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GLOBAL TIGER FORUM IS AN INTER-GOVERNMENTAL AND INTERNATIONAL BODY FOR THE CONSERVATION OF THE TIGER IN THE WILD
GLOBAL TIGER FORUM IS AN INTER-GOVERNMENTALAND INTERNATIONAL BODY FOR THE CONSERVATIONOF THE TIGER IN THE WILD
GTFNEWS JUNE 2012
GLOBAL TIGER FORUM
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COVER AND TIGER PHOTOGRAPHS BY ADITYA SINGH
GTFNEWS
GLOBAL TIGER FORUM AN INTER-GOVERNMENTAL AND INTERNATIONALBODY FOR THE CONSERVATION OF THE TIGER INTHE WILD
JUNE 2012
Edited byS P YADAV
Global Tiger Forum SecretariatD-87, Lower Ground Floor, Amar Colony,Raghunath Mandir Road, Lajat Nagar IVNew Delhi 110024
Note from the Secretary General (05)
1st Stock Taking Meeting of Senior Officials & Experts to Review The Implementation of (06)the Global Tiger Recovery Programme
16th meeting of the Standing Committee of the GTF (08)
Tiger Watch Programme (09)
News from Countries (10)
BangladeshChinaIndiaIndonesiaMalaysia NepalThailandVietnam
News from International Agencies/NGOs (24)(A) WWF/TRAFFIC(B) International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
News from National NGOs (28)(A) WWF - India(B) Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI)(C) The Corbett Foundation(D) Wildlife Trust of India (WTI)(E) Centre for Wildlife Studies
Tiger Mortality Statistics of India - Jan. to June 2012 (36)
Of the GTF (38)
GTF Members (38)
CONTENTS
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04 June 2012
NOTE FROM THE SECRETARY GENERAL
The Global Tiger Forum, in collaboration with the National Tiger Conservation Authority,Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India along with the Global TigerInitiative and its partners and the World Bank, organized the 1st Stock Taking Meeting ofSenior officials and Experts to Review the Implementation of the Global Tiger RecoveryProgramme (GTRP) at New Delhi, India, on 15 - 17 May 2012. The objectives of thismeeting were to take stock of the progress made in the implementation of the GTRPtowards Tx2 at the global level by Tiger Range Countries (TRCs) and their partners, includ-ing adoption of the draft GTRP Annual Implementation Report 2011, announcing theNational Priority Implementation Activities 2012, discuss the medium term plans for 2012-2014, outlining the two-year action plan for several critical areas by, raising funds for GTRPimplementation, addressing threats to tiger habitats, smart green infrastructure, combatingillegal trade and poaching, eliminating demand for tiger products and strengthening nationalcapacity institutions and monitoring systems.The 16th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Global Tiger Forum was held on 17May 2012, at New Delhi, India, which was attended by all its members and severalobservers. The Standing Committee approved a meeting with donor agencies, formation ofGTF National Core Group in Range Countries, future projects to be taken up by the GTFand institutional international award for tiger conservation.
The GTF and International Fund for Animal Welfare/Wildlife Trust of India jointly orga-nized a "Tiger Watch" programme in India between 4th to 15th February 2012. Under thisprogramme two Russian Wildlife Inspectors visited tiger reserves in India and learned abouttiger conservation efforts in India. .Technical Staff of GTF visited Indonesia in April 2012, to assist them in finalizing theirNational Tiger Monitoring Framework and in setting up the GTF National Core Group.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, signed a Joint Resolutionof Agreed Actions with the Government of Russian Federation and Nepal to enhance theconservation of tiger and its habitat.It is our hope that the output of these meetings/resolutions will strengthen the cause forwildlife tigers in the tiger range countries.
Dr. RAJESH GOPALSecretary General
June 2012 05
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The 1st Stock Taking Meeting of Senior Officials andExperts to Review the Implementation of theGlobal Tiger Recovery Programme was organised
between 15th to 17th May 2012, at Vigyan Bhawan, NewDelhi, India. Hosted by the National Tiger ConservationAuthority, Ministry of Environment and Forests,Government of India and co-organized and co-sponsoredby the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) and its partners,Global Tiger Forum (GTF), and the World Bank.
The St. Petersburg Declaration of Tiger Conservationand the Global Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP) adopt-ed a the International Tiger Forum in Russia, November2010, called for convening regular high-level meetings toreview the implementation progress of the GTRP and itsnational priorities (NTRP). The first Asia MinisterialConference of Tiger Conservation (AMC), held in HuaHin, Thailand in January 2010 played its critical role inpreparation for the International Tiger Forum in Russia.The Stocktaking Conference of Senior Officials andExperts will complete the work necessary for a review ofGTRP implementation progress and preparation for the
Ministerial-level decisions of the second AMC.The meeting was attended by senior officials from all
13 tiger range countries, representatives from other gov-ernment sectors, including law enforcement, infrastruc-ture, and donor agencies as well as experts on wildlife andbiodiversity conservation. They addressed the latest bestpractices and technology for tiger habitat conservation,wildlife crime enforcement, reducing demand for wildlifederivatives, and sustainable development.
The primary objectives of the meeting were to:1. Take stock of the progress made in the implementationof the GTRP towards Tx2 at the global lever by TRCsand their partners, including adoption of the draftGTRP Annual Implementation Report 2011. 2. Announce National Priority ImplementationActivities 2012, discuss medium term plans forward for2012-2014.3. Outline two-year action plan for several critical areas:■ Raising funds for GTRP implementation.■ Addressing threats to tiger habitats, smart green
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STOCKTAKING MEETING OF SENIOR OFFICIALSAND EXPERTS TO REVIEW IMPLEMENTATION OFTHE GLOBAL TIGER RECOVERY PROGRAM
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infrastructure.■ Combating illegal trade and poaching.■ Eliminating demand for tiger products.■ Strengthening national capacity, institutions andmonitoring systems.
All 13 tiger range countries and implementing part-ners in the Global Tiger Recovery Program reported indetail on the implementation efforts so far. Some of thehighlights were:
Conservation practitioners and policymakers withdirect responsibility for professional management of pri-ority protected areas and parks in each of the 13 tigerrange countries had participated in the Regional SmartPatrol Trainings and Cross-Sector Executive LeadershipForum through the GTI-Smithsonian partnership;
Transboundary agreements covering major borderareas across the tiger range landscapes had been formal-ized through MOUs to improve collaboration and infor-mation exchange on wildlife crime control;
New mechanisms were rapidly emerging in key TRCsto bring landscape connectivity and integrity of wildlifecorridors under principles of Smart Green Infrastructureinto national planning processes; and Significant newfunding from multilateral development institutions
including the World Bank and the Global EnvironmentFacility, and countries has materialized to fund theGlobal Tiger Recovery Priority portfolio.
Cracking down on illegal trade and trafficking inwildlife and expanding the scope of international lawenforcement mechanisms to address this problem is anessential part of the Global Tiger Recovery Program, andis being emphasized in discussions by organizations atthe meeting. The International Consortium onCombating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC), is a powerfulalliance that has emerged to stop the key drivers that arebringing the largest of the wild cats to the brink ofextinction: poaching, smuggling and illegal trade. It ismade up of CITES, Interpol, UNODC (United NationsOffice on Drugs and Crime, World Bank, and the WorldCustoms Organization) The governments of the UnitedStates and United Kingdom have contributed in thisarea, most recently with Project Predator, to supportand enhance governance and law enforcement capacityin tiger-range countries. WWF, TRAFFIC, WildlifeConservation Society, FREELAND Foundation, andothers have developed a variety of field level tools andjoint efforts in the TRCs to eradicate wildlife crime andthe syndicates involved in the multibillion dollar blackmarket enterprise.
The 16th meeting of the Standing Committee ofthe GTF was held on 17th May 2012, at VigyanBhawan, New Delhi, India. Standing Committee
members from tiger range states viz. Bangladesh, Bhutan,India and Myanmar attended the meeting. Non-tigerrange country member - U.K. and IFAW from memberinternational NGOs, participated in the meeting. Inaddition, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal,Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, WWF, TRAFFIC,Environmental Investigation Agency, Wildlife
Conservation Society, Global Environment Facility,INTERPOL, UNDP, IUCN, National Trust for NatureConservation, The Corbett Foundation and GTI/WorldBank participated in the meeting as observers.
In addition to routine administrative and financialaspects, the meeting discussed holding of a meeting withdonor agencies, formation of GTF National Core Groupin Range Countries where not yet formed, future projectsto be taken up by the GTF and institutional internation-al award for tiger conservation.
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08 June 2012
MEETING OF THE STANDING COMMITTEEOF THE GLOBAL TIGER FORUM1166TH
Two Russian wildlife inspectors were invited toattend the "Tiger Watch" programme fromFebruary 04 - 15, 2012 and visit the tiger occu-
pied central Indian landscape to see tigers in the wild andlearn about the tiger conservation efforts in India. Theprogramme was jointly organized by the Global TigerForum (GTF) and International Fund for AnimalWelfare (IFAW) - Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).
The major tiger population of India is restricted tothe Central Indian tiger landscape, with the populationconstituting to 43 % (601 (mid value) lower and uppervalues 486 and 718 respectively) of the total tiger esti-mates of the country. The best managed tiger reserves,Pench, Kanha Tiger Reserves and Nagzira WildlifeSanctuary in the Central Indian tiger landscape weretherefore, selected for their visit. The two RussiansInspectors also visited the office of National TigerConservation Authority (NTCA), Government of India,Global Tiger Forum (GTF) Secretariat and IFAW - WTIand discussed the overview of Indian tiger conservationscenario and priorities, briefing on International tigerconservation scenario and National Tiger Action Plans.
Field visits to the buffer and core areas of the parks tosee the overall activities and exchange of views / informa-
tion was conducted. The Field Directors of Pench andKanha Tiger Reserves and the Conservator of Forests ofNagzira WLS briefed them on the conservation scenarioof the state and management of the tiger reserves, sitespecific management plans and programmes and dealingwith the poaching problems in the TR's. On footpatrolling was conducted in Kanha Tiger Reserve and byvehicle in Pench.
They were briefed on the patrolling methods used inthe TR's and interacted and exchanged their experienceswith the ground staff. Anti fishing camp and the anti elec-trocution camp was amongst the camps they visited. Theyalso were shown the daily monitoring registers maintainedin the patrolling camps of both the TR's. They visited thevillages in the fringe areas to understand and study the per-ception and problems of the villagers who were relocatedfrom the tiger reserve to the fringe areas.
The wildlife sightings in Pench TR and Kanha TRwere the best experiences the two of them ever had. Apartfrom five tigers (one in Pench TR with a kill, three inKanha TR in the meadows and one in Nagzira WLS),packs of wild dogs, plenty of gaurs, swamp deers, manywild boars, spotted deers and sambhar deers, few raptorsand many more birds.
