PROTECTED AREA UPDATE News and Information from protected areas in India and South Asia Vol. XVII No. 4 August 2011 (No. 92) LIST OF CONTENTS Maharashtra 11 EDITORIAL 3 Census figures from Sanjay Gandhi NP and NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES Tungareshwar WLS Andhra Pradesh 3 FD issues eviction notices to windmills in Koyna Kawal WLS to get TR tag Wildlife Sanctuary Assam 4 Rajasthan 11 Brahmaputra threatens Orang NP Cheetal and sambhar to be relocated to PAs in Firing range inside Sonai Rupai WLS to stay Rajasthan School teacher held for rhino poaching in Pobitara Rajasthan government opens dialogue over cess Manas TR taken off World Heritage danger list with hoteliers around PAs Manas to get more Swamp deer Proposal to increase area of Tal Chappar WLS NGOs express concern over illegal activities in State wildlife board recommends water from Dibru Saikhowa NP Panchana dam for Keoladeo NP Chandigarh 6 Sikkim 13 First ever census at Sukhna WLS 300 Red pandas in Sikkim Chattisgarh 6 Tamil Nadu 13 Centre seeks TR tag for Guru Ghasidas NP WCCB border unit at Ramanathapuram Gujarat 6 Coral mining sinks two islands in Gulf of Mannar 28 housing projects proposed in the vicinity of Gir; Biosphere Reserve hotels banned in two km radius around the PA Census of Nilgiri tahr in Grizzled Giant Squirrel ESZs around four sanctuaries in Gujarat Wildlife Sanctuary Leopard and Sloth bear count rises in Gujarat Uttar Pradesh 14 Jammu & Kashmir 7 Three elephants electrocuted in Dudhwa NP Hangul population on the rise West Bengal 14 Rs. 400 crores for restoration of Wullar Lake; two North Bengal FD to set up animal hospital million willow trees to be uprooted Protected area status proposed for Apalchand Karnataka 8 forest In-principle approval for Kudremukh TR Increase in north Bengal elephant population Transfer to tiger reserves result in staff shortage in other divisions of the FD NATIONAL NEWS FROM INDIA 15 Court seeks standard rule for resorts near PAs IAVP urges wildlife veterinary service Kerala 9 NTCA committee on abandoned tiger cubs Periyar and Parambikulam TRs adjudged among Tiger population to be monitored annually best five in the country Nearly 450 tiger deaths in India in last 12 years: Kerala farmers can kill wild boars NTCA Madhya Pradesh 10 Nationwide online survey to find status of the Discord between Ramesh and Congress MPs over Golden jackal Ken-Betwa project Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) SOUTH ASIA 17 Workshop on dugong conservation in South Asia List of PA diversions/denotification approved Bangladesh in the meeting of the Standing Committee Award for Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh of the NBWL on April 25, 2011 20 Nepal Genome-mapping of tigers in Nepal Special Section: The Forest Rights Act, Protected Areas and Wildlife Conservation 22 UPCOMING 18 Karnataka International Conference on Indian Ornithology - Workshop on community based conservation of 2011 BRT Sanctuary 11th Conference of the Parties to the CBD to be Orissa held in Hyderabad in October 2012 Community forest rights in PAs of Orissa 9th Indian Fisheries Forum Relocation of villages continues in Simlipal TR in Indian Forestry Congress 2011 violation of the FRA Student Conference on Conservation Science National News Community Forest Rights under the provisions of WHAT’S AVAILABLE 19 the FRA and issues related to protected areas. - India’s Environmental History - Pocketful of Forests: Legal debates around compensation and valuation of forest loss in PERSPECTIVE 24 India Conservation issues are not easy to grasp! In the Supreme Court 20 Protected Area Update Publication of the PA Update has Vol. XVII, No. 4, August 2011 (No. 92) been supported by Editor: Pankaj Sekhsaria Editorial Assistance: Reshma Jathar, Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) Anuradha Arjunwadkar http://fes.org.in/ Illustrations: Madhuvanti Anantharajan Produced by Duleep Matthai Nature Conservation Trust The Documentation and Outreach Centre, C/o FES Kalpavriksh Ideas, comments, news and information may MISEREOR please be sent to the editorial address: www.misereor.org KALPAVRIKSH Donations from a number of Apartment 5, Shri Dutta Krupa, 908 Deccan individual supporters Gymkhana, Pune 411004, Maharashtra, India. Information has been sourced from different newspapers and Tel/Fax: 020 – 25654239. Email: [email protected] http://indiaenvironmentportal.org.in Website: http://kalpavriksh.org/protected-area-update www.wildlifewatch.in Protected Area Update Vol XVII, No. 4 2 August 2011 (No. 92) Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) everything seems lost in the shadows of the great cat. EDITORIAL What is needed is to increase the focus on and coverage of other issues and species, but not by reducing that of the tiger. It The enduring tiger obsession need not be the one at the cost of the other, and this is a challenge that the media and