T PROTECTED AREA UPDATE News and Information from protected areas in India and South Asia Vol. XXIII, No. 5 October 2017 (No. 129) LIST OF CONTENTS 400+ families relocated from Wayanad WLS EDITORIAL 3 Two new species of earthworm discovered in Systemic injuries, band-aid solutions Western Ghats Maharashtra 9 NHAI to build only one wildlife underpass near NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES Tipeshwar WLS Assam 3 High-level committee to decide about tiger SC asks for explanation on permission for oil and gas translocation drilling beneath Dibru-Saikhowa NP Odisha 10 Eviction drive to remove encroachers from Amchang Advance payment for human kills by wildlife WLS Rajasthan 11 Goa 4 NBWL denotifies over 400 ha of forest from buffer Goa excluded from NGT’s Pune bench; activists of Ranthambhore TR for mining condemn the move Tamil Nadu 12 Gujarat 5 60 Irular families evicted from buffer zone of Number of lions in Gir touches 650 Mudumalai TR Himachal Pradesh 5 Telangana 12 Biodiversity management committees set up in 366 NBWL diverts tiger corridor for irrigation project; gram panchayats asks for 16 eco-bridges to avoid fragmentation Jharkhand 5 Uttar Pradesh 13 Government approves diversion of 1000 ha land Build toilets to curb human-tiger conflict in Pilibhit: from Palamau TR Chief Minister Palamau TR brings captive sambars to increase tigers’ prey base NATIONAL NEWS FROM INDIA 13 Karnataka 6 Tiger cell at WII gets three years extention Kali TR to lose 75% of its ESZ; state bows to public Over 27,000 wild elephants in India; highest number pressure of 6,049 in Karnataka Policy for private conservancies for wildlife Over 15% of species in India threatened: IUCN conservation adjoining PAs Dr. Mahesh Sharma takes charge as Minister of State Over 3000 families displaced from Nagarahole NP to in MoEFCC be rehabilitated; NGO express concern over Centre seeks Supreme Court’s approval for cheetah implementation of plan re-introduction Stop to illegal electrification work in Bhimgad WLS One person killed a day in wildlife attacks in India New management plan for otter conservation in 12 important mangroves forests of the country Tungabhadra identified Kerala 8 Exotic species invading PAs: Minister Institute for Western Ghats wildlife research Meeting held to discuss, curb wildlife trafficking Survey records over 120 species of amphibians and using postal services reptiles in Periyar TR SC asks Centre to consider suggestions on safe 58 tigers in Periyar and Parambikulam TRs corridors for wild animals Eurasian otter presence confirmed in the trans- SOUTH ASIA 19 Himalayas Nepal/India Finance Act dilutes the NGT Act says Jairam 50 rhino calves swept away from Nepal to India; Ramesh; SC issues notice to Centre eight returned Inclusion of Net Present Value of diverted forest in cost-benefit-analysis mandatory; NPV to be 10 IMPORTANT BIRD AREAS UPDATE 20 and five times more than normal for NP and WLS Manipur respectively Call to decommission the Ithai dam NGT asks MoEFCC to prepare a policy for Rajasthan prevention of forest fires Openbill storks abandon nesting in Keoladeo NP More than 700 projects awaiting environmental because of water shortage clearance: Minister A DECADE AGO 21 SC questions Centre over reduction of ESZ by 100 times PERSPECTIVE 24 Why I care about the KBR National Park? Protected Area Update Vol. XXIII, No. 5, October 2017 (No. 129) Editor: Pankaj Sekhsaria Editorial Assistance: Reshma Jathar, Anuradha Arjunwadkar Illustrations: Ashvini Menon, Mayuri Kerr, 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. XXIII, No. 5 2 October 2017 (No. 129) of how the underpasses and bridges for animals EDITORIAL will actually work, if they work at all, but caught up in the belief that we can have the cake even as we eat it, we are willing to go along with these solutions. Systemic injuries, band-aid solutions We are being enticed and dissuaded by band-aid solutions when the injuries being Even a quick survey of the conservation inflicted are systemic and deep. The price to pay scenario in the country today makes one thing will also be very high! rather crystal clear – that the imperatives of conservation cannot (will not!) be allowed to come in the way of industrialization projects and economic growth. This, in fact, has become NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES the defining narrative, and PAs are more in the news for policy that is constantly being diluted to make clearances and permissions easier; for ASSAM railway lines, roads and canals that will cut through forests and other habitat; and for land in SC asks for explanation on permission for oil PAs (and elsewhere too) being made available and gas drilling beneath Dibru-Saikhowa NP for