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TIGER WATCH PROGRAMME 2011 - 12
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10 June 2012
NEWS : FROM TIGER COUNTRIES
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Elite Bangladesh forces rescuethree tiger cubs(AFP) - Jun 11, 2012
DHAKA - Elite Bangladesh securityforces rescued three Bengal tiger cubsafter a raid on a house in the capitalDhaka where smugglers were hold-ing the endangered animals beforethey were to be sold.
Television footage showed thenearly two-month-old cubs playingin an iron cage after a team of RapidAction Battalion (RAB) commandos
swooped on the residence and arrest-ed one person.
"The cubs seem to be in soundhealth," forest department officerFazlul Hoque told AFP from thescene.
RAB spokesman CommanderMohammad Sohail said the house inthe city's Shaymoli area had a num-ber of empty cages, indicating that itwas a transit hub for the illegalwildlife trade.
"We believe an organised racket isbehind tiger trafficking. They have
been illegally catching and selling ani-mals, including reptiles and birds, foryears," Sohail told AFP.
Experts said increasingly sophis-ticated poaching is the biggest threatto the survival of the big cats in theSundarbans, the world's largest man-grove forest straddling Bangladeshand India.
In 2010, the Bangladesh govern-ment enacted new laws with strin-gent punishments to protect wildlife,including the Bengal tiger, butpoaching is still rampant.
Wild Siberian tiger photoscaptured in JilinEnglish.news.cn 2012-06-1417:02:04
CHANGCHUN, June 14 (Xinhua)-- Two photos of endangered wildSiberian tigers were recently taken ina forest in northeast China's JilinProvince, researchers announced onThursday.
The photos were taken on April4 on Changbai Mountain inWangqing county in the YanbianKorean autonomous prefecture,which borders Russia and theDemocratic People's Republic ofKorea.
Funded by the World WildlifeFund (WWF), the WangqingCounty Forestry Bureau has set up
more than 100 automatic infraredcameras in the forest to captureimages of rarely viewed animals.
According to the WWF, the cam-eras have captured many photos ofSiberian tigers and Amur leopards inrecent years.
Siberian tigers are one of therarest species in the world. The totalnumber of the population is about500, concentrated in Russia, China'snortheast and northern parts of theKorean Peninsula.
China has only about 20 wildSiberian tigers. They live in theregions of the Changbai mountainsin Jilin Province and the Wandamountains of Heilongjiang Provincenear China-Russia border.
The country launched a naturalforest resource conservation program
in 1998, specifying 17 regions,including the Changbai MountainNatural Reserve, as targets forecosystem protection.
Chinese e-commerce companies crack down onillegal wildlife tradeWWF News, 08 June 2012
BEIJING, CHINA - 15 of the lead-ing e-commerce sellers operating inChina, including Alibaba, Taobao,and Tencent, have signed a declara-tion stating they have a zero-tolerancepolicy towards their services beingused to conduct illegal wildlife trad-ing.
The statement says sellers andbuyers must comply with all aspects
of China's Wild Animal Protection Law and regulationsunder the Convention on International Trade inEndangered Species (CITES) governing the trade inwildlife goods.
The declaration was issued following a workshop oncontrolling online illegal wildlife trade organized byChinese authorities in collaboration with WWF'swildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC earlier thismonth.
Following the workshop, all the e-commerce compa-ny representatives read and signed the 'Commitment tozero-tolerance of illegal online wildlife trade', as ademonstration of their determination to stop illegalonline wildlife trading.
Although wildlife law enforcement efforts in Chinahave led to gains in policing physical markets for wildlife,the availability of illegal wildlife goods online has beengaining ground, as evidenced by the booming popularityof the internet and the burgeoning number of websiteswhere 'high profile' animal species or parts, such as ele-phants, rhinoceroses, tiger and marine turtles, are illegal-ly offered for sale.
In April 2012, TRAFFIC found 3,389 advertise-ments for tiger bone, elephant ivory, rhino horn andhawksbill turtle products being offered through 15Chinese-language e-commerce sites and associated auc-tion websites and chat rooms.
China's wildlife law enforcement authorities are takingpositive steps to tackle the issue, through sustained inten-sive enforcement actions and by holding interagency work-shops on the control of illegal online wildlife trade.
In April this year, China's Forest Police filed 700 rel-evant cases, shut down 628 online shops and deleted1,607 pieces of information relating to illegal trade ofwildlife from websites.
Mr Zhang Libao, director of the Wildlife CrimeDivision of the National Forest Police, said police wouldconduct sustained action against wildlife crime, particu-larly online trade in tiger bone, rhino horn and ivory.
Mr Wang Weisheng, a Division Chief of the WildlifeConservation Department of the State ForestryAdministration, told participants: "All commercial tradein tiger bone and rhino horn, in any form, has been total-ly prohibited since 1993. Ivory trade is allowed only in136 accredited physical shops, so all online trade in ivoryproducts is illegal and thus prohibited."
He urged e-commerce companies to screen all infor-mation relating to these three species in particular, tokeep scrutinizing their sites for evidence of illegal wildlifetrade as a priority and to collaborate with enforcementagencies to deter online wildlife crime.
"Those operating e-commerce websites and associat-ed online exchanges should make greater efforts to deleteall suspect information, provide information on wildlifetrade regulations to potential online shoppers, and pro-vide a way for the public to report suspected illegal orfraudulent trade to servers and authorities," said Ms XuLing, TRAFFIC's Senior Programme Officer in China.
Alibaba.com, the best known B2B e-commerce web-site in China, has taken a lead in combating illegal onlinewildlife trade by effectively screening information on allprotected animals (and their derivatives) listed in theWild Animal Protection Law and CITES.
The latest meeting is part of a longer-term campaignled by TRAFFIC and WWF to encourage e-commercewebsites to commit to not selling illegal wildlife prod-ucts, with the aim to reduce both availability anddemand for such contraband.
According to Dr Shi Jianbin, Head of TRAFFIC'sChina Programme: "TRAFFIC is co-operating withonline providers and wildlife enforcement authorities toheighten awareness among potential buyers and sellersabout illegal online wildlife trade.
"Results of TRAFFIC's monitoring of suspectedonline illegal wildlife trade will be passed on to relevantwildlife enforcement authorities for further investigation,as well as to e-commerce companies to help them inimproving their strategies to prevent illegal trade."
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Russia, China seek India'shelp in tiger conservationPublished: Wednesday, Jun13, 2012, 8:30 IST, By DNACorrespondent
Desperate to save the dwindling tigernumbers, six countries have sought
help from India in replicating itsnearly four decade old tiger conser-vation programme - Project Tiger.Six Tiger range countries - Russia,China, Bangladesh, Nepal,Myanmar and Vietnam - approachedIndia for help in either assessment orcapacity building measure for tiger
conservation in their own countries.They approached Indian officialsduring the Stock Taking Conferenceto review implementation of theGlobal Tiger Recovery Program(GTRP), which took place in NewDelhi a couple of weeks ago."India's tiger conservation program,
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running since 1970s, has been verysuccessful." National TigerConservation Authority's (NTCA)member secretary Rajesh Gopal toldDNA. "Cooperation with thesecountries would provide India anopportunity to come to the centrestage of tiger conservation and evencome out with a tiger atlas of theworld," said Gopal while informingthat India and Russia recently cameup with a joint resolution of agreedaction to protect tigers.
Few years ago, the numbers oftigers in the wild in India were esti-mated to be around 1400 but therecently held exercise pegged theirnumbers at over 1,706 tigers, whichis highest in the world.
India would offer help in train-ing and capacity building of fieldofficers/specialists, landscape plan-ning, cooperation on anti-poachingstrategy and planning and exchangeprograms to share experiences of bestpractices in tiger conservation Indiais also a founder member of theGlobal Tiger Forum (GTF), world-wide campaign to save tigers in thewild.
At present Environment MinisterJayanthi Natarajan chairs the Forum.Other members include Bangladesh,Vietnam, Cambodia, Bhutan, Nepaland Myanmar. "China is also keen tojoin GTF," Gopal added.
The main achievements ofProject Tiger are excellent recoveryof the habitat and consequentincrease in the tiger population inthe reserve areas, from a mere 268 innine reserves in 1972 to 1,706 in 39tiger reserves in 2011
Collaboration between WildlifeInstitute of India, Dehradun andCentre for Wildlife Studies,Bangalore
In a move that will strengthenthe wildlife conservation movementin the Indian sub-continent, theWildlife Institute of India, affiliatedto the Ministry of Environment andForests signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding with Centre forWildlife Studies (CWS) a non-gov-ernmental wildlife research organiza-tion recognized by Department of
Science and Technology,Government of India to collaboratein the areas of advanced wildlife pop-ulation analysis, ecological researchon tigers in Terai region, trainingand capacity building of researchersand media personnel. This collabora-tion follows a formal MoU agree-ment signed earlier on 23rd April2012 by Mr. P. R. Sinha, Director,WII, Dehradun and Dr. K. UllasKaranth, Director, CWS. The agree-ment facilitates faculty, researchersand students of both institutions topursue collaborative wildlife researchprojects and implement advancedscientific courses and internationalworkshops.
Initially four key activities havebeen proposed under framework ofthis collaboration:1. CWS senior staff would conductan advanced course for WII stu-dents, researchers and faculty on thetopic of "Animal PopulationSampling, Modelling andEstimation" at the CWS trainingfacilities and field station inKarnataka.2. WII and CWS will organize anadvanced international technicalworkshop on "Monitoring andAdaptive Management of AnimalPopulations" with expected partici-pation from leading internationalexperts from institutions such asUSGS Patuxent Wildlife ResearchInstitute, Oxford University,University of Florida, Colorado StateUniversity as well as from CWS,WII, Indian Statistical Institute andother Indian institutions.3. CWS and WII would jointly con-duct advanced ecological studies onlong-term population dynamics ofTigers, Leopards and their prey pop-ulations in the Terai region of India.The study will be patterned after thelong term research project beingimplemented in Karnataka by CWSin collaboration with the State ForestDepartment.4. WII will organize a series ofworkshops for media professionalson wildlife conservation issues atDehradun and possibly some othermetros. CWS would collaborate and
provide additional expertise.In these activities, CWS would
be represented by Dr. K. UllasKaranth, Dr. N. Samba Kumar,Arjun Gopalswamy and Ms.PrernaSingh Bindra while the WII teamwill comprise of Mr. P. R. Sinha, Dr.Vinod Mathur, Dr. Bivash Pandav,Dr. Bilal Habib and Dr. BitapiSinha.
Officials, civil society join handsto restore wildlife corridorSubhash Chandra N S,Deccan Herald, Tuesday 19 June 2012
Govt declares Kaniyanapura andnearby villages as reserve forest. Thisis one classic example of how con-certed efforts by government officialsand civil society can make a differ-ence to conservation.
