 35-year-old man who was reportedly pelting it with stones.
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Gujarat's conservation laurels now teeter on its next move. Experts say Gujarati officials can best show their devotion to the lions by letting some go. The lions urgently need a second sanctuary, they say — one outside Gujarat to ensure genetic diversification and protection from disease or natural disaster.
Evidence suggests the gene pool is dangerously shallow, meaning a disease that affects one Gir lion could quickly affect many. Tanzania's Serengeti National Park saw a third of its 3,000 lions wiped out in 1994 by canine distemper, likely brought by tourists' dogs. Decades earlier, Tanzania's Ngorogoro Crater lions were decimated when rains spawned swarms of blood-sucking flies that left the cats with festering sores.
But Gujarat denies any need to move lions from the state. It dismisses the idea that disease or calamity could pose a threat.
To give the lions more space, Gujarat recently opened a small second sanctuary on its coast. Conservationists say the two populations are still too close together.
To address gene pool concerns, Gujarat is breeding them in a zoo, but conservationists say it's ridiculous to think those could be a substitute for lions raised in the wild.
"From a scientific perspective, this is the worst thing they could do. If they really cared about the species' survival, they would want this second home," said conservation biologist William Laurance, of Australia's James Cook University.
The central government and Madhya Pradesh state have already prepared the second lion home in Kuno, relocating villages and hiring specialists to build up a prey base for the cats. In 2006, an ecologist on the project filed a lawsuit challenging how such a plan could be enacted but no lions ever sent.
The Supreme Court is now deliberating on the messy dispute and could — if it wants — resolve it within weeks.
"India risks becoming a champion of extinction," said Faiyaz Khusdar, the ecologist who filed the lawsuit. "People would never forgive us if we lose these beautiful cats."
Gujarat also doubts that other states will keep lions safe. And here, they echo global concern.
Environmentalists increasingly question India's commitment to its endangered wildlife, including half the world's remaining tigers, its only black tigers, and more than half the world's Asiatic elephants and one-horned rhinoceroses.
As the country heaves with 1.2 billion people, it has quickly industrialized its countryside, destroying most of its forests along with wetlands and mangrove stands.
More than 40 animal and plant species have gone extinct in a half-century and 134 more are critically endangered. Poaching and poisoning are rampant, despite a 1972 law criminalizing such killings. A recent study in the journal Biological Conservation counted 114 species being poached, including elephants and rhinos for their tusks, and tigers for body parts used in Chinese medicine.
Many sanctuaries have been powerless to stop the killings. There are not enough rangers, and some may take bribes. Some exasperated states like Maharashtra and Assam have told rangers they can shoot poachers on sight.
While Gujarat's lions have been spared the worst, they still face the same threats. The International Union for Conservation of Nature changed their status to "endangered" from "critically endangered" based on their numbers in 2008, but noted they were still falling to hunters and poison traps and drowning in village wells.
Statistics are difficult to find, but a reported 34 of Gujarat's lions were poached in 2007. Another 10 were hunted in 2009 by criminals who passed the cat bones off as tiger parts. Tigers also came under attack that year, disappearing from two sanctuaries in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
"They are not able to conserve their own wildlife. How can they protect ours?" said R.L. Meena, a Gujarat district wildlife warden.
He insisted the state would defy any court order not in its favor. "They will not take our lions."
___
Conservationists say dangers outside Gujarat are an argument for better wildlife protection nationwide, but not an excuse for resisting the Kuno lion home in Madhya Pradesh.
"Gujarat is fiercely proud of the lions, and rightfully so," said biologist Luke Hunter of Panthera conservation group based in New York. "You would think they'd want to take the next logical step in conservation and establish other populations."
Some accuse Gujarat of using its hold on the lions as a tourism draw. Gujarat fires the same allegation at states willing to take lions in.
The central government supports moving lions to Kuno, but notes that Indian wildlife laws leave decisions to the 28 states. "We will not interfere," environment secretary Tishya Chatterjee said.
But New Delhi has intervened to protect wildlife before. It launched a nationwide tiger-protection project in the 1970s. In a situation similar to the lions, it ordered the northeastern state of Assam to contribute rhinos for a second population to boost that gene pool in faraway Uttar Pradesh state.
Environmentalists say the need for the central government to protect species is not declining but rising as India's population and economy soar.
"Conservation in India is not about managing animals anymore," said Divyabhanusinh Chavda of the World Wildlife Fund in India.
"It's about managing people."
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Follow Katy Daigle on Twitter at http://twitter.com/katydaigle

India joins hands with S Asian neighbours to protect wildlife.

