Rs 75-lakh machine can replant 100 trees in a day
By Dilip Patel
Posted On Monday, March 29, 2010 at 02:45:37 AM
In a bid to save full-grown trees falling prey to road projects, the Forest Department has come up with an idea of re-plantation of trees to boost the depleting green cover in Gandhinagar. To this effect, the department will soon get three giant machines from the US at a cost of Rs 2.25 crore.
“Around 76,000 trees have become victims of several road-widening projects in last four years in Gandhinagar alone. Two years back, more than 2,500 trees were felled to develop a 5-km stretch on ‘Ch’ Road which passes though Vidhan Sabha and secretariat. The department then thought of adopting the re-plantation technique,” a source in the Forest Department said.
“Massive development work is in full swing at Gandhinagar. This has taken toll on several full-grown trees. The technique of replantation will save trees without disturbing projects. It is an attempt to save green cover of the city,” said Forest Minister Mangubhai Patel.
Former District Forest Officer of Gandhinagar S D Vasava had experimented with this technique. He attempted to replant trees and got success in 40 per cent cases. His experiment revealed that not all trees can be replanted. Based on Vasava’s findings, Forest department initiated the process and identified trees which can be replanted with 100 per cent success.
Forest Secretary S K Nanda said: “The machine can plant 100 trees in a day, however, priority will be given to those trees which can grow and can survive four to five years. Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation will sponsor the
machines.”
How will the machine work
The area around the tree will be dug to expose the roots. The tree is then uprooted and lifted with the help of the machine and planted in another location. The machine will be used in Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad.
Source: http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/3/20100329201003290245378379c8c0815/Gandhinagar-to-get-three-machines-for-replantation-of-trees.html
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Kesar mango from Gir all set to rub shoulders with Darjeeling tea.
Hiral Dave
Posted: Monday , Mar 22, 2010 at 0152 hrs Rajkot:
Is the only agri product from Gujarat to get registered with Geographical Indication Registry
Alike Darjeeling tea or Solapar chaddar, kesar mango from Gir will soon have its own identity. The luscious fruit is all set for registration with the Geographical Indication Registry (GIR) of India, which conveys assurance of quality and distinctiveness — essentially attributed to the place of its origin in a defined geographical locality.
Kesar mango will be the first agricultural produce from Gujarat and the second mango variety in India (Dussheri from Uttar Pradesh being the first), to get this registration.
Post-registration, villagers in a total of eight talukas across Junagadh and Amreli districts in the periphery of the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary will be able to reap the benefits of added value attached to their produce. Talala, Keshod, Vanthali, Una, Kodinar and Mangrol talukas are the main centres for Kesar in Junagadh district, while for Amreli, the centres are Dhari and Khambha.
Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Kesar-mango-from-Gir-all-set-to-rub-shoulders-with-Darjeeling-tea/593829
Posted: Monday , Mar 22, 2010 at 0152 hrs Rajkot:
Is the only agri product from Gujarat to get registered with Geographical Indication Registry
Alike Darjeeling tea or Solapar chaddar, kesar mango from Gir will soon have its own identity. The luscious fruit is all set for registration with the Geographical Indication Registry (GIR) of India, which conveys assurance of quality and distinctiveness — essentially attributed to the place of its origin in a defined geographical locality.
Kesar mango will be the first agricultural produce from Gujarat and the second mango variety in India (Dussheri from Uttar Pradesh being the first), to get this registration.
Post-registration, villagers in a total of eight talukas across Junagadh and Amreli districts in the periphery of the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary will be able to reap the benefits of added value attached to their produce. Talala, Keshod, Vanthali, Una, Kodinar and Mangrol talukas are the main centres for Kesar in Junagadh district, while for Amreli, the centres are Dhari and Khambha.
Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Kesar-mango-from-Gir-all-set-to-rub-shoulders-with-Darjeeling-tea/593829
Gujarat's Girnar ropeway project to start next year.
DNA
Saturday, March 20, 2010 9:54 IST
Gandhinagar: Finally after a delay of almost two decades, the Girnar mountain may get its ropeway. Tourism minister Jaynarayan Vyas informed the state assembly about the status of Girnar mountain ropeway project.
