ipsa PROTECTED AREA UPDATE News and Information from protected areas in India and South Asia Vol. XXIV, No. 5 October 2018 (No. 135) LIST OF CONTENTS Meghalaya 9 EDITORIAL 3 Farmlands near Nongkhyllem WLS important habitats for wildlife: Study PA news in Update sized chunks and questions Odisha 9 about the PA Update’s future Three elephant deaths within a fortnight in Angul district NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES Odisha proposes TR tag for Debrigarh; sends final Assam 4 proposal for Sunabeda TR 74% reduction in human-elephant conflict in four tea Bandhavgarh tigress released in Satkosia TR estates in Sonitpur district Translocation of tigers to Satkosia TR resulting in Kaziranga NP to get a new set of drones for increased conflict protection monitoring Tigers sighted in three more Odisha forests Yamin Hazarika Woman of Substance Award-2018 Increase in blackbuck population in Ganjam district to Purnima Devi Barman Punjab 11 Jammu & Kashmir 5 Punjab Biodiversity Board plans to set up Study reveals hangul in Dachigam NP reviving its biodiversity parks in Ludhiana and Bathinda traditional summer grazing corridor Sikkim 11 Karnataka 5 Kanchenjunga BR is on UNESCO’s World Network NBWL rejects land diversion for Hubbali-Ankola of Biosphere Reserves railway line Tamil Nadu 12 Payment of 300 forest watchers of Kali TR delayed 140-year-old Nilgiris Wildlife & Environment Proposal to declare Bukkapatna forests as a wildlife Association shut down sanctuary FD wants to turn deer park into rescue centre for FD to procure revenue land to widen elephant Nilgiri tahr corridors in MM Hills WLS, BRT TR Tamil Nadu invites proposals for biodiversity NBWL approves 11 stone quarries in ESZ of heritage sites Cauvery WLS Forest officials conduct test drone flights along Madhya Pradesh 7 Mudumalai and Coimbatore forests MP writes to NTCA to revive plan of cheetah re- SC directs closure of 27 resorts in elephant corridor introduction in the Nilgiris Maharashtra 7 Bandh in Masinagudi over sealing of 27 resorts Raveena Tandon becomes brand ambassador of Uttarakhand 14 SGNP NGT forms committee to check illegal constructions SGNP sets up bamboo botanical park with 97 species in Haridwar Forest Division Five-year acoustic study of marine mammals along HC expresses discontent over state’s approach Konkan coast towards wildlife conservation State lost more leopards in seven months of 2018 Prescribe speed limit to curb accidental deaths of than in entire 2017 wild animals: HC HC bans commercial use of elephants for joy rides SOUTH ASIA 19 and safaris; only 100 safari vehicles per day in Nepal Rajaji and Corbett TRs Nepal’s protected areas attract 7 lakh tourists in In-principle approval to TR tag for Nandhaur WLS 2017-18 Uttar Pradesh 16 Sri Lanka SC upholds NGT order regarding ESZ around Sri Lanka to extend electric fencing to curb man- Kaimur WLS elephant conflict Turtle rescue centre to be set up in Pilibhit Complete drone camera surveillance for Dudhwa TR IMPORTANT BIRD AREAS UPDATE 20 A toll-free number to deal with human-animal India conflicts in Dudhwa TR India unveils five-year action plan for migratory NTCA to provide more weapons to Bijnor forest birds division, Amangarh TR Andhra Pradesh West Bengal 18 CEC opposition to denotify land from Kolleru WLS Elephants inside Mahananda WLS saved as railways Maharashtra receive timely information Vulture population on the rise in Gadchiroli district Odisha NATIONAL NEWS FROM INDIA 18 Opposition to water aerodrome project in Chilika Whale species proposed for inclusion in centre’s Tamil Nadu recovery programme for endangered species FD to conduct toxicological analysis of vulture National Wildlife Genetic Resource Bank dedicated carcasses to the nation FROM THE ARCHIVES 23 PERSPECTIVE 24 Conservation in India finally gets prime time on air! Protected Area Update Vol. XXIV, No. 5, October 2018 (No. 135) Editor: Pankaj Sekhsaria Editorial Assistance: Reshma Jathar, Anuradha Arjunwadkar Illustrations: Ashvini Menon (Visual Design Studio), Shruti Kulkarni, Madhuvanti Anantharajan & Peeyush Sekhsaria Produced by The Documentation and Outreach Centre KALPAVRIKSH Apartment 5, Shri Dutta Krupa, 908 Deccan Gymkhana, Pune 411004, Maharashtra, India. Tel/Fax: 020 – 25654239 Email: [email protected] Website: http://kalpavriksh.org/index.php/conservation-livelihoods1/protected-area-update Publication of the PA Update has been supported by Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) http://fes.org.in/ Duleep Matthai Nature Conservation Trust, C/o FES Donations from a number of individual supporters Protected Area Update Vol. XXIV, No. 5 2 October 2018 (No. 135) the constant struggle to raise resources to meet EDITORIAL even the relatively small sized budget for the PA Update’s