Sustained pursuance of the caseby a few bureaucrats and wildlifeactivists has ensured that revenueland, over 5,000 acres, falling in acritical wildlife corridor atKaniyanapura is declared a reserveforest. The efforts bring to an endthe two-decade old issue of protect-ing the Kaniyanapura elephant corri-dor - which links Bandipur TigerReserve and Mudumalai WildlifeSanctuary in Tamil Nadu.
Kaushik Mukherjee, formeradditional chief secretary, B JHosmath, field director, ProjectTiger, Sanjay Gubbi, member, StateBoard for Wildlife, Basavaraju, assis-tant commissioner, Kollegal andManjunath, tahsildar, Gundlupethave together got thousands of acresof revenue land, which had featuresof forest, declared reserve forest.
"A notification under Section 4of Karnataka Forest Act has beenissued with an intention to providelegal status to this forest patch,"Kumar Pushkar, Chief Conservatorof Forests, Bandipur Tiger Reserve,told Deccan Herald. The notifica-tion - dated February 2, 2012 -grants reserve forest status to morethan 5,000 acres of revenue land toensure their protection.
Pushkar said the corridor wasvery important as far as wildlife pro-tection is concerned as almost allanimals, including tiger and ele-phant, use this stretch for theirmovement. He said declaring such ahuge stretch of land as reserve forestwas not an easy task. Not doing sowould have been a great loss towildlife as the notified area bindsnorth and south ears of the corridor,he said.
"This area had become a hub ofnumerous activities. We would havelost the habitat. By declaring itreserve forest, we have secured it forwildlife," he said.
"This is the patch which con-nects Biligirirangana Hills TigerReserve and Satyamangala forestwith Nagarhole and Bandipur," headded.
The revenue land falling in thelimits of Chikyelchetti, Bachalli,Kebbepura, Kaniyanpura, Mangala,Yeriyur, Heggavadi and Kundukerevillages have forests that connectedthe two important protected areaswithin the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.
"Despite a Supreme Court orderthat land with characteristics offorests should not be diverted fornon-forestry activities without prop-er permissions, several resorts andprivate farms had come up here.Many of them were illegal and hadreduced the corridor to a chickenneck in some locations," explained awildlife expert who has conducted astudy of this corridor.
Sanjay Gubbi conducted a quicksurvey of the area with the help ofvolunteers from Vanya and Aranyawildlife groups in 2011. An area of9,662.3 acres was found to have for-est cover and a report was submittedto the government recommendingthat these areas be declared reservedforest.
Finding that an area of 5,599.05acres was not diverted to private use,the department officials made a pro-posal to the government to declare itreserved forest under the KarnatakaForest Act, 1963. This finally led tothe notification declaring the area asreserve forest.
State orders forest officials toshoot tiger poachers on sightHindustan Times, Mumbai,May 23, 2012
Alarmed at the rising instances oftiger poaching in the state tigerreserves, the state forest departmenthas asked forest officials to shootpoachers on sight.
Forest minister Patangrao Kadamtold reporters on Tuesday that thedirective had been issued to all forestdivisions. "The death caused by pre-ventive shooting will not be treatedas offence under the Indian PenalCode. We have made a legal provi-sion to safeguard our staff from anyexcesses by so-called human rightactivists," the minister said.
The forest guards and officerswill be armed with self-loading riflesand will be provided additional vehi-cles to enable a 24x7 vigil.
Over the past fortnight, uniden-tified poachers killed two tigers inChandrapur district. One trappedtiger was rescued by forest officials acouple of days ago but it is unlikelyto survive the wounds caused by theiron jaw trap and renal failure.
Maharashtra has 169 tigers andmost of them inhabit the three tigerreserves in Vidarbha region-Tadoba,Melghat and Pench. In one year, thestate lost eight tigers to poachers ofwhich, seven killings happened inChandrapur's Tadoba and Andharireserves.
Some days ago, the governmenthad issued a red alert after an intelli-gence input suggested that tigerpoachers of the notorious Baheliagroup in Madhya Pradesh had beenpaid an advance of Rs40 lakh forkilling 25 big cats in the state.
Pravin Pardeshi, principal secre-tary of the forest department, saidthat the staffers were more vigilantand it was because of their alertnessthat poaching incidents came tolight.
He said that the government hasdeployed 70 more guards in Tadobaand Andhari reserves and 523 vacan-cies would be filled as soon as possible.
Tiger killing: Seven poacherssent to jailTNN Jun 8, 2012, 01.47AMIST
BHOPAL: Seven persons, includingsix tribals who were arrested on thecharge of killing a tiger that wasfound dead two days ago in Veerpurrange of the Bhopal forest circle,were sent to jail till June 26 by acourt on Thursday. MP forestdepartment officials are looking fortwo more persons wanted in connec-tion with tiger poaching case.
Accused Bhagwan Singh Bhel,Bhaina Bhel, Kare Singh Bhel, MorSingh Bhel, Kamal Bhel, Jagdia Bheland Naval Singh were producedbefore Sehore district's chief judicialmagistrate's court (CJM) whichremanded them to judicial custody.
Web app to keep track ofIndian tigersIANS Sunday, May 20, 2012,21:08
NEW DELHI: A web applicationpowered by a team of enthusiasticnaturalists, conservationists, photog-raphers and national park visitorsusing their cameras, smart phonesand videos has been trying to moni-tor big cats by creating a database oftigers in Indian forests.
Tiger Nation's new identity soft-ware works by using the tiger's stripepatterns from photos taken each day,alongside camera trap images to logand pictorially map each animal'smovements. Tigernation.org hasbuilt a powerful database to store allthe details.
"Each tiger has its own uniquestripe pattern - like a bar code - oftenvery distinct. This should allow - likefingerprints - to identify all tigerseventually through photography andcamera traps," says its creator JulianMatthews.
The software aims to give analmost "instant" match - and thengive the user the life profile of thematched tiger. It's been developed bytop researchers based at the
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University of Surrey, a leading playerin the field of biometrics.
"People can post the pictures oftigers clicked by them on the websiteand it can be matched with the avail-able database using the software," hesaid.
"We are aiming to use the tech-nology to match tiger skins seized bythe Indian authorities, alongsidepartners, like the Wildlife ProtectionSociety of India (WPSI) to trackdown powerful poaching gangs.
"Lots of people are trying it withphotos taken in Ranthambhore andBandhavgarh Tiger reserves. It's stillin testing mode - and needs furtherrefining, and has limitations becauseof the angle of a tigers' body to thephotographer (who can be a pro or avisiting amateur) but many of thesewill be ironed out and improved aswe go forward," Matthews added.
New tiger sanctuary to comeup in VidarbhaTNN Jun 8, 2012,01.29AM IST
MUMBAI: The state government onThursday gave an in-principleapproval to a new tiger sanctuary inVidarbha's Umred-Karandla, nearly50 km from Nagpur. With this, thetotal sanctuaries in the state havenow gone up to 33.
The protected areas (PAs) of fourother sanctuaries-Nagzira, Bor,Navegaon and Maldhok-wereextended to boost the dwindlingprotected areas of Maharashtra. Thetotal area extended in the reservesamounts to 520 sq km. The notifica-tion of new protected areas wasnecessitated after the governmentlast year de-notified over 7,000 sqkm of the Nanaj Sanctuary.
Following a meeting of the StateWildlife Board, chief ministerPrithviraj Chavan said the tiger pop-ulation in the Tadoba-Andhari TigerReserve (TATR) in Chandrapur dis-trict has increased substantially, lead-ing to a spillover. As a result, manyanimals are straying outside the park,causing accidents and increasing the
man-animal conflict. "The extendedcorridors will now act as a crucialbuffer for the animals and reduce thenumber of accidents caused by suchspillovers," said Chavan. The tigerpopulation in TATR has jumpedfrom 30 in year 2000 to over 100 in2012.
Special measures were alsoannounced to provide relief to theanimal habitat around the highwaycorridors-including the Mumbai-Delhi Dedicated Freight Corridorand Mumbai-Goa NationalHighway. A proposal to createunderpasses on these corridors hasbeen forwarded to the NationalAnimal Welfare Board. It was alsodecided to provide additional vehi-cles to forest officers in Naxal-domi-nated areas. The state has also decid-ed to rope in the irrigation andpower departments for measures likebuilding cross-canals and enhancinghigh-tension electric lines.
Maharashtra has reported a num-ber of tiger deaths and increasedcases of poaching in the recent past,forcing the state to contemplate issu-ing shoot-at-sight orders.The issue also gained political under-tones following a three-day visit byMNS chief Raj Thackeray to theTATR.
Treat every tiger death ascase of poaching, says NTCAChetan Chauhan, HindustanTimes, New Delhi, May 29,2012
With increase in tiger deaths, theNational Tiger ConservationAuthority (NTCA) has asked forestdepartments to treat every death ofbig cat as case of poaching, unlessproved otherwise. This has done tocheck the forest department officialsfrom describing tigers deaths becauseof natural cause.
There has been a tendency of theforest department officials todescribe a death of a tiger probablyfrom poisoning or through iron trapas natural death without examiningthe possibility of poaching.
"As tiger sources areas are target-ed by poachers and tigers alsobecome victims of non-targetedkillings due to sensitive human-tigerinterface conflicts, there is a need toensure adequate caution while classi-fying tiger deaths as occurring due tonatural causes," said a letter writtento project directors of tiger reservesin India by Rajesh Gopal, directorNTCA.
Three tiger deaths have beenreported from Dudwa tiger reservein Uttar Pradesh in the last oneweek. But, the forest departmentbelieves the death to be natural onthe ground of signs of struggle onthe body of one of the dead tigers.However, tiger experts believe thatthe tigers died during a poachingattempt.
In other incidents, at least twotiger deaths have been reported fromMaharashtra increasing the tally oftotal deaths in the state to 12 in2012. It was only after recent deathsthat the Maharashtra governmentallowed the forest department "shootat sight" orders against poachers.
The sudden jump in tiger deathsaround India has pushed the NTCAto ask the directors of tiger reservesto carrying out detailed investigationbefore declaring reason for death oftigers.
The protocol prescribed says thatarea where the tiger death has beenreported should be thoroughlyscanned to rule out metalsnares/traps and evidences related tounauthorized vehicular movement.
The NTCA also wants the offi-cials to look for signs of poisoningnear water bodies and poisoning oflivestock kills made by a tiger."Besides, any history of recurringlivestock depredation, human deathor injury due to wild carnivores inthe area should also be taken intoaccount along with pendency, if any,related to payment of compensationor ex-gratia in this regard," Gopalsaid in his letter.
The authority has also advisedthe forest officials of taking preven-tive actions rather than retroactiveaction. "This will facilitate retrieval
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of carcasses before their putrifica-tion, thereby facilitating forensicexamination in a laboratory," the let-ter read.
The tiger conservation body alsotold the forest officials to treat everytiger or leopard death as case ofpoaching unless there is convincingevidence to suggest natural death.