Responding to a question of Visavadar MLA Kanu Bhalala in question hour, Vyas said that through a notification dated May 31, 2008, the government has reserved land for the ropeway project in Gir forest land. The state government has also submitted the proposal to the central government's National Wildlife Board and the Board too has decided to take up the issue after site visit. "We had several meetings with the central forest & environment minister for the project also. We are hopeful of getting clearance soon and the project is likely to start by 2011.''
The ropeway project will be undertaken by Ushabrecko Company at the cost of Rs89.31 crore. GPCC president Sidharath Patel said: "I and leader of opposition have also met the central forest and environment minister and requested them to clear the project at the earliest.''
Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_gujarat-s-girnar-ropeway-project-to-start-next-year_1361157
Saturday, March 20, 2010 9:54 IST
Gandhinagar: Finally after a delay of almost two decades, the Girnar mountain may get its ropeway. Tourism minister Jaynarayan Vyas informed the state assembly about the status of Girnar mountain ropeway project.
Responding to a question of Visavadar MLA Kanu Bhalala in question hour, Vyas said that through a notification dated May 31, 2008, the government has reserved land for the ropeway project in Gir forest land. The state government has also submitted the proposal to the central government's National Wildlife Board and the Board too has decided to take up the issue after site visit. "We had several meetings with the central forest & environment minister for the project also. We are hopeful of getting clearance soon and the project is likely to start by 2011.''
The ropeway project will be undertaken by Ushabrecko Company at the cost of Rs89.31 crore. GPCC president Sidharath Patel said: "I and leader of opposition have also met the central forest and environment minister and requested them to clear the project at the earliest.''
Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_gujarat-s-girnar-ropeway-project-to-start-next-year_1361157
Last of the world's Asiatic lions clawing their way back.
Hannah Gardner, Foreign Correspondent
* Last Updated: March 30. 2010 10:28PM UAE / March 30. 2010 6:28PM GMT
Asiatic lions lounge in the shade of a tree near the village of Sasan on the edge of Gir National Park, their only remaining natural habitat. Raveendran / AFP
GIR, INDIA // One morning, just over three months ago, Abu Bloch was cycling to work when he came across a sight that made his heart sink.
Vehicles from the local forest department were haphazardly parked on the high stone bridge spanning a ravine ahead of him and a dozen officials were peering over the edge. As he moved closer, the cause of the commotion became clear: on the river bank, 30 metres below, lay the body of a fully grown male Asiatic lion – its limbs contorted and its head bloodied.
“I looked, but I didn’t want to see,” Mr Bloch said. “I love lions. I can’t look at a dead one.”
Like many of the residents of Gir Forest in the north-western state of Gujarat, Mr Bloch understands just how precious the life of every Asiatic lion is.
Genetically different from their African cousins, these majestic beasts once inhabited a belt of territory from the Balkans in the west to India in the east.
Today, only an estimated 360 Asiatic lions survive in the wild and they all live in Gir – a 1,600-square-kilometre patch of undulating scrub in south Gujarat.
Since the local nawab, or prince, banned lion-hunting in 1901, the animals have clawed back from the brink of extinction and their population is now growing by eight per cent every five years.
However, the subspecies remains highly vulnerable – not least, conservationists say, because it is concentrated in one area and could be wiped out by a contagious disease.
To protect against this, the Indian government wants to relocate a small number of lions to a park 600km away in the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh.
But Gujarat’s chief minister, the controversial and nationalistic Narendra Modi, has repeatedly refused to part with any lions, saying they are, in every sense, “Gujarat’s pride”. Even offers of tigers or cheetahs in exchange for lions have failed to entice Mr Modi.
Now, after more than 15 years of negotiations, proponents of the plan are hoping that the Asiatic lion’s future will finally be secured when the Supreme Court rules on the issue next month.
“Fundamentally, it is a matter of not having all your eggs in one basket,” Ravi Chellam, the director of India’s Wildlife Conservation Society, said in an interview. “The translocation plan is simply an insurance policy for the long-term survival of the Asiatic lion.”
Having been celebrated in European and Asian art and literature as symbols of bravery and nobility for millennia, by the turn of the last century the Asiatic lions had almost been hunted into extinction.
Gir was one of the few places the lions still roamed free and if it had not been for a strange twist of fate they would have been eradicated there, too.