New Delhi: Recognising the danger posed to wildlife from illegal trade, India and its South Asian neighbours have agreed to develop institutional mechanisms to promote harmonised and collaborative approaches to common threats, a government document said.

However, the modalities of this agreement and the ensuing legal structures evolved at the First Meeting on Illegal Wildlife Trade in South Asia held in Kathmandu two years ago are still under discussion.

India is a lucrative market in the USD 20 billion global illegal wildlife trade. At a time when poaching and illegal trade of wildlife articles have assumed alarming proportions, the Environment Ministry document has conceded that the South Asian nations were "not resourced adequately" to deal with the problem.

A number of regional initiatives have emerged, including SACEP (South Asia Cooperative Environment Programme), SAWTI (South Asia Wildlife Trade Initiative) and SAARC Convention on Cooperation on Environment to check the illegal trade of wildlife articles.

"...But (these agencies) have not been resourced adequately to implement activities," concedes the document --Environmental and Social Framework Document for "Strengthening Regional Cooperation in Wildlife Protection in Asia"-- prepared for financial assistance from the World Bank under regional IDA (International Development Association) window.

When contacted, officials in the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) refused to share more details.

Wild animals are killed for the flourishing illegal international trade of their skins, bones, flesh, fur, used for decoration, clothing, medicine and unconventional exotic food.

Victims of the trade include the iconic tiger and elephant, the snow leopard, the common leopard, the one-horn rhino, pangolin, brown bear, several species of deer and reptiles, seahorses, star tortoises, butterflies, peacocks, hornbills, parrots, parakeets and birds of prey and corals.

Yearly trade of wildlife articles probably ranks third after narcotics and the illegal weapons trade, says the document quoting INTERPOL.

The nations across the world are also signatories to CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), which was set up to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

The report says that poaching techniques are "extremely gruesome".

"The more egregious methods include skinning or dehorning live animals and transportation of live creatures in inhuman conditions," it says.

Poaching has become so intense that tigers have disappeared from many parks throughout Asia.

"Nowhere has the impact been greater than in India and Nepal which remain the bastions of tiger conservation," says the document.

India has a Memorandum of Understanding with Nepal on controlling trans-boundary illegal trade in wildlife and conservation, apart from a protocol on tiger conservation with China.

A Global Tiger Forum of Tiger Range Countries has been created for addressing international issues related to tiger conservation.

India has appealed to China to phase out tiger farming, and eliminate stockpiles of Asian big cats body parts and derivatives. The importance of continuing the ban on trade of body parts of tigers was emphasised.

The economic value of the illegal wildlife trade is determined primarily by cross-border factors. Wildlife are poached in one country, stockpiled in another, and then traded beyond the South Asia region. http://zeenews.india.com/news/eco-news/india-joins-hands-with-s-asian-neighbours-to-protect-wildlife_784798.html

Gujarat's indigenous tribes to get brand registration for tribal medicines.

2 Jul, 2012, 12.41PM IST, Vishal Dutta & Himanshu Darji,ET Bureau
AHMEDABAD: Indigenous tribes from Gujarat would become India's first tribal community to get their age-old medicinal knowledge branded and registered under trademark and geographic indication (GI). The state government has initiated a tribal branding project to create and promote a tribal-made product pool to protect tribal community knowledge.

ET has learnt that the forest department will create a pool of brands for local herbs found in Dangs along with the local tribes to improve the latter's income levels and to efficiently utilise the vast natural resources of the region. This will include value-addition by using modern processing, packaging and marketing system. The proposed brand for the herbs is in addition to the existing brand 'Dhanvantri' that belongs to Gujarat Forest Development Corporation.

"Currently, middle-men collect herbs from the locals who in turn end up getting exploited. We will create a dedicated marketplace for processed hubs that could be bought by ayurvedic pharma companies," S K Chaturvedi, chief conservator of forest of Valsad and Dang districts.

