T PROTECTED AREA UPDATE News and Information from protected areas in India and South Asia Vol. XXII, No. 3 June 2016 (No. 121) LIST OF CONTENTS Meghalaya 10 EDITORIAL 3 NGT sets up panel to restore ecological damages A season of despair done by coal mining in Meghalaya Odisha 10 NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES 61 day fishing ban along Odisha coast Andhra Pradesh 4 Forest adjoining Kapilash WLS to be cut for setting Reserve forest in vicinity of Sri Venkateswara NP to up nursery be denotified; road opened through Sri Lanka Hi-tech patrolling system at Similipal TR Malleswara WLS Rajasthan 11 Gujarat 4 Full day safari at Ranthambhore TR Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority Tamil Nadu 12 constituted 45 day fishing ban off the Tamil Nadu coast Proposal for six eco-sensitive zones in Gujarat Mountadan Chetty community all set to relocate approved from Mudumalai TR Karnataka 5 Uttarakhand 12 Concerns over growth in size and activities of Exchange of prime forestland from Rajaji TR Huliyamma temple within Bandipur TR approved for ashram bordering reserve Madhya Pradesh 5 Show-cause notice to seven range officers for NBWL agrees over compensation of land for construction inside Rajaji TR submergence in Panna due to Ken-Betwa project Uttar Pradesh 13 Alleged kingpin of Indo-China pangolin smuggling WII to undertake Ganga biodiversity restoration module arrested project near Hastinapur WLS NGT seeks details on status of Ratapani TR Kuno-Palpur to be developed as a tiger reserve; NATIONAL NEWS 13 Gujarat FD feels relieved MoEFCC preparing guidelines for procurement of 16 tiger deaths in Madhya Pradesh in last one year; lands to protect tiger corridors seven in Pench TR NGT asks states to submit list of wetlands Maharashtra 7 Three Indian transport companies sign declaration to FD approves land diversion of tiger forests for fight wildlife trafficking explosives factory near Nagpur MoEFCC issues draft of new rules for wetland Proposal to declare Tipeshwar, Painganga WLSs a management tiger reserve More than 1,600 leopards poached between 2005 and Maharashtra proposes to set up tiger research 2015: WPSI institute Project to study small mammals taken up by Pune INTERNATIONAL NEWS 15 Wildlife Division Initiative for wildlife conservation along Indo- Pench TR moves court to get back STPF weapons Myanmar border Youngsters from fishing community to work at Cambodia to reintroduce tigers in protected forests marine centre in Navi Mumbai CULLING OF WILDIFE – An Update 17 Sparking in high-tension lines causes major fire in Soor Sarovar Bird Sanctuary IMPORTANT BIRD AREAS UPDATE 19 Andhra Pradesh OBITUARIES 21 Andhra part of Pulicat lake totally dry Arunachal Pradesh A DECADE AGO 23 NGT suspends environment clearance of Nyamjang Chhu hydel power project PERSPECTIVE 24 Odisha Tigers to Cambodia: Will it Work? CRPF for protection of fisherfolk of Chilika Uttar Pradesh Protected Area Update Vol. XXII, No. 3, June 2016 (No. 121) Editor: Pankaj Sekhsaria Editorial Assistance: Reshma Jathar, Anuradha Arjunwadkar Illustrations: 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 Bombay Natural History Society/ Indian Bird Conservation Network Donations from a number of individual supporters Protected Area Update Vol. XXII, No. 3 2 June 2016 (No. 121) above and in Tipeshwar WLS in Maharashtra, EDITORIAL the cause for which is still unclear. And it is not just natural conditions that are a cause for concern as specific news reports in the following pages indicate – prime forest A season of despair land in the Rajaji TR being handed over to an adjoining ashram, denotification in the Be it news from individual PAs located in Venkateswara NP in Andhra for industrial different parts of the country, incidents across activity, approval to the Ken-Betwa river link landscapes, or developments in the policy- that would sound the death-knell for the Panna scape, ‘despair’ is the word that comes to mind TR, cutting down of forests adjoining the as the vision stretches across what’s been Kapilash WLS in Odisha to set up, believe it or happening over the last few months. not, a forest nursery and killing in police firing It has been a scorching summer and one in Arunachal of those opposing a dam project news that is dominating the national that will destroy prime habitat of the extremely consciousness as this issue of the PA Update rare Black-necked crane! goes to press, is the unprecedented drought There is also the development related to being experienced across large parts of the the culling of certain species of wildlife in country – according to some estimates nearly several states by declaring them vermin. While 40% of the farmers of the country have been