In 1900, the nawab of Junagadh invited the viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, to Gir to shoot lions. On arriving in Gujarat, however, the viceroy learnt that there were as few as 20 lions left and urged the Nawab to protect them.
“The present generation owes it to its successors to restore the only species of a large mammal lost in the plains of India in historical times,” Lord Curzon wrote to the Burma Game Preservation Association at the time.
“Failure to do so would not be forgiven by the judgement of history.”
Thus, in one of the first acts of its kind in India, the nawab banned the lions’ slaughter.
After the turmoil of independence and partition, India’s new government also enacted laws to protect the lions, banning lion hunting in 1955, and declaring Gir a sanctuary in 1965.
By the early nineties however, conservationists were voicing concerns that Gir was overcrowded and a second home was needed to ensure the lions’ survival.
An outbreak of canine distemper in Tanzania’s Serengeti Park in 1994 killed more than 1,000 common African lions, adding weight to their argument, and in 1995 the federal government approved a plan to relocate a handful of lions to Kuno in Madhya Pradesh.
The government spent millions of rupees resettling the new park’s human population and boosting the number of prey.
But it never secured Gujarat’s agreement to part with the lions, and in 2001 – the year the lions were supposed to be transferred – Mr Modi became Gujarat’s chief minister.
The deadlock between Gujarat and the central government deepened when in 2004 Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party was defeated by the Congress Party in a general election. Subsequent attempts to persuade Gujarat to supply lions to Kuno failed and in 2008, a group of conservationists took the state to court.
“We are arguing that no state can claim a monopoly on its wildlife, especially if that wildlife is endangered,” Ritwick Dutta, the lawyer representing the Biodiversity Conservation Trust of India, said.
“Any experiment has an element of risk in it, but it is a necessary risk if you consider that the reward is the long-term survival of the species.”
The conservation trust and other proponents of the move say a second home is also necessary to help ease overcrowding at Gir.
Although the lion population has more than doubled since 1965, Gir’s area has only been expanded by 16 per cent.
As a result, the lions are moving out of the park in search of new homes. One pride was found living in the scrubby grassland of Gujarat’s south coast 40km away from Gir, while another has moved into the hills around Junagadh town.
Inevitably, this brings the lions into greater contact with humans – often with fatal results. Last month, Gujarat’s forestry department released figures that showed 72 lions died in 2008 and 2009, including five from non-natural causes.
The one Mr Bloch saw died when it jumped from a bridge after it was startled by the headlights of a car. Four other lions died from falling down wells.
Last week, villagers near Junagadh hacked a lion to death with an axe after it mauled one of their neighbours.
Although Gujarati officials concede that all such deaths are tragic, they say the lions are still safer in Gir than anywhere else.
They are confident that a census, due next month, will reveal that the lion population has risen since the last time it was counted in 2005. They say they are working to make the environment around Gir safe by covering thousands of wells and building a bypass to move traffic further from the park.
But Gujarat’s strongest argument is the Indian government’s poor record protecting the tiger, the country’s national animal since it replaced the lion in 1973.
Numbers have dropped to 1,411 today from 3,500 in the mid-nineties, largely because of poaching to meet demand for tiger parts from China.
The one case of poaching in recent years in Gir was carried out by trained tiger trappers from Madhya Pradesh, the state where the new park is located. They killed seven lions and discarded their pelts so they could pass off the body parts as those of tigers.
Thirty-eight people were arrested and Gujarati officials say there has not been another case of poaching in Gir since.
“The local communities in Madhya Pradesh have done little to conserve the tiger and now you want to sacrifice the lion there, too? For what?” Pradeep Khanna, the principal chief conservator of forests, asked.
By comparison, the majority of people around Gir are protective of the lions, which draw more than 100,000 tourists each year
“Because of the lions we have jobs; we can afford to send our children to good schools,” said Nitin Ratangayra, a local restaurant manager in Gir. “When a lion dies we are very sad.”
Like him, most of the local community opposes the relocation plan, concerned that tourists would be diverted to Madhya Pradesh if it had both lions and tigers.
Despite this, Mr Khanna said his department will comply if the Supreme Court gives a clear ruling to hand over the lions.
Wildlife activists are concerned that Gujarat will still find ways to hold on to the lions.