The Dangs has more than 350 species of medicinal plants scattered over 311 villages and has 60 Bhagats (tribal healers).

The forest department will train the tribals in scientific method of herbs and its preservation, Chaturvedi says. "Modern processing units will be set up to add value to the raw herbs and special training will also be imparted to tribals to improve the productivity of the plants," he said.

Dangs is home to herbs like harde, baheda , mahuda, charoli, shatavri, citrak, white musli, jivanti, kaucha and galo amongst others. "Unlike Ayurveda, the medical knowledge of the tribals has never been documented by the Bhagats. The knowledge has been passed on to subsequent generation verbally," says Dr Deepak Acharya, director of Abhumka Herbal, that is deciphering tribal knowledge into finished products and sharing profit with the tribal community.

Bio-piracy in the region began in 1990s but reached its peak in 2000. Later, local administration and tribal healers sprung into action to find means to plug it. Registration will empower owners of the said intellectual property to restrict others from using similar intellectual property, says advocate Aayush Modi working with Nanavati Associates that is working on this state government initiative. The firm along with the State Forest Development Agency (SFDA) has begun applying for trademark registrations for various products manufactured or sold by the tribals. "It will enable sales and promote specific brands emerging from the region," adds IPR specialist Mr Pranit Nanavati.

Abhumka has so far introduced over 12 medicinal products from the region -- herbal cattlefeed DudhNahar, vitality capsules Teranta and StonOff, for removal of kidney stones -- for instance.

Lioness’s radio rage terrorizing Gir village.

Himanshu Kaushik, TNN Jul 2, 2012, 02.22AM IST

AHMEDABAD: A lioness in Liliya, in the Gir forest, is terrorizing villagers who live around her territory. She is perpetually angry and lashes out at anyone who crosses her path. The villagers say her temper is fuelled by a radio collar that was fitted on her; and the collar — equipped with a tracking device — does not work anymore.
Residents, who refuse to be identified, say that the lioness has on a couple of occasions attacked the people of Kanrach village. However, fortunately, no major injury has been reported. Curiously, the villagers are sensitive to animals' wellbeing. They had recently thrashed some outsiders who had entered the area for an illegal lion show.
As for the officials, they acknowledge that the lioness is a troublemaker. Once, she made even forest guards run helter-skelter for cover. The foresters slipped into slush but luckily the lioness did not attack them.

Manoj Joshi, who runs a nature club in the area, said: "One day, the lioness was found sitting beside a driver who was sleeping near his vehicle in the open."
Two attempts to relocate the lioness have failed because it is difficult to trace her. "This lioness is very clever. She has been making forest officials chase her futilely," said deputy conservator of forests (Gir east) Anushman Sharma. "In the late 2000, this lioness was caught from Gondal after the rescue team camped in the area for over 15 days. Whenever the team zeroed in on her location and rushed to the spot, she would go missing." Gondal is about 150 km from Sasan.
Sharma admitted that the radio collar which the lioness was wearing had indeed become non-functional. But for removing that, one has to catch her. He said some villagers thought the collar served a purpose. "They feel that the collar makes unscrupulous elements think that the forest department is monitoring the area and hence they keep away."
Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-07-02/ahmedabad/32508116_1_lioness-gir-forest-gir-village

MP’s wait continues: For Gir lions and Karnataka jumbos .