the India’s mainstream English print media is, as wildlife conservation community, both, need readers would have noticed, the main source of to take up if the full potential of the media is news carried in the PA Update. About 90% of the to be realized and conservation of India’s stories we carry come from the news reported in increasingly threatened wilderness areas and these newspapers from around the country. If wildlife communities is to be best ensured. what the media carries can be considered a barometer of the issues that concern India’s policy makers, wildlifers and conservationists, it is NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES evident that the obsession with the tiger endures un-abated. In that sense the PA Update reflects the same as well. On an average nearly 20% of every issue of the PA Update (including this one) is ANDHRA PRADESH related to issues of tiger conservation in general and on tiger reserves in particular. It is a Kawal WLS to get TR tag significant statistic considering that tiger reserves (TRs) account for less than 8% of the total number The Ministry of Environment and Forests has of protected areas in the country. agreed, in-principle, to recognise Kawal Wild There sure are convincing arguments in Life Sanctuary(WLS) in Adilabad district as a favour of the focus on the tiger – it is at the top of new Tiger Reserve (TR). This would become the ecosystem and ensures protection for the the second TR in Andhra Pradesh after the habitat and other species, that its charisma helps Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam TR. garner at least some interest in and resources for The 892 sq km Kawal forest is conservation and it’s a great way to get the located in northern Andhra Pradesh adjoining general public and policy makers interested in Chandrapur and Gadchiroli forest areas in wildlife in the first place. Maharashtra. This also does reinforce the often made The area was first surveyed jointly by point, however, that India is obsessed with the a team comprising the Satpuda Foundation, tiger and this obsession comes at a cost. Every Sanctuary Asia and the Hyderabad Tiger small detail of tiger poaching, of the endless Conservation Society (HYTICOS) in 2003. controversies over tiger numbers, of what happens The corridor mapping, along with in a tiger reserve, of new proposals for TRs and documentation of the wildlife and tiger the need to relocate people to ensure tiger potential of the area was done from conservation is religiously reported. This is in Maharashtra to Andhra Pradesh. addition to the financial resources and mindspace The proposal for the tiger reserve has that gets dedicated to the tiger at the cost of been under consideration of National Tiger almost everything else. Conservation Authority (NTCA) since then. The same kind of sustained interest, for example, is rarely seen when it involves other Source: Vijay Pinjarkar, ‘Kawal in Adilabad to be new tiger reserve’, The Times Of species such as the Great Indian Bustard, that is India, 28/06/11. certainly far more threatened than the tiger and Contact: DFO Wildlife, Kawal WLS, Jannaram, where issues might indeed be more complex. The Dist. Adilabad - 504 205. Andhra less said of the less glamorous and charismatic Pradesh. Tel: 08739-236224 species such as insects, amphibians or plants, the better. As far as the media is concerned, Protected Area Update Vol. XVII, No. 4 3 August 2011 (No. 92) Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) ASSAM Gajraj Corps, stationed at Missamari, had established the short firing range on forestland Brahmaputra threatens Orang NP within the sanctuary, without following the legal procedures. The troops were also practicing at the range in violation of the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and orders of the Supreme Court. The Forest Department (FD) had constituted a five-member committee in the last week of April to examine the entire matter but the report has not been submitted yet. Senior wildlife officials have said that the MoEF decision to maintain status quo on The changing course of the Brahmaputra river and the range was a set back as having the firing erosion caused by it has been threatening the range was against wildlife laws. In April, Orang (Rajiv Gandhi) National Park (NP). The earlier this year, the FD had tried to dismantle river had changed course devouring the Borkhe the firing range but was prevented by the and Jawani camps. The Forest Department (FD) forces from doing so. had to reconstruct the Borkhe anti-poaching camp at a new location in 2010 while another camp is Source: Roopak Goswami. ‘Status quo over also under serious threat with the river flowing Sonai Rupai firing range’, The just a few metres away. Telegraph, 02/06/11 However, new land has also come up on Contact: DFO, Sonai-Rupai WLS, Sonitpur the northern side of the river and several animals West Division, P.O.