“In theory the Supreme Court ruling should make all the difference, but the court has made thousands of rulings which are not complied with,” said Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. “They will find loopholes or appeal. This is an emotional issue for them now.”
hgardner@thenational.ae
Source: http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100331/FOREIGN/703309912/1103/NEWS
* Last Updated: March 30. 2010 10:28PM UAE / March 30. 2010 6:28PM GMT
Asiatic lions lounge in the shade of a tree near the village of Sasan on the edge of Gir National Park, their only remaining natural habitat. Raveendran / AFP
GIR, INDIA // One morning, just over three months ago, Abu Bloch was cycling to work when he came across a sight that made his heart sink.
Vehicles from the local forest department were haphazardly parked on the high stone bridge spanning a ravine ahead of him and a dozen officials were peering over the edge. As he moved closer, the cause of the commotion became clear: on the river bank, 30 metres below, lay the body of a fully grown male Asiatic lion – its limbs contorted and its head bloodied.
“I looked, but I didn’t want to see,” Mr Bloch said. “I love lions. I can’t look at a dead one.”
Like many of the residents of Gir Forest in the north-western state of Gujarat, Mr Bloch understands just how precious the life of every Asiatic lion is.
Genetically different from their African cousins, these majestic beasts once inhabited a belt of territory from the Balkans in the west to India in the east.
Today, only an estimated 360 Asiatic lions survive in the wild and they all live in Gir – a 1,600-square-kilometre patch of undulating scrub in south Gujarat.
Since the local nawab, or prince, banned lion-hunting in 1901, the animals have clawed back from the brink of extinction and their population is now growing by eight per cent every five years.
However, the subspecies remains highly vulnerable – not least, conservationists say, because it is concentrated in one area and could be wiped out by a contagious disease.
To protect against this, the Indian government wants to relocate a small number of lions to a park 600km away in the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh.
But Gujarat’s chief minister, the controversial and nationalistic Narendra Modi, has repeatedly refused to part with any lions, saying they are, in every sense, “Gujarat’s pride”. Even offers of tigers or cheetahs in exchange for lions have failed to entice Mr Modi.
Now, after more than 15 years of negotiations, proponents of the plan are hoping that the Asiatic lion’s future will finally be secured when the Supreme Court rules on the issue next month.
“Fundamentally, it is a matter of not having all your eggs in one basket,” Ravi Chellam, the director of India’s Wildlife Conservation Society, said in an interview. “The translocation plan is simply an insurance policy for the long-term survival of the Asiatic lion.”
Having been celebrated in European and Asian art and literature as symbols of bravery and nobility for millennia, by the turn of the last century the Asiatic lions had almost been hunted into extinction.
Gir was one of the few places the lions still roamed free and if it had not been for a strange twist of fate they would have been eradicated there, too.
In 1900, the nawab of Junagadh invited the viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, to Gir to shoot lions. On arriving in Gujarat, however, the viceroy learnt that there were as few as 20 lions left and urged the Nawab to protect them.
“The present generation owes it to its successors to restore the only species of a large mammal lost in the plains of India in historical times,” Lord Curzon wrote to the Burma Game Preservation Association at the time.
“Failure to do so would not be forgiven by the judgement of history.”
Thus, in one of the first acts of its kind in India, the nawab banned the lions’ slaughter.
After the turmoil of independence and partition, India’s new government also enacted laws to protect the lions, banning lion hunting in 1955, and declaring Gir a sanctuary in 1965.
By the early nineties however, conservationists were voicing concerns that Gir was overcrowded and a second home was needed to ensure the lions’ survival.
An outbreak of canine distemper in Tanzania’s Serengeti Park in 1994 killed more than 1,000 common African lions, adding weight to their argument, and in 1995 the federal government approved a plan to relocate a handful of lions to Kuno in Madhya Pradesh.
The government spent millions of rupees resettling the new park’s human population and boosting the number of prey.
But it never secured Gujarat’s agreement to part with the lions, and in 2001 – the year the lions were supposed to be transferred – Mr Modi became Gujarat’s chief minister.
The deadlock between Gujarat and the central government deepened when in 2004 Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party was defeated by the Congress Party in a general election. Subsequent attempts to persuade Gujarat to supply lions to Kuno failed and in 2008, a group of conservationists took the state to court.
