Vol. XXVI, No. 5 October 2020 (No. 147) LIST OF CONTENTS Maharajbagh Zoo to accommodate surplus tigers arriving at Gorewada EDITORIAL 3 Court intervenes in the delayed declaration of The curse of 'green and renewable' energy Dodamarg-Sawantwadi as ESA 140 butterflies recorded in Matheran; 77 new NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES records Assam 3 Railways become death trap for wildlife near Demand to widen scope of judicial probe into Tadoba Andhari TR illegal mining in Dihing Patkai forests STPF staff in Pench TR not paid salaries for six Chandigarh 4 months Rs. five lakh compensation for death in human- Maharashtra’s coastal districts to get marine wildlife conflict animal rescue centres in a year Chhattisgarh/Jharkhand 4 SGNP, Tungareshwar WLS to get wireless Coal ministry excludes five blocks in Hasdeo communication network in six months Arand; includes three new Rajasthan 11 Jharkhand 5 Rajasthan govt to work on action plan for Palamu TR announces cash reward for introduction of cheetahs information on tiger presence Telangana 12 Karnataka 5 Allow wild boars to be killed, eaten: Jangoan Chamarajanagar district has country’s highest MLA elephant population Uttarakhand 12 Kerala 5 Corbett TR to restrict entry of visitors below 10 Buffer of Silent Valley NP to be declared and above 65 years wildlife sanctuary West Bengal 13 Lakshadweep Islands 6 Two elephants electrocuted in Buxa TR Rampant collection threatens sea cucumbers Buxa TR to get six tigers from Kaziranga Madhya Pradesh 6 MP proposes 11 new TRs and sanctuaries; NATIONAL NEWS FROM INDIA 13 Balaghat to be seventh TR in state At least 100 elephants, 500 humans killed in Maharashtra 7 human-elephant conflict every year SBWL holds meeting after two years; many MoEFCC regional offices re-organised important decisions taken Uttarakhand & Maharashtra record highest leopard poaching incidents Karnataka, Maharashtra, MP well-equipped for Maharashtra dhole conservation: study Kanjur landfill pollution killing fish near Thane Camera traps get more domestic dogs than Creek Flamingo Sanctuary tigers in 17 TRs Rajasthan Railway & small-scale development projects in GIB dies after hitting live wires in Jaisalmer ESZs of PAs need no approval from NBWL NGT raps Rajasthan for inadequate measures in More than 480 ha land in PAs diverted for Sambhar lake development projects in 2019 Contemporary research in and around IMPORTANT BIRD AREAS UPDATE 17 protected areas: An overview 21 Gujarat/Rajasthan FROM THE ARCHIVES 22 Gujarat needs male GIBs; Rajasthan says translocation not possible PERSPECTIVE 24 Megafauna Mania! Protected Area Update Vol. XXVI, No. 5, October 2020 (No. 147) Editor: Pankaj Sekhsaria Associate Editor: Reshma Jathar Illustrations: Ashvini Menon (Visual Design Studio), Shruti Kulkarni, Madhuvanti Anantharajan & Peeyush Sekhsaria Produced by Kalpavriksh and the Centre for Policy Studies, IIT Bombay Editorial Address: C/o 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 *** Note: Stories that appear in the PA Update are edited version of the original news reports first published in the source mentioned at the end of the story. Publication of the PA Update has been supported by Duleep Matthai Nature Conservation Trust C/o Foundation for Ecological Security http://fes.org.in/ Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies and Donations from a number of individual supporters Protected Area Update Vol. XXVI, No. 5 2 October 2020 (No. 147) The story in Gujarat is not very EDITORIAL different as the state continues to allocate land for solar and wind energy projects. 60,000 hectares in Kutch have just been allotted to The curse of 'green and renewable' energy five large corporates for a hybrid renewable energy park with an estimated investment of There is a huge tragedy playing out in the around Rs 1.35 lakh crore. What this will do grasslands and drylands of India and nothing to the fragile ecology and also the fragile captures this better than the fate of the Great livelihoods of communities here can only be Indian Bustard (GIB). The assault on these imagined. Does the GIB and other associated landscapes and their ecologies has been wildlife really stand a chance? Can captive relentless and irreparable and is best captured breeding programs really compensate for such by their characterisation as wastelands in the huge losses of habitat, not to forget the fact mainstream imagination. that adult GIBs are routinely electrocuted by This fiction of the wasteland has not electricity wires emanating from such energy only ignored the fragile ecologies, unique parks? What purpose will it serve to lifeforms, traditional lifestyles and pastoral artificially breed these rare birds if there is no livelihoods that characterise these landscapes, habitat left for their introduction or if they it also allowed, and continues to push for have to eventually fly into overhead wires and relentless intervention that seeks to repurpose meet a gruesome end? What