Wildlife

Volumes have been written about the correlation between conservation and tourism in the last 20-odd years. There are ideas, and more ideas that build on the earlier ones. But to see how things work out in practice, one might have to go no further than, say, a Facebook group that serves as a platform for those concerned about irresponsible tourism, specifically in protected areas (PAs). Wildlife Viewing Ethics - It's a matter of respect Avoid getting too close Finding out about the animal will...

In mid-2015, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) carried out a well-publicised event in New York city’s Times Square. It crushed seized ivory items weighing one ton (equivalent to 2000lbs or 907kg), as crowds cheered on and photographs with the hashtag #CrushIvory flooded Twitter. Then came the post-event rhetoric about how “we’re not just crushing ivory; we’re crushing the blood ivory market.” It would seem illegal ivory trade had already come to a grinding halt. The New York event...

The annual odyssey of migratory birds is unique, spectacular, fascinating. It is also fraught with danger, not just from poachers and hunters and the new threat called climate change, but from us too – people who wouldn't want any harm to come to these creatures. The newest nemesis for these birds is our insatiable need for energy. Hundreds of thousands of birds die annually from electrocution the world over, and tens of millions of birds from collision with power lines alone. Just as the...

The “encounter-killing” of over 20 persons by a state-level task force for allegedly smuggling red sanders from the Seshachalam forests near Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh stayed in the media limelight in early April for being a case of extra-judicial killings. There was enough circumstantial evidence to suggest that the incident was indeed an “execution,” but in the din that followed, the issue of red sanders itself flickered away from the media glare. The forest was decidedly missed for the trees...

Development is taking its toll on birds, and it is getting worse every year. Fifteen bird species that are found in India have been declared 'Critically Endangered' in the just released IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. If that's not all, three other bird species now face greater danger than before. These have been uplisted to Near Threatened (NT) and Vulnerable (VU) categories. Earlier, these were better off and classified under the Least Concern (LC) category by IUCN. Four of these birds...

A conservationist, just recognised for his untiring efforts in saving the biodiversity-rich and ecologically-important Bhadra-Kudremuch landscape, says 'low-impact tourism' is the need of the hour. DV Girish, a coffee grower from Chikmagalur, has just been awarded the 'Protect the Tiger' award under the RBS Earth Heroes Award for 2013. Girish has been working closely with forest officials in the Bhadra Tiger Reserve area, and has emerged as an influential community leader in protecting the...

If insects are to be taken as a vital sign indicating a city's environmental health, there's not much to worry for Bangalore. That is, not yet. A recent study conducted by researchers from the Ashoka Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) has recorded a large number of insects — 2,185 insects from 10 orders, of which ants, bugs, beetles and flies were the most common. They also found 25 species of trees and 117 species of herbs and shrubs in the 50 sampled domestic...

One of the common refrains that proponents of the controversial Challakere projects had been resorting to so far was that the ecologically-fragile grasslands was not a critical wildlife habitat. But now, the bluff has been called. The Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has filed an affidavit with the National Green Tribunal (Southern Zone) insisting that the Amrit Mahal Kaval grassland ecosystems indeed constitute a critical habitat for the Great Indian Bustard, which it noted is...

Those who have conservation close to their hearts can always rock. And so will Hard Rock Café (HRC) on Wednesday. Having supported conservation organisation Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) in the past through contributions to the anti-snare campaign in Bandipur Tiger Reserve and Rajiv Gandhi National Park in the state, HRC will be aiding the NCR-based NGO, this time rendering support to its project on control of the wildlife trade in Karnataka. Kick-starting this tie-up is a five-city India tour...

It is not often that conservationists, during times when pursuit of a frenzied double-digit growth is a national obsession, find something to cheer about. The Supreme Court order of Monday asking Gujarat to translocate Asiatic lions to Madhya Pradesh will come across as something that happens once in a blue moon. For those wildlife conservationists campaigning for the process, this is good news indeed. The apex court felt that the lions should have a second home especially if an epidemic or...