Abandoned cub rescued atKanha tiger reserveTNN Jun 9, 2012, 04.28AM IST
BHOPAL: An injured cub thatturned feeble after being abandonedby a tigress was rescued at the worldfamous Kanha tiger reserve (KTR) ineastern Madhya Pradesh, forestdepartment officials said on Friday.
This was the second cub that hadbeen rescued by the forest staff, afterbeing abandoned by tigress in thestate's tiger reserve, in last twomonths. In the first week of April, acub was rescued in Panna tigerreserve (PTR).
"The cub was abandoned bytigress that gave birth to it around 10months ago in Kanha range of thereserve. It was left by the tigress some10 days ago. We tranquilized the cuband shifted it to an enclosure inGurila are under Mukhi range of thereserve on Thursday", KTR fielddirector J S Chauhan told TOI.
This cub had grown weak andsustained injuries to his legs possiblyafter being attacked by some animal,officials said.
"We have kept the cub underobservation and are feeding it withmutton and chicken," they saidadding that the cub was in goodhealth, now.
The ground duty officials are try-ing hard to locate the tigress thatgave birth to this cub. Officials saidthey are going to rehabilitate thecub- once it turned healthy andstarts going for the kill.
Felines usually abandon theircubs when they turn too weak,according to wildlife experts.
Assam: Kaziranga NationalPark uses technology to saveits tigers Arijit Sen, Mukut Medhi,CNN-IBN, May 29, 2012
KAZIRANGA NATIONAL PARK:The Kaziranga National Park inAssam has come up with some freshideas to save its tigers. There areabout 81 to 131 of them there.CNN-IBN's Arijit Sen travelledinside the park to learn about thetechnology that has been put to useto spot the big cats.
Kaziranga National ParkDirector SK Bora said, "The habitatwe are trying to protect appears to bequite healthy for the tiger populationin Kaziranga."
The pugmarks help figure thatthe majestic animal has crossed aparticular stretch. Forest GuardRobin Nath says, "I saw a tiger from50 metres distance."
Wildlife Research Officer RobinSharma's team sets up a camera trap.It's a user friendly technology whereimages are recorded on a data card,pulled out and the camera is putback.
There is another type of camera,which has a censor and a white flash,which gets activated.
In the past three years, with helpfrom a wildlife NGO, Aranyak, cam-era traps have successfully recordedimages of not one or two, but 118tigers.
"We have divided the Kazirangareserve into 252 grids. Accordinglywe have selected 125 grids on thebasis of science surveys. We put 125pairs of cameras, one pair for everygrid," Robin Sharma said.
Cameras are more scientific thanpugmarks as all the tigers haveunique stripes.
Divisional Forest Officer of theKaziranga National Park D Gogoisaid, "It gives more accuracy, can col-lect data, process and study them atease. An extensive area can be cov-ered."
But the camera traps have alsorecorded the images of poachers,increasing the responsibility of the
foot soldiers who keep a watch onthe 430 square kilometre park. Fornow, this remains one of the mostdensely populated reserves in thecountry for tigers.
Centre to fund 90% ofProject Tiger in NortheastZee News, Tuesday, May 29, 2012
GUWAHATI: The Central govern-ment has increased its share of fund-ing from the existing 50 percent to90 percent for northeastern statesunder the Project Tiger scheme.
This was recently conveyed byUnion Minister of State forEnvironment & Forests JayanthiNatarajan to Assam Chief MinisterTarun Gogoi.
According to the communica-tion, the northeastern states will nowhave to spend only 10 percent shareunder the scheme for tiger conserva-tion.
Project Tiger aims at ensuring aviable population of tigers in theirnatural habitat.
There are six tiger reserves in thenortheast - three in Assam(Kaziranga tiger reserve, Manas tigerreserve and Nameri tiger reserve),two in Arunachal Pradesh(Namdapha tiger reserve and Pakhuitiger reserve) and one in Mizoram(Dampa tiger reserve).
Although the exact number ofthe big cats in the region is notknown, the 2010 tiger census -which was conducted countrywide -estimated the presence of 130-150big cats in the six tiger reserves.
The Assam chief minister hadearlier submitted a memorandum tothe prime minister, which containeda proposal for reducing the state'sshare to 10 per cent in the Centrally-sponsored scheme.
Tigers bounce back, 16% risein populationTNN Mar 29, 2011,01.01am IST
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NEW DELHI: The endangeredIndian tiger seems to be back fromthe brink. The striped predator,whose population touched a low of1,411 in the last census, has shown a16% rise in numbers with the latestcount released on Monday showingan estimated 1,706 tigers in thecountry - including 70 found inSundarbans, which was not part ofthe 2006 count.
The census report, the secondcounting exercise to use scientificsampling methods, shows India'stiger population is stabilizing andeven thriving in many big reserves.The most impressive surge in num-bers was from the Nagarhole-Wayanad-Mudumalai belt (acrossKarnataka, TN and Kerala), whichwith an around 382 tigers has showna 36% rise from the previous count.
Increase in tiger numbers wasalso reported in Uttarakhand,Maharashtra and Assam, whileMadhya Pradesh and AndhraPradesh showed a decline. Amongthe well known tiger reserves,Corbett, Ranthambore andBandhavgarh saw an impressive risein the number of tigers.
The tiger census methodology hascome a long way since the pre-2006counts, when pugmarks used to be theonly indicator of tiger numbers. The
method was highly inaccurate and forthe last two tiger counts, the govern-ment moved to a more scientific pro-cess that involved video trapping anduse of satellite data.
The latest tiger count, whilebeing similar to the 2006 census inmost ways, is more accurate than theprevious exercise, experts involvedthe census said.
"The monitoring exercise wascarried out between December 2009and December 2010. The threephases of the tiger estimation proce-dure included field data collected atthe beat-level by trained personnelusing a standardized protocol in thefirst phase. The second phase wasanalysis of habitat status of tigerforests using satellite data and thethird phase dealt with camera trap-ping," said Y V Jhala from theWildlife Institution of India.
Camera trapping, promoted bytiger experts like K Ullas Karanth,has become the primary mode ifidentifying individual animals. Inthe 2010 census, 550 individualtigers were captured and identifiedusing their unique stripe patterns.
In the Sunderbans, where thecensus took place for the first time,five tigers were tagged with Iridiumsatellite collars and camera trappingwas carried out in an area of 250 sq
km.In the entire project, 800 camera
traps were used, covering an area of10,500 sq km. "Based on the tigernumbers recorded in sampled sites,an estimate for other contiguoustiger-occupied landscapes was made.For this, additional information suchas tiger signs, prey availability, habi-tat conditions and human distur-bance was used. The final estimatesprovide a comprehensive and statisti-cally robust result," added Jhala.
The same process was used in2006 though experts say that the fig-ures thrown up then might not be asaccurate as they are likely to be for2010. "The system was new thenand we suspect that not all proce-dures were followed. This year, thepeople were more comfortable withthe process and we are confident thatan accurate estimate has been pre-pared," said sources.
The 2010 National TigerAssessment partnered with WildlifeTrust of India, Aaranyak and WorldWildlife Fund-India. Centre forCellular and Molecular Biology gavetechnical imputs while local commu-nities were involved in data collec-tion and analysis, genetic analysis offaecal samples, assessment of co-predators, prey and habitat quality oftigers.
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Poaching 'biggest threat'to tigers
2012-05-16 10:57, News24
KUALA LUMPUR - Poaching hashampered efforts by the Malaysiangovernment and environmentalorganisations to save endangeredMalaysian tigers, a report by analliance of conservation groups said
on Wednesday.Illegal hunting and trade, driven
by demand from within and outsideMalaysia, were the most devastatingthreats to the tiger and other wildlifespecies, the Malaysian ConservationAlliance for Tigers said.
"Tigers are much sought after fortheir bones, which are used in tradi-tional medicine; meat, which is
served as a delicacy in wild meatrestaurants; and for other body parts,such as the teeth, claws and skin,which are believed to have curativeor 'magical' powers," it said in areport.
The tiger population inMalaysia's jungles has declined to anestimated 500 from as many as 3 000in the 1950s, the report said.
It added that the government'sNational Tiger Conservation ActionPlan for Malaysia, which aims toincrease the number of tigers to 1000 by 2020, would likely fail unlessthe government intensifies its cam-paign to curb the illegal wildlifetrade.
But the report praised the pas-sage of the Wildlife conservation Actof 2010, which increases the severityof penalties for wildlife offences.
It said the law has resulted in 41cases being filed before the SessionsCourt, six of which resulted in jailterms for the offenders.
"Of these, one case involved ille-gal possession of a tiger claw, forwhich the offenders were sentencedto four months in jail," it said.
"A dozen other court casesinvolved tiger prey with offenders intwo cases given jail terms."- SAPA
TRAFFIC Raises Awarenessof Poaching Threat inWildlife Trade Hotspotempowerednews.net,Thursday, June 21, 2012
Over a thousand residents in a poach-ing hotspot near an important pro-tected area had their awareness raisedduring a three-day exhibit by TRAF-FIC aiming to raise awareness of thethreats illegal hunting and wildlifetrade pose to endangered species.
The outreach program sawTRAFFIC set up booths at the nightand morning markets in towns fring-ing the Belum-Temengor ForestComplex in northern PeninsularMalaysia, home to Tigers, Sun Bears,Asian Elephants and Gaur, all primetargets of poachers and illegalwildlife traders.
The forest complex shares aninternational border with Thailand,and is one of the three Tiger priority
sites in Malaysia.TRAFFIC staff and volunteers
spoke to residents about provisionsand penalties under Malaysia's newWildlife Conservation Act 2010 forpoaching, illegal possession andtrade of protected species and the useof snares.
They also addressed the prohibi-tion on hunting Sambar and BarkingDeer, both important Tiger preyspecies and among the most com-monly poached animals in the area.As a result of poaching, Sambar pop-ulations in Malaysia are in seriousdecline.
The team promoted the WildlifeCrime Hotline, managed by theMalaysian Conservation Alliance forTigers (MYCAT), of which TRAF-FIC Southeast Asia is a member.Residents were encouraged to con-tact the 24-hour hotline and reportany information on poaching, theuse of snares or illegal trade.
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India, Nepal, Russia sign resolutions on tiger conservationTue, 22 May 2012 09:22:33 GMT,Hindu Business Line
NEW DELHI: India on Mondaysigned joint resolutions with Nepaland Russia on trans-border co-oper-ation to conserve the tiger. The reso-lutions were signed during the three-day Global Tiger RecoveryProgramme conference held in New
Delhi.The global conference of 13 tigerrange countries for the first timetook stock of efforts to double thenumber of wild tigers by 2022.While reporting a significantprogress, the meeting recognised theneed for intensive action to haltpoaching."Poaching of tigers to feed consumerdemand for their body parts and prod-ucts is one of the most important fac-tors reversing the gains made by
Governments, donors and other part-ners working towards the 2022 goal,"the conference noted. It also consid-ered new approaches to reduce con-sumer demand for tiger derivatives.The Secretary General of Global TigerForum, Dr Rajesh Gopal, called uponthe international community, donorsand partners to support the needyTiger Range Countries in scientificestimation of tiger, prey populationand status of habitat besides anti-poaching activities.