“We are arguing that no state can claim a monopoly on its wildlife, especially if that wildlife is endangered,” Ritwick Dutta, the lawyer representing the Biodiversity Conservation Trust of India, said.
“Any experiment has an element of risk in it, but it is a necessary risk if you consider that the reward is the long-term survival of the species.”
The conservation trust and other proponents of the move say a second home is also necessary to help ease overcrowding at Gir.
Although the lion population has more than doubled since 1965, Gir’s area has only been expanded by 16 per cent.
As a result, the lions are moving out of the park in search of new homes. One pride was found living in the scrubby grassland of Gujarat’s south coast 40km away from Gir, while another has moved into the hills around Junagadh town.
Inevitably, this brings the lions into greater contact with humans – often with fatal results. Last month, Gujarat’s forestry department released figures that showed 72 lions died in 2008 and 2009, including five from non-natural causes.
The one Mr Bloch saw died when it jumped from a bridge after it was startled by the headlights of a car. Four other lions died from falling down wells.
Last week, villagers near Junagadh hacked a lion to death with an axe after it mauled one of their neighbours.
Although Gujarati officials concede that all such deaths are tragic, they say the lions are still safer in Gir than anywhere else.
They are confident that a census, due next month, will reveal that the lion population has risen since the last time it was counted in 2005. They say they are working to make the environment around Gir safe by covering thousands of wells and building a bypass to move traffic further from the park.
But Gujarat’s strongest argument is the Indian government’s poor record protecting the tiger, the country’s national animal since it replaced the lion in 1973.
Numbers have dropped to 1,411 today from 3,500 in the mid-nineties, largely because of poaching to meet demand for tiger parts from China.
The one case of poaching in recent years in Gir was carried out by trained tiger trappers from Madhya Pradesh, the state where the new park is located. They killed seven lions and discarded their pelts so they could pass off the body parts as those of tigers.
Thirty-eight people were arrested and Gujarati officials say there has not been another case of poaching in Gir since.
“The local communities in Madhya Pradesh have done little to conserve the tiger and now you want to sacrifice the lion there, too? For what?” Pradeep Khanna, the principal chief conservator of forests, asked.
By comparison, the majority of people around Gir are protective of the lions, which draw more than 100,000 tourists each year
“Because of the lions we have jobs; we can afford to send our children to good schools,” said Nitin Ratangayra, a local restaurant manager in Gir. “When a lion dies we are very sad.”
Like him, most of the local community opposes the relocation plan, concerned that tourists would be diverted to Madhya Pradesh if it had both lions and tigers.
Despite this, Mr Khanna said his department will comply if the Supreme Court gives a clear ruling to hand over the lions.
Wildlife activists are concerned that Gujarat will still find ways to hold on to the lions.
“In theory the Supreme Court ruling should make all the difference, but the court has made thousands of rulings which are not complied with,” said Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. “They will find loopholes or appeal. This is an emotional issue for them now.”
hgardner@thenational.ae
Source: http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100331/FOREIGN/703309912/1103/NEWS
Saturday, March 27, 2010
1,500 trees face the chop in Gir forest.
Jumana Shah / DNA
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 8:26 IST
Ahmedabad: The state government which has been fighting tooth and nail for the exclusive custody of the Asiatic lions in the Gir forest, has ordered cutting of over 1,500 trees to make room for residential plots. The land which has to be cleared of the trees is a territory of a pride of 6-7 lions.
The land, which spans over seven-acres, is surrounded by the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary on three sides, in the Rupayatan forest area of Bhavnath taleti in Junagadh. About 450 reserve and 1,100 non-reserve trees are likely to be chopped down next week to make space for the construction of new houses.
These houses are to be built there for families who will be displaced during the clearing of the area around the Bhavnath temple. The land was lying unused for nearly 40 years and was acquired very recently from the Rupayatan Trust.
The proposal has aroused the ire of environment activists, botanists and residents of the region who believe the project would lead to 'deforestation' and do immense harm to the lions' habitat. Moreover, cutting down trees, some of which are over 40 years old, would lead to irreparable loss for the flora and fauna of the area.
Retired agriculture scientist Professor Rasik Bhatt of Junagadh University says people were alarmed when the project was announced last month. "Because of the dense forest, lions rest there during summer," he said. "There is another, smaller plot that we asked the Collector to consider for construction of the houses. That would have ensured that the lions will not be disturbed and deforestation would not take place."