production and there is also the question of whether we are able to reach out widely and deeply enough. When media is so PA news in Update sized chunks and wide-spread, huge volumes of information so questions about the PA Update’s future already available, and the speed of information reaching out so rapid, a question might well The Protected Area Update will soon be (should!) be asked about the PA Update. th entering the 25 year of its publication and it Lest this note send alarm bells ringing might just be the right time to do some thinking amongst PA Update supporters and loyalists, and some reflection. Every two months for a we’d like to emphasise that there is no plan to quarter of a century now, the newsletter has shut shop just yet. The idea is to start a compiled this little package of information for a conversation, and we’d look forward to hearing readership specifically interested in wildlife and from you with your feedback and comments. PAs. It has been a very productive exercise for The very interesting thing here, both in the small team that has been putting it together, contrast but also complimentary to the points and from the regular trickle of feedback that we made above on the volume of news and continue to receive, it appears to be have been information, is the nature of issues that our PAs useful for the readers as well. It is perhaps the and conservation have to grapple with. The only vehicle of its kind that provides a news reportage in the PA Update often provides consolidated, though limited, picture of our PAs a convenient thread of tracing the history of the and of issues around wildlife conservation. PAs and and this perhaps is the biggest strength A mention above of the ‘limitedness’ of of this newsletter. Following from the news in the PA Update is both purposive and important this issue on the Kolleru Wildlife Sanctuary (see because it would be central to understanding the Important Bird Areas section), we pulled how, if at all, the newsletter continues to be together all the reports that have been carried on relevant and what the future should be. There Kolleru since 1998 in the PA Update. There are are various arguments that can be made for a total of 16 stories (surely a limited set), but continuation of the newsletter, but the more reading them through does give a broad sense of important questions would be those that what has been happening here. The more things challenge relevance. change, the more remains the same and One of the biggest changes that has affirming this reality might well be the biggest taken place in recent years has been in the contribution of PA news that has been appearing media landscape of the country. The scale and in Update sized chunks since 1994! access of media and media content has seen a paradigm shift and this is reflected both in the PS: Pls send an email to the editor if you would volume of news and information available and like to get the above-mentioned full set of in the various ways in which news is being stories from the Kolleru WLS as a single file! consumed. The news industry as we have known it is reaching an inflexion point and much will change in the years that wait around the corner. The biggest challenge before the PA Update now is one of too much choice. There is so much news available about PAs, wildlife and the environment in general that 24 pages every two months are simply unable to do justice to the volume and diversity available. There is also Protected Area Update Vol. XXIV, No. 5 3 October 2018 (No. 135) Kaziranga NP to get a new set of drones for NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES protection monitoring ASSAM 74% reduction in human-elephant conflict in four tea estates in Sonitpur district A three-year project implemented by the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature – India and Apeejay Tea (PA Update Vol. XXII, No. 5 and Vol. XXI, No. 3) has resulted in a 74% reduction in losses due to human-elephant Kaziranga National Park (KNP) is all set to get conflict in four tea estates (TE) in the Sonitpur a new set of drones for capturing video footage region. The project that was carried out at the of parts of the jungle not accessible on foot. The Borjuli, Sessa, Ghoirallie and Dhulapadung TEs new drones that will overcome the time and saw losses came down to Rs. seven lakh a year maximum height limitation that the earlier ones from about Rs. 29 lakh annually three years ago had are being customised at the Wildlife due to the conflict. There was only one human Institute of India for the purpose. Work is also death during the project period in the four TEs being done to enhance the flight duration and owned by the company and there was injury to longevity of their usage. The first attempt to use none.