RESOLUTION OF THE FIFTH INDIA-NEPAL CONSULTATIVE MEETING
ON TRANS-BOUNDARY BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION 21-22 OCTOBER , 2011POKHARA, NEPAL - 1
In pursuance of the resolutions made by the two parties in the earlier consultative meetings, the representatives of theGovernment of Nepal and the Government of India, while expressing concern on the increasing threats to biodiver-sity caused by various factors and realizing the urgent need for an effective strategy to address the problem confrontingthe biodiversity conservation and ecological security in the trans-boundary region, hereby resolve to:
1. Formalise the draft Memorandum of Understanding between Government of India and Government of Nepalwith due consultation between the parties.
2. Expedite redressal of issues relating to seized materials of Red Sanders.
3. Provide funding support for creation of a rescue centre at Chitwan National Park, at an early date through theGlobal Tiger Forum (GTF).
4. Facilitate regular trans-boundary meetings and information sharing at central and field levels and exchange visitsof officials of both the countries.
5. Undertake landscape level assessment of tiger, rhino and elephant.
6. Support mutual exchange of scientific advancements relating to innovative wildlife research, scientific research, sci-entific studies, assessment and monitoring including source-sink population.
7. Identify and establish towards restoration of wildlife corridors and connectivity between India and Nepal.
8. Conduct activities to improve livelihoods of local communities around habitats.
9. Foster education and capacity building using existing facilities like Wildlife Institute of India.
10. Facilitate functioning of the South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN).
11. Identify areas of joint actions viz. Illegal wildlife trade, corresponding trade routes and information sharing.12. Strengthen institutional and legislative measures in both the countries, while learning from mutual experience.
13. Implement provisions of CITES on issues of mutual concern with a focus on control of trans-border smugglingof Red Sanders and other CITES species.
Signed on 17th May, 2012 at New Delhi
On behalf of The Government of IndiaMinistry of Environment and Forests
Sd/-Dr Rajesh GopalAPCCF & MS (NTCA)National Tiger Conservation AuthorityMinistry of Environment and Forests
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18 June 2012
On behalf of The Government of NepalMinistry of Forests and Soil Conservation
Sd/-Mr Krishna Prasad AcharyaDirector GeneralDepartment of National Park and Wildlife Conservation
Javan tiger declared extinct -but is it?Kevin Heath, June 3, 2012,http://wildlifenews.co.uk
Indonesia was blessed with 3 subspecies of tigers - the Javan , Bali andSumatran - sadly only the Sumatrantiger is now officially deemed to bein existence. The Bali tiger wasdeclared extinct in 1950. The Javantiger was thought to have goneextinct in the mid 1970's and offi-cially declared extinct in 1998. Buthas it really gone extinct?While there has been little hard evi-dence that the Javan tiger (Pantheratigris ssp. sondaica) there are lots oflocal reports of tigers on the island ofJava especially in the Muria moun-tain range.
Tiger droppings discovered on Java in August 2011
The most recent of these was report-ed in the Jakarta Post and took placelate last year. In August 2011 localenvironmental activists from theMuria Research Center were out hik-ing in the forests of the mountainsand came across tiger droppings.
"We found the faeces of aJavanese tiger while hiking in theMuria range from July to August2011, when we were heading to theTermulus Peak to be precise," activistImam Khanafi said.
Three possible locations forJavan tiger on the island.
In an article just published in theJakarta Post a local academic whohas been researching the Javan tigerfor 14 years believes that the tigercould be living in a number of placesacross Java apart from the Muriamountain range. He highlightedMeru Betiri and Gunung RaungNational Parks in East Java as otherlikely places for the last remnants ofthe Javan tiger.
There has been sporadic pieces ofevidence that the Javan tiger stillexists since it was declared extinct. Adead Javan tiger was found in 2000after being poisoned and a piece ofsuspected Javan tiger skin is said tohave come from a Javan tiger killedin 2008.
Javan tigers used to live in thelowland forests of Java in Indonesia.They were the second smallest of thetiger species only larger than the Balitiger. Apart from size difference theJavan tiger is differentiated from thelarger Sumatran tiger by the stripepatterns. Javan tigers have manymore narrower stripes than theirSumatran cousin.Strangely while the body of the Javantiger is smaller than their Asianmainland relatives the diameter oftheir feet size tended to be larger thateven the Bengal tiger.
This fits in with some of thedescriptions that are being given bylocal people on Java. They describe atiger with a smaller body and largefeet.
Camera trapping to gatherhard evidence of Javan tiger.
Following the discovery of tigerdroppings in August 2011 thenational park authorities began anew camera trap survey to try andcapture conclusive proof that theJavan tiger still roam the park.However the odds were stackedagainst them getting the evidence.
The park rangers had just 5 cam-era traps available for the project andthe deployment of the cameras tookplace in December during the wetseason. This meant that freshwaterwas plentiful in the national park.Camera trapping is much moreeffective during the dry season (May- September) when they can beplaced at known watering holes.
Even finding tiger droppings cannow provide essential evidence ofthe survival of the Javan tiger.Modern DNA techniques will beable to confirm that the tiger is stillliving and not an escaped Sumatrantiger.
What a boost it would be to tigerconservation - and Indonesiantourism - if the Javan tiger wasfound to be, if not thriving, at leaststill in existence on the island.
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VLADIVOSTOK, June 21 - RIANovosti. The police found in the cityof Nakhodka, Primorsky Krai a largeconsignment of rare Red-listed ani-mals derivatives, including 6 pelts ofthe Amur tiger, informs the pressoffice of the Ministry of naturalresources and ecology of the RussianFederation.
Information about the discoveryof the items obtained by poachingwas received by the Ministry fromthe regional department of theFederal Service for Supervision ofNatural Resources Usage. Specialists
of the Service analyzed the police'sfinds.
"Results of their analysis demon-strated that the remains found inNakhodka belong to at least six indi-vidual Amur tigers, 34 individualHimalayan black bear, four individu-al Steller's sea eagles, and one each -mandarin duck, leopard cat, wildboar and Manchurian wapiti", - saysthe statement.
According to the preliminaryassessment the environmental dam-age inflicted by the poachersamounts to over 5 million rubles. A
criminal case was open regarding thepoaching in Nakhodka. Those foundguilty of killing the Red-listed ani-mals can face up to 2 years of correc-tional labor.
"It also became known thatSergei Donskoy, the Minister forNatural Resources and Ecology ofthe RF sent a telegram to VladimirMiklushevky, the Primorsky Krai,with a request to have the investiga-tion into the killing of the animalsunder his special supervision and totake measures to identify the cul-prits" says the statement.
JOINT RESOLUTION OF AGREED ACTIONS AS AN OUTCOME OF THE 2NDMEETING OF THE SUB-GROUP ON TIGER AND LEOPARD CONSERVATION
BETWEEN RUSSIA & INDIA HELD ON 17TH NOVEMBER, 2011 AT NEW DELHI.
The India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and CulturalCooperation (IRIGC-TEC) is the apex G2G forum for bilateral economic cooperation. The IRIGC-TEC is chairedby the External Affairs Minister from the Indian side and Deputy Prime Minister from the Russian side. The IRIGCintegrates inputs from seven working groups: economic and trade cooperation; mining; fertilizers; energy and ener-gy efficiency; tourism and culture; science and technology; and IT; and two sub-groups on banking and financial mat-ters; and tiger/leopard conservation.
India hosted the first meeting of the sub-group on tiger and leopard conservation from May 24 to 27, 2011 and againthe 2nd meeting on 17th November, 2011 at New Delhi.
The agreed actions on bilateral cooperation, based on the outcome of the meeting of the said sub-group, are as below:
i) Scientific field:Both countries are carrying out research on tiger using the non-invasive DNA extraction from scats. India is usingmethodology to estimate the minimum population, individual identification for biological as well as forensic purpos-es. The Indian institutions like the Wildlife Trust of Indi, working in collaboration with the National TigerConservation Authority, may facilitate as a focal institution for cooperation in this field, with the Russian institutions.
ii)Tiger reintroduction and rehabilitation:India has a good experience in the reintroduction of tigers from the wild to wild, which is a success story in terms ofplanning, execution and monitoring. Considering the interest evinced by the Russian side in leopard and tiger rein-troduction, India may share these experiences with the Russian counterparts for mutual benefit.On the request from the Russian side for providing a Royal Bengal white tigress (1 to 2 years old) to the Siberianreserve "Royev Ruchey", it is stated that in India white tigers are not found in the wild, but are available only in cap-tivity (zoos). The captive tiger from any of the Indian zoo may be provided for rearing in captivity (zoo), after fol-lowing the due protocol.
iii). Monitoring and surveillance of long ranging tigers, electronic surveillance of tiger reserves:A pilot project has been launched at the Corbett Tiger Reserve in India for 24x7 electronic Surveillance using longrange intelligent infrared and thermo-cameras mounted on towers at strategic locations, generating alerts in case ofintrusions. India may share this expertise with the Russian counterparts.
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iv) Training and capacity building of Field Officers/Specialists in India and vice versa: The Wildlife Institute of India is a premier institute for capacity building in wildlife management which offers sev-eral short term and long term courses. Building capacity of field officers/specialists in the designated institutions ofboth the countries may be an area of cooperation.
v) Landscape planning and smart green infrastructure in tiger landscape:India has recently done the country level status assessment of tigers, co-predators, prey and their habitat based on sci-entific methodology, which has been peer reviewed and published in an international journal. This also includes iden-tification of crucial corridors and their delineation at the GIS domain for taking informed decisions on proposals forinfrastructure development. The Indian experience may be shared with the Russian side for planning at the landscapelevel.
vi) Cooperation on anti-poaching strategy & planning:India has developed a set of generic guidelines for security planning of tiger reserves besides creating the Special TigerProtection Force for anti-poaching activities. The Indian experience in this field may be shared with the Russian sidefor their tiger occupied landscapes.
vii) Management interventions for model ecosystem for tiger and their comparison from India:The tiger occupied landscapes may be studied in both the countries for comparing the ecological status.
viii) Exchange officers to share experience on good practices in the tiger conservation:Exchange of officers to share experiences on good practices covering the areas of cooperation relating to tiger andleopard conservation may be an area of cooperation.
ix) Global Tiger Forum (GTF):The Global Tiger Forum is an intergovernmental international organization, of which India is the founder member.Tiger Range Countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia; non-tiger range countrylike U.K. and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service besides several international and national NGOs are members. The IUCNis willing to enter into MOU with the GTF for cooperation which has been assigned the status of "Special Invitee"of the GTF. The joining of the Russian Federation to the said Forum would further strengthen the tiger conservationat the global level.