Junagadh collector Ashwini Kumar conceded that some trees will be cut but refused to specify how many. He also conceded that the area is 'frequented' by lions. He, however, insisted that the plot is ideal for rehabilitating the displaced families and that wildlife conservation cannot be done at the cost of human life.
Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_1500-trees-face-the-chop-in-gir-forest_1292353
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 8:26 IST
Ahmedabad: The state government which has been fighting tooth and nail for the exclusive custody of the Asiatic lions in the Gir forest, has ordered cutting of over 1,500 trees to make room for residential plots. The land which has to be cleared of the trees is a territory of a pride of 6-7 lions.
The land, which spans over seven-acres, is surrounded by the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary on three sides, in the Rupayatan forest area of Bhavnath taleti in Junagadh. About 450 reserve and 1,100 non-reserve trees are likely to be chopped down next week to make space for the construction of new houses.
These houses are to be built there for families who will be displaced during the clearing of the area around the Bhavnath temple. The land was lying unused for nearly 40 years and was acquired very recently from the Rupayatan Trust.
The proposal has aroused the ire of environment activists, botanists and residents of the region who believe the project would lead to 'deforestation' and do immense harm to the lions' habitat. Moreover, cutting down trees, some of which are over 40 years old, would lead to irreparable loss for the flora and fauna of the area.
Retired agriculture scientist Professor Rasik Bhatt of Junagadh University says people were alarmed when the project was announced last month. "Because of the dense forest, lions rest there during summer," he said. "There is another, smaller plot that we asked the Collector to consider for construction of the houses. That would have ensured that the lions will not be disturbed and deforestation would not take place."
Junagadh collector Ashwini Kumar conceded that some trees will be cut but refused to specify how many. He also conceded that the area is 'frequented' by lions. He, however, insisted that the plot is ideal for rehabilitating the displaced families and that wildlife conservation cannot be done at the cost of human life.
Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_1500-trees-face-the-chop-in-gir-forest_1292353
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Another lion found dead in Gir sanctuary.
TNN, Mar 24, 2010, 04.04am IST
RAJKOT: A day after a lion was axed to death, a decomposed carcass of an Asiatic lion was found in Junagadh on Tuesday. The postmortem report, however, stated the big cat died of old age a fortnight ago.
The body was found along Machundri river at Jokhiya, near Gir West, Babariya range, infamous for poaching of six lions by a Madhya Pradesh gang in 2007. Basbariya range deputy conservator of forests Sandeep Kumar said the carcass is of a 14-year-old lion which died of old age 15 days ago.
"All 17 claws and nails were found intact on the body, except one which might have fallen off due to old age," Kumar said. Animal lovers, however, expressed surprise over the fact that the body was not spotted by forest guards in the area, supposed to be under strict vigil since 2007.
"It is surprising that the beat guards, who visit the area regularly for taking baths, could not spot the body. We are looking into the matter as this area is covered by the foot patrol staff, who file an 'all well' report on a daily basis," Kumar said.
Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Another-lion-found-dead-in-Gir-sanctuary/articleshow/5717765.cms
RAJKOT: A day after a lion was axed to death, a decomposed carcass of an Asiatic lion was found in Junagadh on Tuesday. The postmortem report, however, stated the big cat died of old age a fortnight ago.
The body was found along Machundri river at Jokhiya, near Gir West, Babariya range, infamous for poaching of six lions by a Madhya Pradesh gang in 2007. Basbariya range deputy conservator of forests Sandeep Kumar said the carcass is of a 14-year-old lion which died of old age 15 days ago.
"All 17 claws and nails were found intact on the body, except one which might have fallen off due to old age," Kumar said. Animal lovers, however, expressed surprise over the fact that the body was not spotted by forest guards in the area, supposed to be under strict vigil since 2007.
"It is surprising that the beat guards, who visit the area regularly for taking baths, could not spot the body. We are looking into the matter as this area is covered by the foot patrol staff, who file an 'all well' report on a daily basis," Kumar said.
Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Another-lion-found-dead-in-Gir-sanctuary/articleshow/5717765.cms
India's Environmental Detectives.
By Monika Kerdeman on March 22, 2010
Lawyers in India advocate for environmental rights, one case at a time.