Monday, 02 July 2012 00:04 pioneer
Both the proposals — of shifting the Asiatic lion from the Gir forests in Gujarat and elephants from Karnataka — are stuck in courts. While Gujarat argues that there is no need for a second home to the Gir lions and that translocation to MP would make them vulnerable to poachers, NGOs in Karnataka say that translocated elephants would suffer the pangs of being separated from their family groups and that such a plan would result in degradation of the forests in that State. MP Forest Minister is, however, hopeful that the plan would come through, writes  Zafar Alam Khan
The Madhya Pradesh Government’s proposed ambitious plan to translocate Asiatic Lions and elephants from Gujarat and Karnataka, respectively, is in doldrums. The Bharatiya Janata Party Government of the State has failed to persuade the same party ruled Gujarat and Karnataka Governments for the same. ‘Viva city’ tried to find out that what went wrong and why translocation of these animals still hangs in balance. Madhya Pradesh Government’s efforts to translocate the animals could not be a pipe dream since the State has the largest area under forest cover as compared to other States of the country.
Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister Sartaj Singh while talking to ‘Viva City’ said, “The issues are pending in the court and we are hopeful that the verdict would go in our favour.”
Notably, the decision to make Kuno-Palpur sanctuary near Gwalior a second home for the Asiatic lions was taken in 1990 by the Union Government on the advice of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) while shifting of 29 jumbos from Karnataka was almost imminent but in the last moments a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) played spoilsport and the translocation was stuck.
Gujarat opposes tooth and nail the plan for a second home for Asiatic lions at Kuno-Palpur sanctuary of Madhya Pradesh while the plan of getting elephants from Karnataka also suffered jolt as a plea against it was admitted in the Karnataka High Court.
The Karnataka High Court has asked the Union Government, the Animal Welfare Board of India, Principal Secretary to the Department of Forest, Ecology and Environment to file a counter affidavit against the petition on the translocation of elephants from the state.
The petition filed by the Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA) and the People For Animals (PFA) has alleged the State Government has decided to transfer 29 elephants to Madhya Pradesh. The NGOs cited a report in a section of the media stating that the Karnataka Government was planning to hand over captive elephants to Madhya Pradesh Government for use in safaris, and that 29 elephants had been identified for such a transfer.
The NGOs wrote letters to the principal conservator of forests objecting to the translocation of the elephants. Since the state government seemed keen on pursuing the transfers, the petitioners decided to approach the court.
The NGOs argued that the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 prohibits the sale of elephants. The elephants, if transferred, would be separated from family groups. The translocation of such a huge number of elephants would result in degeneration of the forest, since each elephant requires 250 kg of fodder every day. They are extremely vulnerable to tuberculosis when they come into contact with human beings.
The activists sought a direction from the court to issue a writ not to sell, transfer or translocate elephants from Karnataka. The State Government counsel has submitted that a decision had been taken not to translocate captive elephants to Madhya Pradesh or to any other part of the country.
While, in case of lions’ transfer from Gujarat, a proposed second home for Asiatic lions has pitted the BJP-led State Governments of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh against each other. Gujarat, whose Gir sanctuary is the only abode for Asiatic lions, is upset with the plan to shift some of the big cats to the Kuno-Palpur sanctuary near Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, as decided in the late 1990s by the Union Government on the advice of the Wildlife Institute of India.
The issue came up for hearing in Supreme Court on May 1 this year on a petition by Biodiversity Conservation Trust, a wildlife NGO.
The Madhya Pradesh Government bluntly told the court that Gujarat’s allegations that Madhya Pradesh forest officials were incapable of handling the lions and that there was poaching in the area and not enough prey base for the lions were baseless. The debate further escalated when the Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Department posted on its website that “Kuno has been selected as an alternative home for the endangered Asiatic lion, which is now confined only to the Gir National Park and Sanctuary of Gujarat.” Gujarat claims it has done enough to protect the lions and that a second home for them is unnecessary. Not only has the number of Gir lions gone up to 411, the State Government has also added 400 sq km of grasslands and forests to the 1,400-sq-km sanctuary as part of its concept of Greater Gir. Gujarat forest officials also say the poachers who operate in Gir come from Katni in Madhya Pradesh, not very far from Kuno-Palpur, which means the proposed second home is no safer for the lions.
Gujarat’s principal chief conservator of forests Pradeep Khanna said, “There is absolutely no need for shifting the lions out of Gujarat. The endangered species is more secure here than anywhere else.”
Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister Sartaj Singh counters, “It is wrong to say lions won’t be safe in Kuno-Palpur when Madhya Pradesh has done a good job of managing other national parks in the State which have tigers. Gujarat should understand that it is for the future benefit of the species that a second home is necessary.”
Another Gujarat forest official reminds that the Wildlife Institute of India’s recommendation to shift lions to Kuno-Palpur was itself a political decision as it was dominated at that time by officials from Madhya Pradesh. He adds that the second home strategy is flawed as Kuno-Palpur is just 344 sq km in area and the recommendation is for shifting only six lions.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhopal/77395-mps-wait-continues-for-gir-lions-and-karnataka-jumbos.html