mining, dams, and infrastructure projects. We have in this issue of the PA The Standing Committee of the National Board th Update, like we’ve always had in the past, a for Wildlife (NBWL), had in its 44 meeting in number of such examples: of the National Green July earlier this year, agreed to recommend the Tribunal (NGT) being undermined by structural proposal of sub-surface mining to extract change, of land around tiger reserves like hydrocarbons from 3900-4000 metres beneath Ranthambhore and Palamau being made the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park (NP). This available for mining and dam projects and of information was provided recently to the linear intrusions being approved in PAs in Supreme Court (SC) of India by the Solicitor Maharashtra and Telangana. General (SG), Ranjit Kumar, by giving a copy There are two different kinds of of the letter dated August 9, regarding minutes narratives that seek to justify these of the 44th meeting of the NBWL. developments. The first and the more blatant The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) one articulates explicitly that PAs, has proposed to drill seven wells and extract and environmental regulation and such concerns are evacuate oil and gas from under the Dibru- impediments in the ‘development’ of the Saikhowa NP by using horizontal deviation country. The other is the more confused and directional drilling technology and also the self-contradictory one. It pretends to be extended reach drilling technology through drill concerned even as it goes about its job of pads which will be placed at a distance of 1.5 undermining precisely these concerns. km. from the boundary of the park and through If offers, in cities for example, to horizontal pipes which will go underneath the transplant full-grown trees because roads have boundary. The IOC has already obtained the to be widened and growth in vehicle population relevant environmental clearances from the cannot be questioned; it claims to be concerned Standing Committee of the NBWL with regard about climate change even as it pushes the to construction of production related economy towards a larger emission load; and it infrastructure facilities for pipe lines, oil allows for linear intrusions like power lines, collecting stations, gas compressor stations and roads and canals to splice through PAs and then gas gathering stations in the 10 km ecological offers underpasses and over bridges so that wild sensitive zones of the NP and also the Bherjan- animals can cross over. We have very little idea Borjan-Podumoni Wildlife Sanctuary. Protected Area Update Vol. XXIII, No. 5 3 October 2017 (No. 129) IOC, through the Central Empowered carried out on the direction of the Gauhati High Committee (CEC), had earlier assured the SC Court. that its proposal to extract and evacuate Two teams carried out the exercise at petroleum and natural gas from deep beneath Botaghuli and two other teams carried out the the earth under the provisions of the Oil Fields drive at the sanctuary. They were instructed by (Development and Regulation) Act (OFDRA), the Deputy Commissioner Kamrup (M), Dr M 1948, would have no adverse impact on the Angamuthu before the operation not to forest and wildlife in the area. It contended that damage/destroy or burn any belongings of the the SC’s judgment dated 21.4.2014 in the Goa encroachers and also directed the police to use Foundation case prohibiting mining within one minimum force for the eviction operation. km from the boundary of any national park and The operation included more than sanctuary was applicable only to open 500 police and forest personnel, elephants, cast/surface mining leases granted under the cranes and wage labourers with tool kits. MMDRA Act and not leases under OFDRA. Based on this, the IOC requested the SC to Source: ‘Eviction drive to remove encroachers direct the NBWL to consider its proposal. The from Amchang wildlife sanctuary’, SC appointed CEC had also recommended on http:indiatoday.intoday.in, 25/08/19. May 6, 2016, that the technology to be used by IOC would in no way adversely impact the flora GOA and fauna in and around the NP. The SC has asked the SG to place the Goa excluded from NGT’s Pune bench; letter with the NBWL meeting minutes by way activists condemn the move of an affidavit along with conditions on which permission has been granted including safety Activists have condemned the move of Ministry measures and protection and mitigation of Environment, Forest and Climate Change measures to be taken by the forest department (MoEFCC) to group Goa in the distant northern and IOC for the welfare of the existing wildlife zone of National Green Tribunal (NGT) in and also to prevent environmental damage and Delhi.