PROTECTED AREA UPDATE News and Information from protected areas in India and South Asia Vol. XIX No. 3 June 2013 (No. 103) LIST OF CONTENTS Odisha 10 CAG points to serious deficiencies in tiger reserve EDITORIAL 3 management in Odisha Exciting times for the PA Update Rice for Olive Ridley Conservation scheme in four coastal districts NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES Tamil Nadu 11 Andhra Pradesh 4 Blackbuck population rises in Vallanadu Remains of a rare spider sighted in the Sanctuary Seshachalam BR Uttarakhand 12 Ban on heavy vehicular traffic through Kawal Uttarakhand seeks tiger reserve status for Rajaji Tiger Reserve National Park Gujarat 5 West Bengal 12 No lion poaching in Gir in two years Sunderban tigers to be radio-collared Jammu & Kashmir 5 Trikuta WLS de-notified NATIONAL NEWS FROM INDIA 12 Jharkhand 5 NPV of forest land for CAMPA to be reviewed Palamau TR takes up repair of its core roads Any citizen can move National Green Tribunal to Karnataka 6 report violations Water level in Kabini reservoir drops to lowest in ten years SOUTH ASIA 13 19 tiger deaths in Karnataka in one year ending Nepal March 2013 Barasingha population rises in Shuklaphanta Kerala 6 Kerala to prepare Marine Biodiversity Register IMPORTANT BIRD AREAS UPDATE 14 Decline in Rock bee colonies in Idukki WLS Andhra Pradesh Madhya Pradesh 7 Dispute over Kolleru land remains unresolved NBWL refuses permission for highway Gujarat upgradation project through Ratapani WLS Increase in vulture populations in lion country in Maharashtra 8 Gujarat Three tonnes of plastic removed from relocated 'Mission Clean Thol' by CCI village in Melghat TR Kerala NTCA releases funds for STPF in Tadoba-Andhari CRZ nod for huge construction project in and Pench Vembanad Lake Special funds to provide water to wildlife in Maharashtra drought-hit districts Project to study forest owlets in Melghat &Tadoba One tiger cub killed, another injured in train TRs and in Toranmal, Nandurbar district accident in buffer zone of the Tadoba-Andhari Uttar Pradesh Tiger Reserve Illegal constructions, sewage discharge and Leopards kill six, tigers two, in and around fluctuating water levels threaten Soor Tadoba-Andhari TR, Umred-Karhandla WLS Sarovar WLS Wildlife Crime Diary 17 Quick NEWS 20 The FRA, PAs and wildlife conservation 18 A Gir Diary: April-May 2013 21 Chattisgarh Update from Chhattisgarh State Assembly on A DECADE AGO 22 issues related to the FRA and also wildlife conservation PERSPECTIVE 24 Maharashtra The lion translocation judgment: Implications for No basis yet for declaration of Critical Wildlife wildlife conservation in India Habitat: a report from Yawal WLS Protected Area Update Vol. XIX, No. 3, June 2013 (No. 103) Editor: Pankaj Sekhsaria Editorial Assistance: Reshma Jathar, Anuradha Arjunwadkar Illustrations: 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/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 World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) - India Bombay Natural History Society Action Aid India Donations from a number of individual supporters Information has been sourced from different newspapers and http://indiaenvironmentportal.org.in; www.conservationindia.org Protected Area Update Vol. XIX, No. 3 2 June 2013 (No. 103) https://www.facebook.com/groups/protecteda EDITORIAL reaupdate/ The idea of the facebook page is to aggregate what the media in India is telling us about our wildlife and particularly our Exciting times for the PA Update protected areas, and one suddenly realizes that there is more news and information than Admittedly the last few months have constituted an we can deal with. What appears in the PA exciting period for the PA Update. Six months ago Update is actually only a fraction of what is we reached an important milestone with the th actually out there. Readers are encouraged to publication of our 100 issue and a number of check out the facebook page – both to get readers wrote in, congratulating and wishing us the regular information but also to contribute best for the future. There is nothing more gratifying stuff that might have been left out. Active for a publication than the fact that it has a participation by all of you will make it more readership and one that finds it interesting, useful comprehensive, interesting and even more and relevant. relevant. Then, a couple of months ago, with And finally, as we get into the new support from the Foundation for Ecological year (our funding cycle follows the financial Security (FES) we published the 300 page ‘The year), I’d like to shamelessly take this State of Wildlife In North East India: 1996-2011: A opportunity to request for your support and compilation of news from the Protected Area help. Finding funds for the PA Update