After six hours in a small basement office here in Delhi, India, I am overwhelmed by the activities of the day. From one minute to the next, it has been unpredictable and unplanned, but surprisingly productive. There is no such thing as a scheduled meeting, and adaptability is key. I’m visiting the office of the Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE), an Indian advocacy and law group that helps people who have been affected by environmentally harmful development projects. The people at LIFE are more than just lawyers to their clients. They serve as the voices of local people in an often voiceless world.
LIFE’s four full time lawyers (Ritwick Dutta, Rahul Chaudhary, Promod Kumar, and Soumyarup Sahu) try over 70 cases a year with the Indian Supreme Court, the National Environmental Appellant Authority (NEAA) and the Central Empowerment Committee (CEC). Their goal is to keep the government accountable for its environmental decisions, and make sure that existing laws are enforced. This work, and the work of so many Access Initiative partners like them, is a fundamental building block of sustainable development.
LIFE Attorneys Rahul Chaudhary, Promod Kumar, and Ritwick Dutta
LIFE attorneys serve as watchdogs when business and the government fail to follow the best practices mandated by law, such as holding public hearings, consultations and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs). They perform quite a bit of detective work, piecing together evidence to ensure laws are being followed. They also help teach civil servants how to implement the laws, and help organizations and people connect with one another on cases taking place all over the country.
In one of their cases, runoff from a cement company had created brackish water in neighboring communities. In another, thermal power plants built without environmental testing had hurt local mango farmers. They take on these cases and others like them for only a nominal fee, if they charge at all.
In one such case I attended with Ritwick Dutta, he was appealing to the courts to enforce a law meant to protect Asiatic lions in the Girnar Sanctuary. Dutta’s client, the Gir Nature Youth Club, had used India’s Right to Information Act to obtain information about the building of an Ashram on land designated for wildlife. Through the petitions process, the club discovered that the Ashram had in fact been encroaching on protected forest lands for years, even after the courts had ordered them to stop.
The impact of the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Ashram had taken a huge toll on the land, the wildlife in the area and the local community. Even though the courts had previously decided in favor of the Youth Club to preserve the land, local ministers had overruled them and allowed for the encroachment, undermining the purpose and intent of the protected area.
Ritwick Dutta with clients outside the courthouse
Our session in court that day, like so many others, ended without a final decision. When Ritwick and I returned to the LIFE office, I asked what motivates him to take on cases that can often drag on for years. “It’s interesting and challenging work,” he said. “I want future generations to be able to appreciate how beautiful India truly is. The environment has an inherent right to exist in the form in which it has been created. Since we are not the creator we should not be the destroyer.”
In my job with The Access Initiative (TAI), I have had the pleasure of working with some of the most amazing people around the world. Being based in DC, though, I rarely get to see them in action. Generally, I read their stories on our blog or in reports.
Sitting in LIFE’s office in Delhi, I see the ultimate value of how access laws (access to information, access to justice and public participation) are the keys to empowering people to truly have a more sustainable future.
By putting the pieces of the law puzzle together one case at a time, the lawyers at LIFE help to ensure that the courts take the environment and community rights seriously. Even though they might not win all of their cases, they have at least brought the injustices to the attention of a larger Indian population. They have also given the local people a voice to ensure better standards for the future of their country’s environmental and sustainable development. It’s a process, and a story, that continues to inspire me.
LIFE is one of hundreds of groups in the Access Initiative that are fighting for better governance and environmental protection around the world. For more information about their work and the Access Initiative network, visit http://www.accessinitiative.org.
Source: http://www.wri.org/stories/2010/03/indias-environmental-detectives
Lawyers in India advocate for environmental rights, one case at a time.
After six hours in a small basement office here in Delhi, India, I am overwhelmed by the activities of the day. From one minute to the next, it has been unpredictable and unplanned, but surprisingly productive. There is no such thing as a scheduled meeting, and adaptability is key. I’m visiting the office of the Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE), an Indian advocacy and law group that helps people who have been affected by environmentally harmful development projects. The people at LIFE are more than just lawyers to their clients. They serve as the voices of local people in an often voiceless world.
