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
Indian bison to roam Bandhavgarh reserve again after a decade
Bhopal, Jan 23 (PTI) Five gaurs (Indian bison) have been shifted from the Kanha Tiger Reserve to Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, where these herbivores became extinct more than a decade ago."We have brought five gaurs - three male and two female - from Kanha in the first phase of the translocation," Bandhavgarh Reserve''s Field Director C K Patil told PTI today.
"The gaurs were transported to Bandhavgarh in specially designed trucks," Patil said. Both the reserves are located in eastern Madhya Pradesh, 300 km from each other.
He said that under the first phase of translocation (between Jan 20 to Jan 30), authorities are planning to bring about 20 gaurs to Bandhavgarh, for reviving bison population there.
The five gaurs, the new residents of Bandhavgarh, have been put in an enclosure spread over 50 hectares for now.
Patil said that they would be released into the wild in March.
"We have already radio-collared four gaurs to track their movements," he said.
Patil said that Madhya Pradesh Forest Department along with a wildlife conservation group - KZN Wildlife, South Africa, is carrying out the translocation under the supervision of Wildlife Institute of India. The first phase will cost around Rs 5 crore, he said.
The field director said that the gaur population of Bandhavgarh was at its highest at 39 in 1989-90, but in the next few years it went down, and the last gaur was spotted in 1998.
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