Signed on 17th May, 2012 at New Delhi
On behalf of The Government of IndiaMinistry of Environment and Forests
Sd/-
Dr Rajesh GopalAPCCF & MS (NTCA)National Tiger Conservation AuthorityMinistry of Environment and Forests
On behalf of The Russian Federation
Sd/-
Mr Amirkhan AmirkhanovDeputy HeadThe Federal Supervisory Natural Resources ManagementService
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22 June 2012
Could Critical ThailandTiger Sanctuary be Flooded?by Randy JohnsonT on May 20, 2012
An article in The Jakarta Post warnedthat, "Thailand's pledge to doublethe number of endangered wildtigers in the country's jungles by2022 will be in jeopardy if a newdam at a national park is built." Thearea is the last tiger sanctuary inSoutheast Asia.
A dam is being proposed on theMae Wong river at the Mae WongNational Park north-west ofBangkok. The structure will be part aflood management plan that willhelp irrigate farmland.
However, to do that, it willdestroy nearly 4,500 acres of low-lying forest that is excellent habitatfor wildlife, including the tiger. Thepaper said, "Thailand was among 12Asian countries that committedthemselves at the Global TigerSummit in Russia in 2010 to dou-bling the world's tiger population to7,000 by 2022. The 900-square-kilometer national park has beenprotected for more than 24 years."
The plan generated controversyamong environmentalists whenAnak Pattanavibool, the director ofthe US-based Wildlife ConservationSociety's (WCS) Thailand program,wrote an article in the Bangkok Post."The entire Western Forest Complexis Thailand's very last stronghold formany globally endangered and vul-nerable species," Anak wrote. "Theinternational community ... hashailed the long and firmly held poli-cy of Thailand to protect theWestern Forest Complex and itsassociated natural heritage as anexample for others to follow.Successive governments have invest-ed in total more than THB 300 mil-lion (US$9.65 million) to make thepark as secure as it is today," he said.
Thailand's Western ForestComplex is the largest system of pro-tected areas in mainland SoutheastAsia and overlaps the border with
Myanmar.The Jakarta paper said
"Thailand's Cabinet approved thedam project in April, but no envi-ronmental impact assessment hasbeen carried out."
In an interview, Anak said,"Building a dam and reservoir in anational park is illegal in the firstplace. Constructing the dam andreservoir would destroy Thailand'sreputation for wildlife protection."
Conservationists think the planwill "test the strength of the coun-try's Department of National Parks,which has the authority to turndown the plan."
Tiger's death accidental: temple vetThe Nation/Asia NewsNetwork, Sunday, Jun 03, 2012
THAILAND - The veterinarian atthe "Tiger Temple" - Wat Pha LuangTa Bua, in Kanchanaburi's Sai Yokdistrict -said yesterday that the deathof a tiger on May 26 resulted from afreak accident, but the temple treat-ed its tigers well and cooperated withThai authorities. The mysteriousdeath of the tiger had led to fearsanimals at the temple were beingmistreated.
Veterinarian SomchaiWisetmongkolchai said temple staffhung a tyre on a chain for tigers toplay with, but next morning foundthe one-year-old female tiger deadwith the chain around its neck. Ithad sustained serious neck woundsas it apparently tried to chew thechain off its neck.
Somchai checked and pho-tographed the wounds, alerted theNational Parks, Wildlife and PlantConservation Department and sub-mitted a report on the tiger's deathto the Conservation Area 3 Office(Ban Pong). Authorities came toinspect the death as per normal pro-cedure, he said.
Insisting the tigers were well
taken care of and that each tiger hada microchip implanted and regis-tered with the department, he said aMahidol University (Sai Yok) vetchecked on the tigers on a regularbasis. He had suggested the depart-ment stuff the tiger carcass for edu-cational purposes, rather than burnit, he said.
Conservation Area 3 Office (BanPong) director YutthachaiPattamasonthi said the departmentinstructed his office to work with theTiger Temple to examine the carcassfor the cause of death at the MahidolUniversity (Sai Yok)'s livestock andwildlife hospital.
How to Stop WildlifePoachersBy Elizabeth L Bennett, New York Times, Published: May 24, 2012
In Asia, the government's training anddeployment of park guards inThailand's most important reserve,the Huai Kha Khaeng WildlifeSanctuary, has led to seven years ofpopulation stability in tigers and otherwildlife, in contrast to dramaticdeclines in nearby unprotected parks.
This only makes sense. We don'tleave our valuables unprotected.Guards patrol art galleries and muse-ums to secure our cultural heritage.We should be taking the sameapproach to safeguarding our naturalheritage.
The most effective protectioninevitably involves the long-termefforts of committed park rangerspatrolling protected areas with theendorsement and support of localcommunities. Wildlife guards aredeployed by the national govern-ments, which gives them the legalauthority and mandate to operate and,in some cases, the core financing to doso. Other agencies work in partner-ship with those governments to givethem both technical and financialsupport to combat poaching.
Nevertheless, for many poorer
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governments striving against theodds to protect their wildlife, outsidesupport for salaries, vehicles andequipment is crucial. At present,support (not including weapons)comes largely from nongovernmen-tal organizations, with their generousprivate donors, and from nationalgovernment agencies like the UnitedStates Agency for InternationalDevelopment and the United StatesFish and Wildlife Service. Moremoney - and the resulting increase inthe number and effectiveness ofguards - is crucial to the survival of
many species targeted by poachers.Fortunately, relatively small
investments can have big impacts. InThailand's Huai Kha Khaengreserve, 200 rangers cover an area of1,073 square miles for an annual costof under $5,000 per ranger. The gov-ernment pays salaries and, with assis-tance from the WildlifeConservation Society, providesrations, equipment and training.Two poachers were sentenced lastsummer to the longest prison termsto date in Thailand for a wildlifecrime - one for four years and the
other for five. No high-value poach-ing episode has occurred in thereserve since.
These rangers toil in landscapesthat are frequently remote, physical-ly tough and dangerous.
Until we provide the resourcesand security to safeguard the world'sgreat natural treasures, populationsof great apes and countless otherspecies will slowly wink out acrossthe world, and our awe-inspiringnatural heritage, the product of mil-lions of years of evolution, will con-tinue its slide into oblivion.
Vietnam police seized threetiger bodyBBC-Vietnam, Update:09:59 GMT,Tuesday, 29 June 5, 2012
Police on Tuesday said Vietnam hasseized three tiger's body after a gunbattle with smugglers in the centralprovince of Nghe An, according tolocal media.
Police say three tigers werebutchered, frozen transported on acar and is in transit to go to Hanoiconsumption on the afternoon of28/5 local time.
Three tiger weighs about 320 kgwas discovered after a police chase inwhich the smugglers reportedlyopened fire resistance during flight.
Police said they had caught aman of the carrier, who declared that
"escort duties on a number ofstrangers," according to the bambooAge Online.
Vn Express newspaper reportedthe man was arrested with the carcarrying three tiger body, after two"accomplices" fleeing, declarationthat the person "is a man hired totransport meat from Ha Tinh toboar Quynh Luu district, but nodoubt it was the number of tigers. "
"We have arrested the car driver,but the person's accomplice fledafter the shooting at us," said TranHuu Hong, head of the environmen-tal police in Nghe An province isFrench news agency AFP quoted say-ing.
"We will identify three tigersexamined to determine their origin,"police official told AFP.
'Risk elimination 'There are fewer than 50 tigers arebelieved to live in the wild forests inremote areas around the inflation-South territory, but this small popu-lation of tigers are hunters andsmuggled out thoroughly.
About 120 tigers were arrested,according to official French newsagency quoted.
Throughout the world, a smallnumber around 3,200 animals withthem with the tigers surviving in thewild but are scoured, hunting forskins, bones and other body parts intraditional Chinese medicine.
AFP said that the Ministry ofnatural resources and environmentof Vietnam is drafting a new nation-al program to conserve wildlifespecies are in danger of being wipedthis is very high.
Summary highlighting tiger conser-vation activities undertaken and/orsupported by WWF and TRAFFIC,January - June 2012
Towards Zero PoachingWith poaching still the most imme-diate cause of the tiger's decline andthe greatest barrier to achieving theTX2 goal, WWF's Tigers AliveInitiative (TAI) launched a ZeroPoaching campaign in December2011 to lift the scale, intensity andprofessionalism of the efforts againstpoaching and ensure that it does notdrop again.
Putting an end to poachingwould also ensure that the invest-ments of the governments anddonors towards the shared goal ofdoubling the number of tigers do notsimply become financial gains for thepoachers and tiger traders.
During the campaign, whichends in June 2013, the WWF TAI isplacing a major emphasis on mobi-lizing efforts to bring poaching asclose to zero as possible, as fast aspossible. It aims to build support,investment and commitment tointensify and strengthen efforts tostop tigers and their prey from beingpoached. It is urging governments tosend out a strong zero poaching, notolerance message, and for "more,happier and better boots on theground" i.e. more, well-trained,motivated and resourced field staffworking to stop the drain of tigersfrom the tiger heartlands. Onedesired outcome of the campaign isthat work is underway for at least 50tiger sites to reach good enforcementstandards by June 2013.
The TAI is supporting tiger rangecountries in their enforcementefforts through both training andhelping to develop computer-based,law enforcement monitoring sys-tems. It has developed a field manu-al for ranger training and an accredi-tation scheme, aimed at reachingnew standards in protected areamanagement, called CA/TS(Conservation Assured/TigerStandards). Together with a host of
partner user groups, including WCS,CITES/MIKE and Uganda WildlifeAuthority, the TAI has also devel-oped SMART, a law enforcementmonitoring software. Both CA/TSand SMART will be rolled out in thesecond half of 2012.
In April 2012, the TAI conduct-ed a preliminary assessment of 84tiger sites in seven of the 12 coun-tries where it currently works and/orsupports tiger conservation. Eachsite was evaluated on three criticalfactors for protecting tigers: thenumber of protected area staff, theuse of law enforcement monitoringtools, and whether the park was offi-cially protected by law. Data for theassessment was collected from pub-lished sources and through a surveyof WWF field staff and managers ofthe sites wherever available. Thefindings showed that of 63 legallyprotected areas assessed, only 22, or35%, maintain WWF's minimumstandards of protection. This indi-cated that tigers in most of the pro-tected areas are still very vulnerableto poaching. The assessment alsoindicated that only 18 of these pro-tected areas, or 29%, are currentlyusing computer-based, law enforce-ment monitoring systems to helpthem manage their sites more effec-tively; the majority still rely on man-ual analysis.
Moving forward, the TAI wantsto work with governments to devel-op operational plans towards ZeroPoaching, and has identified threeactions the governments can take.These include identifying and delin-eating the most important sitesrequiring good protection frompoaching, and ensuring these siteshave sufficient numbers of enforce-ment staff, who are well trained tomonitor and improve their effective-ness by using monitoring systems.WWF also suggests that the policeand judiciary need to help to ensurestrict punishment on poaching andto actively engage local communitiesliving adjacent to important tigerconservation areas.
