17 May 2012 The Supreme Court has directed all states to demarcate and notify buffer zones around each of their tiger reserves within three months. While conservationists say the order would curb commercialisation of revenue land around tiger habitats, tribal rights activists think its implementation will result in repression of forest dwellers by forest departments. Click on date for more details

15 May 2012 A forest ranger and a forester were recently beaten up by the illegal mining mafia in the core area of the Rathambhore reserve. For more information click on date

08 May 2012 Aptly titled, 'Corbett, now on sale', a story in a weekly magazine brought an open secret out in print: The land around - and even inside - the Corbett Tiger Reserve is up for grabs, controlled by the country's Who's Who. It highlighted how tourism resorts have destroyed the Kosi river corridor, cutting off access for animals to a crucial water source. This matter had in fact first come to light in a report, 'Impact of tourism on tigers and other wildlife of Corbett', published in January 2010. Click on date for more details

Crying wolf in Ranthambhore

From The Hindu http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2355607.ece

The celebrated tiger terrain of Ranthambhore will have yet another animal in focus for the coming few months with a group of researchers and wildlife lovers planning to take up the cause of the much maligned and neglected Indian wolf in the region. The Indian wolf or Canis lupus pallipes , a traditionally despised and misunderstood animal, is facing an additional threat to its existence from growing urbanisation and dwindling forest cover. This is no crying wolf as in some parts their visibility has become almost zero.

The Ranthambhore-based Tiger Watch, founded by the late tiger expert Fateh Singh Rathore, is planning a "Wolf Expedition" in Sawai Madhopur and Karauli districts of Rajasthan to fill the gap in the data on wolf. In the next four months, the group led by Dharmendra Khandal, Principal Investigator, would collect data on the occupancy and the habitats of the animal along with information on the attitude of the people in the area towards the species.

"The Indian wolf has been documented in the Ranthambhore landscape but there is very little scientific data on the status and distribution of the species," says Dr. Khandal. "Indian wolf is an endangered species protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. The animal is mainly found outside the protected area," he observes. The two districts have been chosen for the preliminary survey as the Ranthambore National Park is spread over these two.

"The wolf needs a survey in the whole of Rajasthan. It is distributed all over the State and threatened more in certain areas," asserts V.D. Sharma, retired Principal Chief Conservator of Forests. "A highly endangered species, the wolf has been a neglected animal from the scientific point of view," he says. "In fact, I was the first to photograph it. Over two decades back it took me three days to take a picture somewhere near Desuri in Pali district," says Mr. Sharma, who had shown special interest in wolves as the Chief Wildlife Warden earlier. "Though Kailash Sankhla (the late Mr. Sankhla was one of the conservationists who had visualised and planned the Project Tiger during the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's time) did not pay the Rs.100 reward he had promised me for the first photo of the wolf, I got lot of appreciation for it from all around," Mr. Sharma notes.

Apart from being greedy, cruel, cunning and nearly devilish in public perception, wolves are hated by Rebaris, the traditional sheep breeders of Rajasthan and Gujarat, as goat and sheep are easy targets for the animal which hunts in packs. "Wolf is even referred to as 'Chali naharia' or the 'tiger of the goat' in local parlance in western Rajasthan," Mr. Sharma recollects. However, wanton destruction of the wolf and the jackal population in many parts has led to the increase in the population of the Blue bull which is proving a bane for farmers.