hit. prima-facie it seems to be a response to the The changing climate and failure of successive threats these species pose to agriculture and to monsoons over the two preceding years have farming and forest communities, some been held responsible, and agreeably, nothing investigation indicates the intentions are not all could have or can be done in the short term to honourable (see Pg. 17). In Telangana, for change this reality. What stands out, however, is instance, established shooters who are members the failure of the state to anticipate the scale of of the National Rifle Association of India and a the challenge and be ready to deal with the few former members of the ‘Indians for Guns’ situation. It is only when we were right in the forum have been roped in by the state middle of the crisis did the political and government to cull wild boars damaging bureaucratic machinery start to respond and agriculture crops. While the issue of crop serious questions need to be asked of the damage cannot be denied, a lot more intentions and priorities of the political and state information and analysis is needed before states establishments. and the centre makes their decisions on culling. If farmlands and farmers are being It is well known that illegal hunting by urban badly hit, forests have not been spared either. and rural elite is common for sport and for the The months of April and May reported wide- pot and there is serious concern over the impacts spread fires across the Himalayas, which the the current permissions will have, including on media report and regions like Bastar (which got predator and apex species that depend on these completely ignored), destroying huge tracts of animals for their own survival. forests, killing wild animals and causing severe As the days move ahead, the summer hardships to residents of these landscapes. News and heat will, of course, be gone and predictions of fires in individual PAs also continues to come suggest that the monsoon this coming season is in, fires caused undoubtedly by the hot and dry going to be a normal one, if not better than conditions, but also catalysed by human neglect normal. While that might bring momentary and and callousness – in Sariska TR in Rajasthan much needed relief and hope, it is no solution due to carelessly thrown bidis, in the Soor for the despair that spans the horizons. That will Sarovar Bird Sanctuary, Uttar Pradesh, because need far more fundamental, even paradigmatic of sparking in the high tension lines running political and policy changes, and that, as is amply clear, is nowhere in sight! Protected Area Update Vol. XXII, No. 3 3 June 2016 (No. 121) GUJARAT NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority constituted ANDHRA PRADESH The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has constituted a Reserve forest in vicinity of Sri 15-member Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Venkateswara NP to be denotified; road (CZM) Authority, which will identify critical opened through Sri Lanka Malleswara WLS stretches of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and prepare Integrated CZM Plans. Apart from The Andhra Pradesh Government is planning to giving clearances, the authority shall co-ordinate de-notify 970 hectares of reserve forest the implementation of conservation projects or adjoining the Sri Venkateswara National Park projects aimed at uplifting and protecting the (NP) and hand over the area to AP Industrial people of the coastal areas, identify coastal areas Infrastructure Corporation. vulnerable to erosion or degradation and The proposal to de-notify the forest formulate area-specific management plans for area has been prepared and is expected to be these areas and arrange funding for them. sent soon to the Centre for approval. Concerns It will deal with environmental issues have been expressed on the impact this will relating to the CRZ that may be referred to it by have on the PA as also the possibility of this the state government, the National CZM opening up a new smuggling route for red Authority or the centre. The authority will have sanders. powers to examine proposals for change or Meanwhile, political pressure from the modification to the CZM plan received from the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is believed to state government and will be free to make have forced the officials to re-open the Sidhout specific recommendations on the CRZ. road in Kadapa district at night; even though its The MoEFCC has stated that the closure was not posing any problem to authority will be headed by the additional chief commuters as there were two alternative routes secretary environment and forest, and, apart connecting Badvel and Kadapa.