Following are highlights of someWWF activities in the various tigerrange countries:■ Bhutan: Minister leads tigerwalk-shopOn 17 April, Bhutan's Minister forAgriculture and Forests, Lyonpo(Dr) Pema Gyamtsho, led officials,NGO representatives and otherstakeholders, on a 5-Km tiger walk-shop to show support to all thoseworking tirelessly on the ground andunder harsh and difficult conditionsto save tigers. The walk reiteratedBhutan's commitment made at theTiger Summit in 2010 to doublewild tiger numbers by 2022. It wasalso aimed at encouraging other tigerrange countries to do the samebefore the next ministerial meetingon tiger conservation.
The walk was in Jigme DorjiNational Park, where camera trapsprovided the first ever photographicevidence of the presence of tigers ataltitudes of 4,670 metres.Participants were able to experiencethe sights and sounds of nature whilediscussing the challenges and oppor-tunities for a successful tiger conser-vation programme. They saw plentyof evidence of the tiger's presence inthe park - tiger scats and pug marks.Photos taken off a camera trap thathad been set up in the area con-firmed this; there were 47 photoswith tiger images.
The walk was organized in col-laboration with the Information &Communication Services, JigmeDorji National Park, Ministry ofAgriculture & Forests, with WWF'ssupport.
For more, see http://www.wwfb-hutan.org/news2/?204288/Walk-Shop-for-Tigers-in-Bhutan--getting-down-to-business.
■ China: Chinese citizens pledgenot to consume tiger productsWWF and TRAFFIC Chinalaunched an action in June to getChinese citizens not to consumetiger products with an event held atthe National Zoological museumwhere about 100 families with small
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News from International NGOs/Agencies:
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children from all over Bejing attend-ed. The idea behind the event wasthat through the children's naturallove and desire to protect tigers, theycan stop their parents and relativesfrom buying tiger products. Thisnatural love and desire was rein-forced through numerous activities,including telling stories about thecrucial role of tigers in the ecosystemand how best to protect them, suchas not buying tiger products or dis-posable chopsticks - a poor reasonfor logging. The children and theirparents then wrote their pledge tonot buy tiger products on postcards,which WWF will take to northeastChina where wild tigers are found.The postcards will then be stampedwith a local postmark from the areaand mailed back to the children tokeep as a souvenir. The families werealso encouraged to help spread themessage by giving their friends' mail-ing address.
The action is supported by anonline promotion, which enables vis-itors to WWF-China's web site learnmore about the tiger and, similar tothe offline event, make a pledge tonot buy tiger products using the e-
postcards. They can send their e-postcards to friends by email or shar-ing them on the Chinese microblog-ging site, weibo. One of China'sbiggest online news portal, sina.com,is helping to publicise the action bylinking to the campaign web site.
■ China: Tiger prey pilot projectlaunched in northeast ChinaLow density of ungulates, such as reddeer, the Amur tiger's main food, isone of the key barriers to restoringnortheast China's tiger population.WWF has recently launched a pilotproject to increase the prey popula-tion, based on effective methodsused to recover prey density inRussia Far East.
From January to March, WWFconstructed 15 fixed supplementarybreeding sites in the forestry farms ofJilin and Heilongjiang provinces tohelp ungulates pass the winter. Thesites were chosen based on dataobtained from past wildlife surveys.WWF's local partners maintain thebreeding sites with feedstock to helpthe ungulates, especially their young,find food. This helps to graduallyincrease the ungulate population. A
report on the pilot project will beavailable in May 2012.
Such projects carry risks. WWFhad to carefully select partners whohave effective anti-poaching capacity.Poaching is still the biggest threat innortheast China, and the supple-mentary breeding sites could make iteasy for poachers to trap wildlife. Allthree forestry bureaus WWF is part-nering with have been carrying outanti-poaching action every winter.One, Wangqing Forestry Bureau,received the WWF TAI's award foroutstanding work in anti-poachinglast November.
■ India: TRAFFIC launches newcampaign on Asian big catsWith Asia's big cats increasinglyunder threat in the wild, TRAFFIChas embarked on a public serviceadvertisement campaign as areminder that these felines are"Wanted Alive" in their natural habi-tat!
Illegal wildlife trade threatens thesurvival of the four Asian big cats -the tiger, leopard, snow leopard andclouded leopard - in the wild. Allfour species are found in various
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habitats across India. Besides existingmarkets, new emerging ones, such asthose in Myanmar, are worsening thesituation. The threat was highlightedat the recently concluded GlobalTiger Recovery ProgrammeStocktaking meeting in New Delhifrom 15-17 May 2012, which wasattended by senior government offi-cials from all 13 tiger range coun-tries. TRAFFIC estimates that bodyparts of nearly 500 tigers have beenrecovered from illegal traders inIndia during 2000-2011. Manymore tigers may have been killed andsmuggled out, undetected.\
India's TIMES OOH has pro-vided generous support forTRAFFIC's campaign by offeringhoarding sites and digital screens fordisplay. Large banners have also beenput up at the DND Flyway in Delhi,airports, metro stations and otherstrategic locations across the country.
For more, see http://www.traf-fic.org/home/2012/5/25/wanted-alive-help-save-our-big-cats.html
■ Indonesia: Google mapping toolshows impacts of deforestation inSumatraWWF and Eyes on the Forest, anIndonesian NGO coalition, receiveda grant from Google Maps Engine todevelop a powerful new mappingtool as part of efforts to save tigersand other endangered species inSumatra. The mapping project wasone of the first to receive a grantfrom the Google Earth Outreachteam to use Google Maps Engine, aplatform for hosting, storing andmanaging map data..
The mapping tool enables thepublic to visualize Sumatra's forestsand wildlife, such as tigers, rhinos,elephants and orang-utans, andobtain vital information in the raceto protect forests and help local com-munities. It makes publicly availablea huge and ever growing database ofthe land cover, land use, land usersand biodiversity compiled by manyexperts over decades of work on theground in Sumatra.
Ultimately, the database willshow threats and challenges, identifythe drivers of deforestation, habitatdestruction and release of peat car-bon, which contributes to globalwarming. Users will be able to buildtheir own maps using Eyes on theForest's data layers such as forest loss
over time, species distribution, con-servation intervention priority areas,restoration priority areas, degradedlands and government protectedareas.a
For more, seehttp://www.google.com/earth/out-reach/stories/wwf.html
■ Malaysia: Training boost forwildlife crime investigation inBelum-TemengorEnforcement officers working acrossPeninsular Malaysia's Belum-Temengor forest complex, a globally-important tiger landscape, partici-pated in a two-day intensive trainingsession to boost wildlife crime inves-tigation in the area.
TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, in col-laboration with WWF-Malaysia andthe Hulu Perak District Office, orga-nized the training to strengtheninvestigations and increase prosecu-tion in a landscape long consideredan illegal hunting and trade hotspot.More than 400 animals, includingtigers, pangolins, Asian elephants,gaur, and sambar deer, have beenkilled in Belum-Temengor over thelast three years. In addition, 142snares have been removed andnumerous foreign poacher campsdiscovered in the area.
The training was also aimed atclosing knowledge gaps and equip-ping officers on the frontline withthe confidence, skills and tools tofight wildlife crime. Helmed by aformer senior police investigatorwith 20 years of experience workingon serious crimes, the trainingdrilled trainees in wildlife legislation,investigation techniques, informanthandling as well as evidence collec-tion and handling.
The 30 trainees came from theRoyal Malaysian Police, Anti-Smuggling Unit, the Department ofWildlife and National Parks, RoyalMalaysian Customs, ForestryDepartment, Marine Police, DistrictOffice, Perak State ParksCorporation, People's VolunteerCorps, Immigration Departmentand the Armed Forces. They joined2,500 others who have receivedtraining previously from TRAFFICon species identification, wildlifetrade regulations and investigationssince 2009.
For more, see http://www.traf-fic.org/home/2012/4/24/training-
to-boost-wildlife-crime-investiga-tion-in-belum-teme.html
■ Nepal: Tiger and preymonitoring for Bardia NPWWF-Nepal is collaborating withNepal's Department of NationalParks and Wildlife Conservation toassess the status of tigers and theirprey in Bardia National Park begin-ning in March. The last populationestimate in 2008 revealed a tigerdensity in the park of 1.76 per 100square km, a major decline from pre-vious estimate in 2000 of 19.3 tigersper 100 square km. Many activitieshave been launched in the park inrecent years to help recover tigerpopulations, including the buildingof a strong community-user groupprogramme. The estimation willtherefore also serve as an answer tothe effectiveness of these pro-grammes since the last count in2009. The study has been designedto cover the entire park, and a teamof 30 to 40 people have receivingtraining to carry it out. It is expect-ed the exercise will last until the endof April 2012.
■ Russia: First stage of Amur tigermonitoring completed in RussianFar EastSixteen monitoring plots in theRussian Far East Provinces ofPrimorsky and Khabarovsky haverevealed a healthy amount of tigeractivity. This finding follows thecompletion of the first stage of theannual tiger monitoring programmesupported by WWF-Russia in con-junction with Wildlife and HuntingDepartment of Primorsky and theFar Eastern Branch of the RussianAcademy of Science. Four maturetigers were registered in bothOlginsky and Terneisky districts,while two were observed inChuguevsky district. Five to sixtigers were identified in Lazovskydistrict, while three other districtswere also found to contain tigers.The Wildlife and HuntingDepartment of Primorsky Provincehas reported that planned routeswithin eight plots were fully coveredusing appropriate methodologies.The second stage of the programmewas due to take place in February.
For more, seehttp://www.wwf.ru/news/eng/arti-cle/9112
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In China, tiger and elephantbooks focus on changingyoung readers hearts andmindsBy: Grace Ge Gabriel PostedWed, 03/21/2012
Two new Chinese language booksfor young readers are showing up inbookstores in China. The books onelephant and tiger conservationrespectively join a series of wildlifebooks the International Fund forAnimal Welfare has been publishingin China.
The first, Run Tiger Run--TheStory of A Tiger, is from the point ofview of a young Bengal tiger whorelates the story of his growing up onthe Indian subcontinent and thechallenges and adversities he faces inhis life. All of the pictures in thebook are provided free by MichaelVickers, a wildlife photographerfromthe UK. He also wrote the forewordfor the book.
Our second book, The ElephantLaura, is the first-ever attempt tobring the story of African elephantsto young Chinese readers. Writtenfrom the perspective of a young ele-phant named Laura, the book tellsthe heart-wrenching story of her life,the challenges she faces growing up
and the threats she and her familyencounter on the vast African savan-nah.
Both books aim to motivateChinese readers to reject productsusing elephant ivory and tiger bone,to have concern for the welfare ofwildlife and the desire to protectthem in the wild.