has Update’ (please see PA Update Vol. XIX, No. 2). been a constant struggle and for the last few It is the first publication that goes beyond the bi- years we’ve had to consistently deal with monthly newsletter to excavate and present in a significant shortfalls. The FES and the modified format the wealth of information that the Duleep Matthai Nature Conservation Trust, PA Update has been putting together now for like has been for so many years, continue to nearly two decades. As the editorial note in the be our biggest support. But that is only half book points out, it is an analysis of the English of what we need. Please support us with your mainstream media’s reporting on wildlife as much individual donations, subscriptions or with as it is an account of wildlife itself in the north east. larger support that institutions can perhaps The first set of review copies have gone out and think of. There are a number of ways this can many regular PA Update’rs have also ordered and be done, including bulk subscriptions, or received their copies. The initial feedback has been support to send the PA Update to wildlife positive but more substantial critiques are still staff in different parts of the country. If you awaited, which we also then hope to report back have ideas or need more information please through the ‘Readers Write’ page in the newsletter. write to me at [email protected] It is also hugely gratifying that over the The challenges don’t go away, but years the PA Update, all its serious limitations this perhaps is what makes the effort all the notwithstanding, has accumulated a dedicated and more satisfying and exciting. reasonably large readership. Nearly 2000 people receive a copy through the post and roughly the same number have subscribed to [email protected] to receive the pdf as soon as it is released. We are hosted on a number of websites and have also tried to keep pace with the exciting new opportunities offered by communication technologies, particularly those created in the rapidly evolving electronic world. The yahoo group is an example; and now the PA Update also has it’s own facebook page Protected Area Update Vol. XIX, No. 3 3 June 2013 (No. 103) Source: S. Harpal Singh, ‘Ban on heavy NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES vehicles in KTR soon’, The Hindu, 02/04/13. Contact: DFO Wildlife, Kawal WLS, Jannaram, Dist. Adilabad - 504 205. ANDHRA PRADESH Andhra Pradesh. Tel: 08739-236224 PCCF (WL), Govt. of Andhra Ban on heavy vehicular traffic through Kawal Pradesh, Aranya Bhavan, Hyderabad, Tiger Reserve Andhra Pradesh Remains of a rare spider sighted in the Seshachalam BR The remains of a rare spider, Poecilotheria Metallica (Pocock), which was officially last seen in 1899 in the railway timber depot near the Gooty Railway Station in Anantapur district, were sighted near the Kapilatheertham forest office complex on January 29. A wildlife biologist working in the bio-lab. of Seshachalam Wildlife The Andhra Pradesh government will soon ban Management Circle at Tirupati, M Bhubesh heavy vehicular traffic through the Kawal Tiger Gupta, sighted the remains of the spider Reserve (KTR). This decision was taken at the while carrying out a detailed biodiversity January 29 meeting of the State Board for Wildlife inventory of the Seshachalam Biosphere chaired by Chief Minister, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Reserve (BR) that is spread over the Chittoor and was subsequently communicated to the forest and Kadapa districts. department for implementation. Very little is known about this The district administration needs at least a species’ ecology, distribution and breeding few days to gear up for the situation as a ban could biology. The spider was listed as Critically result in large-scale dislocation in the flow of Endangered by the International Union for goods transportation between the north and the Conservation of Nature. As it was found in south. South-bound heavy vehicles, including 40- Gooty for the first time, it is also called the tonner behemoths, began using the Gudihatnoor- Gooty Sapphire Ornamental Tree Spider in Utnoor-Jannaram-Luxettipet road cutting through addition to having other names. The spider is the KTR towards Vijayawada, Rajahmundry and poisonous and its bite causes intense pain, Visakhapatnam as an alternate route after the four sweating, headache, cramping and swelling. laning of National Highway (NH) - 7 and the But no human death has been recorded so far introduction of toll plazas about four years ago. due to its bite. Passing through Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam districts, the truckers Source: T Karnakar Reddy, ‘Rare spider save about 250 km in distance travelled and about specimen found in Tirumala forest’, Rs.