a curse that them for purportedly 'productive' purposes - would be. agriculture and industry for the longest time Whatever else might be said, there is and, now, another dangerous fiction of 'green no doubt the way things are currently going, and renewable' energy. the final epitaph of the magnificent GIB will Dangerous, because this green energy have green and renewable written all over it. kills and is relentlessly killing one of the And there cannot be a greater farce than that! rarest birds on the planet. The story appears to be playing out like a tragic farce in the field. Gujarat, once a stronghold of the GIB, is left NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES with no more males in the wild and has asked Rajasthan for male GIBs to ensure breeding success. Rajasthan, where a captive breeding ASSAM program is said to have started off on a successful note cannot or does not want to Demand to widen scope of judicial probe part with the male chicks. There are many a into illegal mining in Dihing Patkai forests steps in any case to be taken between successful hatching in captivity and Conservation activists have called for further rehabilitation in the wild. widening of the ambit of the one-man judicial It is a sad irony that while Rajasthan commission constituted by the state congratulates itself on successful captive government to probe media reports of breeding, it continues to destroy their habitat rampant illegal coal mining in the Dihing and also lose birds at the same time. One Patkai rainforest belt (PA Update Vol. XXVI, 'precious' female GIB was electrocuted No. 3). recently in Jaisalmer when she hit high- While the probe headed by retired tension overhead wires and the pasture land in Justice BP Katakey encompasses a number of the area is soon to be taken over for a solar issues concerning illegal coal mining, activists energy plant. pointed out that the inquiry notification has Protected Area Update Vol. XXVI, No. 5 3 October 2020 (No. 147) been largely Saleki-centric even though it offered to the victims of attacks by snakes, makes a reference of illegal activities in other monkeys and other wild animals in the city. forests (reserve forests and wildlife sanctuary) The notification has been issued in under Digboi division. They have asked for compliance with a recent order of the Union the ambit of the inquiry to be widened with Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate equal thrust on probing the large-scale illegal Change. coal mining across a vast swathe of forests in Notably, the city of Chandigarh had the four divisions in the districts of Tinsukia, recorded the highest number of deaths due to Dibrugarh and Sivasagar. snake-bites in 2018 among all union They said that illegal coal mining and territories in the country. The city had logging is deep-rooted and that illegal logging recorded 829 cases of snake-bites and has been a major concern in all the divisions, reported 14 deaths in such cases in 2018 while especially Digboi and Doomdooma. They 1294 cases of snake-bites and nine deaths informed that by the forest department’s own were recorded in 2017, as per the National admission, Coal India did illegal mining at Health Profile 2019. Tipong proposed reserve forest (PRF), Jeypore RF of Dibrugarh Division, and Dilli Source: ‘Rs. 5 L compensation for death in RF of Sibsagar Division, besides Saleki PRF human-wildlife conflict cases to be of Digboi division. There has been rampant given in Chandigarh’, illegal opencast mining by the mafia at other www.dailypioneer.com, 13/08/2020. forests such as Namphai, Tinkopani, and Lekhapani too. CHHATTISGARH/JHARKHAND Significantly, the official press release announcing the inquiry had mentioned Coal ministry excludes five blocks in that the probe was being ordered in view of Hasdeo Arand; includes three new media reports alleging illegal coal mining and other illegal activities such as logging in the The Union Ministry for Coal and Mines has Dihing Patkai range. accepted the proposal of the Chhattisgarh government to exclude five coal blocks in Source: Sivasish Thakur. ‘Call to widen ambit Hasdeo Arand from commercial mining (PA of probe panel’, Update Vol. XXVI, No. 4), but has also www.assamtribune.com, 03/08/2020. acceded to include three new ones. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, CHANDIGARH on June 17, announced the auction of 41 coal mines for commercial mining by private Rs. five lakh compensation for death in players following which the Jharkhand human-wildlife conflict government had moved the Supreme Court objecting to the bidding process because the The Chandigarh Administration has notified state governments were not consulted. The that a compensation of Rs. five lakh for death Chhattisgarh government had also objected or permanent incapacitation would be given in and asked the coal ministry not to allow the case of human-wildlife conflict in the union auction of coal blocks which fall under territory.