LIFE’s four full time lawyers (Ritwick Dutta, Rahul Chaudhary, Promod Kumar, and Soumyarup Sahu) try over 70 cases a year with the Indian Supreme Court, the National Environmental Appellant Authority (NEAA) and the Central Empowerment Committee (CEC). Their goal is to keep the government accountable for its environmental decisions, and make sure that existing laws are enforced. This work, and the work of so many Access Initiative partners like them, is a fundamental building block of sustainable development.
LIFE Attorneys Rahul Chaudhary, Promod Kumar, and Ritwick Dutta
LIFE attorneys serve as watchdogs when business and the government fail to follow the best practices mandated by law, such as holding public hearings, consultations and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs). They perform quite a bit of detective work, piecing together evidence to ensure laws are being followed. They also help teach civil servants how to implement the laws, and help organizations and people connect with one another on cases taking place all over the country.
In one of their cases, runoff from a cement company had created brackish water in neighboring communities. In another, thermal power plants built without environmental testing had hurt local mango farmers. They take on these cases and others like them for only a nominal fee, if they charge at all.
In one such case I attended with Ritwick Dutta, he was appealing to the courts to enforce a law meant to protect Asiatic lions in the Girnar Sanctuary. Dutta’s client, the Gir Nature Youth Club, had used India’s Right to Information Act to obtain information about the building of an Ashram on land designated for wildlife. Through the petitions process, the club discovered that the Ashram had in fact been encroaching on protected forest lands for years, even after the courts had ordered them to stop.
The impact of the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Ashram had taken a huge toll on the land, the wildlife in the area and the local community. Even though the courts had previously decided in favor of the Youth Club to preserve the land, local ministers had overruled them and allowed for the encroachment, undermining the purpose and intent of the protected area.
Ritwick Dutta with clients outside the courthouse
Our session in court that day, like so many others, ended without a final decision. When Ritwick and I returned to the LIFE office, I asked what motivates him to take on cases that can often drag on for years. “It’s interesting and challenging work,” he said. “I want future generations to be able to appreciate how beautiful India truly is. The environment has an inherent right to exist in the form in which it has been created. Since we are not the creator we should not be the destroyer.”
In my job with The Access Initiative (TAI), I have had the pleasure of working with some of the most amazing people around the world. Being based in DC, though, I rarely get to see them in action. Generally, I read their stories on our blog or in reports.
Sitting in LIFE’s office in Delhi, I see the ultimate value of how access laws (access to information, access to justice and public participation) are the keys to empowering people to truly have a more sustainable future.
By putting the pieces of the law puzzle together one case at a time, the lawyers at LIFE help to ensure that the courts take the environment and community rights seriously. Even though they might not win all of their cases, they have at least brought the injustices to the attention of a larger Indian population. They have also given the local people a voice to ensure better standards for the future of their country’s environmental and sustainable development. It’s a process, and a story, that continues to inspire me.
LIFE is one of hundreds of groups in the Access Initiative that are fighting for better governance and environmental protection around the world. For more information about their work and the Access Initiative network, visit http://www.accessinitiative.org.
Source: http://www.wri.org/stories/2010/03/indias-environmental-detectives
Gir Sanctuary to take up lion census in April.
Rajkot, March 23, 2010
The Hindu COUNT ME IN: A young lion yawns in the Gir Lion Sanctuary. The Forest Department is gearing up to conduct a survey in the sanctuary in April. File photo
The Gujarat State Forest Department is getting ready to conduct a lion census from April 24 in the famous Gir Sanctuary in Junagadh district.
Nearly 1,500 officials would be deployed in the census, conducted every five years for a head count of Asiatic lions at Gir, sources from the Department said.
The officials have been given special training for the job, sources said, adding the Department will have photographed every lion to make sure they have a perfect head count.
A primary head count will be conducted on the first two days and a final count over the next two days. GIS (geographical information system) will be used this time in the census.
National Park District Forest Officer (DFO) Sandip Kumar said nearly 1,500 officials will be on the job, including 900 assistants, 100 sub-zonal officials, 28 zonal officials and several region officers and observers. The final report would be submitted to the chief minister who will then disclose the exact number of lions in the Gir sanctuary, sources said.
In the last census, 359 lions were reported. Many lions fell prey to poachers or fell to their death into open wells in subsequent years. However, the Department expects a rise in numbers this time around.
Source: http://beta.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article283681.ece?homepage=true
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