Both books were endorsed bymany popular Chinese celebrities.Actress and star blogger YAO Chenwhose micro blog has 17 million fol-lowers in China, wrote the forewordfor the elephant book. She urgesChinese readers to reject ivory con-sumption because "our behavior isclosely connected with the fate ofthese intelligent animals living acrossthe world."
Poaching and habitat destructionhave pushed tigers to the brink ofextinction. China, where scientistbelieve is the origin for all tiger sub-species, has fewer than 50 tigers leftin the wild. Yet, thousands of tigerslanguish in tiger farms bred solely toproduce "tiger bone wine". Whiletiger trade is banned int ernationallyand in all tiger range states, thesetypes of tiger farms, though theirexistence is legal in China, stimulatedemand for tiger parts and fuelspoaching of tigers in the wild.
The rising demand for ivory inChina today is causing another ele-phant holocaust in both Africa andAsia. Just in the last month, over 300elephants were killed in one NationalPark alone in the Central Africannation of Cameroon. Poachers gundown entire families of elephantsjust for their ivory. In 2011, 5295elephant whole tusks were seized byenforcement agencies around theworld, representing the lives of atleast 2600 elephants. Majority of theseizures indicate that China is thedestination for the ivory.
Reducing demand for wildlife inChina is pivotal in the fight to saveboth these endangered species. Ibelieve most Chinese consumerswould make the responsible choiceto reject tiger products and elephantivory IF they are made aware of thecrisis caused by their unnecessaryconsumption.
And that's the ultimate goal forIFAW to publish these books togeth-er with China Tourism PublishingHouse and Trends. Co. If the sale ofthe first book on seals is any indica-tion, I am confident that these bookswill evoke the same emotion anddetermination in Chinese readers tojoin IFAW in the fight to save ele-phants and tigers in the wild.
INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR ANIMAL WELFARE
WWF-India's TigerConservation Initiatives(January-June 2012)
WWF-India has been working forthe conservation of tigers ever sinceits instrumental role in the launch ofProject Tiger. In 2012 so far, WWF-India has been undertaking variousinitiatives to further the cause oftiger conservation including playinga significant role in the annual PhaseIV monitoring of tiger populationscurrently underway across India,successfully implementing an inter-im relief scheme in Central India tomitigate human-tiger conflict andstrengthening monitoring andenforcement capabilities of frontlineforest staff.
Phase IV Monitoring of TigerPopulationsAs part of the country wide annualPhase-4 tiger estimation in sourceareas WWF-India is partnering withNTCA and the state forest depart-ments (FD) in five tiger landscapesin the country. The Tiger Reservesand Protected Areas where WWF-India is involved in these five tigerlandscapes are as follows:
1) Shivaliks-Gangetic/ Terai ArcLandscape: a) Dudhwa Tigerreserve- including DudhwaNational Park, Katerniaghat andKishenpur Wildlife Sanctuary
2) North East landscape: Manas &Kaziranga Tiger Reserves, Pakke &Dampa Tiger Reserves (In Manasand Kaziranga along with local partner Aaranyak)
3) Sunderbans Biosphere reserve:24-Parganas Forest division andSajnekhali Wildlife Sanctuary
4) Central India/Satpura MaikalLandscape: Satpura Tiger Reserve
5) Western Ghats: Parambikulam,Mudumalai, Anamalai and KalakadMundunthurai Tiger Reserves
Besides the above tiger reservesWWF-India is also monitoring othersource areas, which are currently nottiger reserves but nevertheless, areimportant breeding sites. Examplesof this include Moyar-Segur (NilgirisNorth FD) with 54 individual tigers,Pilibhit Forest Division with 33individual tigers, and RamnagarForest Division with a density esti-mate of over 15-tigers/100 sq.km.These abundance and density esti-mates rival some of the best tigerreserves in India and thus qualifythem as source sites, the 'pulse' ofwhich we need to keep a close watchon annually.
WWF-India is also monitoringsome of the important tiger corridorsin the country. Some of theseinclude: Kosi corridor, Chilla-Motichur corridor and Khata corri-dors in the Terai, Kaziranga-Karbianglong corridors in the NorthEast, Kanha-Pench corridor &Pench-Satpura corridors in CentralIndia and Segur corridor in WesternGhats. In the Kosi corridor, WWF-India camera trapped 13 differenttigers using the corridor while at thesame time it faces threat fromunplanned and unsustainable touristresort construction. Very recently,WWF-India also documented tigerdispersal through the Khata corridorfrom Nepal into Katerniaghat.
List of sites and corridors:Tiger estimation sites besides tigerreserves mentioned above: 1) RajajiNational Park, 2) Lansdowne ForestDivision (FD), 3) Ramnagar FD, 4)Terai West FD, 5) Terai east FD, 6)Champawat FD, 7) Haldwani FD,8) Pilibhit FD, 9) 10)Sathyamangalam FD, 11) NilgirisNorth FD, 12) Wayanad WildlifeSanctuary
Corridors: 1) Chilla-Motichur corri-dor, 2) Song river corridor, 3)Nihalbakhra, 4) Boar corridor, 5)Kosi corridor, 6) Katerniaghat-Dudhwa corridor,7) Khata corridor,8) Kilpura-Khatima corridor & 9)Upper Gola corridor in the Terai,10) Kaziranga-Karbianglong corri-
dors in the North East, 11) Kanha-Pench corridor & 12) Pench-Satpura corridor in Central Indiaand 13) Kallar & 14) Segur corridorsin the Western Ghats
Mitigating Human-Tiger ConflictFor past one and half years, WWF-India has been providing interimrelief for cattle killed by large carni-vores to reduce retaliatory poisoningof tigers and leopards in the Kanha-Pench corridor of Central India. Intotal, more than 100 livestock own-ers have been paid a total of Rs.80,000 approximately under theInterim Relief scheme ever since itsimplementation began in July 2010.Not only has this been effective inreducing the initial anger of localcommunities but also monitoringcattle kills through camera trappinghas been an effective tool for collect-ing ecological information on largecarnivore assemblage, dispersal andmovement in Kanha-Pench corridor.
The combination of monitoringthe kills through camera traps andproviding interim relief has also pre-vented poisoning of the kills. In fact,in the past one-year, there have beenno tiger poisoning cases in this corri-dor. Seven different tigers and fiveleopards have been identified fromthis corridor through camera trap-ping. Besides large carnivores, cam-era traps have captured photos ofmany small and large mammals pro-viding an insight into the speciesbiodiversity of this corridor.
Strengthening enforcement andmonitoring capabilitiesTo enhance the patrolling and mon-itoring capabilities of Valmiki TigerReserve, WWF-India provided aBolero Camper and 24 camera traps.WWF-India also provided infras-tructural support to RamnagarForest Div., Terai West ForestDivision and Dudhwa and PakkeTiger Reserves in the form of HPdesktops and server computers. Atractor was provided to Manas TigerReserve to help the forest staff intransporting equipment inside thePark. Dudhwa Tiger Reserve was also
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News from National NGOs:
WWF - India
supported with camera traps, GPSinstruments, still cameras and binoc-ulars to help the staff undertakeeffective monitoring of the wildlifein the Tiger Reserve. The frontlinestaff of Laokhowa-BurachaporiWildlife Sanctuary, under KazirangaTiger Reserve, was provided withfield gear such as motorcycles, bicy-cles, woolen blankets, sweaters, fieldshoes and water filters to help themundertake regular patrolling of thesanctuary.
To enhance transboundary coop-eration, WWF-India organized anumber of workshops betweenIndia-Nepal and India-Bhutanwhere wildlife and government offi-cials and experts were broughttogether to discuss better ways ofcollaboration and information shar-ing to prevent poaching and monitorwildlife.
WWF-India also conducted
training for a number of frontlineforest staff on wildlife crime preven-tion across various forest divisionsand Protected Areas.
Related Newshttp://www.wwfindia.org/news_facts/?7322/Camera-traps-capture-excit-ing-animal-behaviour-across-India
http://www.wwfindia.org/news_facts/?7300/Tiger-recovery-efforts-pro-gressing-urgent-action-still-needed-to-fight-poaching
http://www.wwfindia.org/news_facts/?7280/Wild-tigers-remain-vulnera-ble-to-poaching-in-most-protected-areas
http://www.wwfindia.org/news_facts/?7220/WWF-India-staffs-timely-act-prevents-poaching-attempt-in-a-criti-cal-Central-Indian-tiger-corridor
http://www.wwfindia.org/news_facts / ? 7 1 8 0 / W W F - I n d i a s - n e w -Handbook-to-enhance-effectiveness-of-patrolling-by-forest-staff
http://www.wwfindia.org/news_facts/?7020/Thriving-tigers-bode-well-for-Kosi-River-corridor
http://www.wwfindia.org/news_facts / ? 6 8 4 0 / N a n d h o r - Va l l e y -Uttarakhand-springs-pleasant-sur-prises
http://www.wwfindia.org/news_facts / ? 6 8 0 0 / Ti g e r s - t h r i v i n g - i n -R a m n a g a r - Fo r e s t - D i v i s i o n -Uttarakhand
http://www.wwfindia.org/news_facts/?6780/important-wildlife-corridor-near-the-Kaziranga-Tiger-Reserve
Tiger Bones and ClawsSeized in UttarakhandWPSI, 17 January 2012
NEW DELHI: The SpecialOperations Group (Kumaon ForestRange) assisted by the WildlifeProtection Society of India (WPSI),seized 9 kg of tiger bones, 18 tigerclaws, three canines, and tiger'swhiskers from the Kotabagh areanear Ramnagar in Uttarakhand on11th January.
One person was arrested and twokg of leopard bone was also laterseized from the accused during thejoint operation led by Mr. ParamjitSingh, Chief Conservator of Forests(Kumaon Range).
Earlier, on 9 January, seven steeljaw traps used for trapping leopardsand other wild animals were alsoseized from a village in Dauli Rangenear Haldwani.
WPSI's wildlife crime databasehas recorded the poaching andseizure of the body parts of 43 tigersand 365 leopards in the last twoyears. The state of Uttarakhand hasemerged as a hotbed of this wildlifecrime activity and in 2011 account-ed for more than 30% of all tiger andleopard deaths recorded from across
the country.Both Tigers and Leopards are
listed in Schedule I of WildlifeProtection Act. Any crime involvingthese species is punishable withimprisonment for a term betweenthree and seven years and a fine notless than Rs. 10,000. The poachingof tigers and leopards occurs primar-ily for their body parts, skin andbones. The demand for their bodyparts exists mainly outside the coun-try and is a major threat to thesespecies.
Fortunately, Uttarakhand is alsomaking a concerted effort to controlwildlife crime and in the past twoweeks there have been some impor-tant convictions under the Wild Life(Protection) Act.
On 4th January the JudicialMagistrate of Ramnagar handeddown a conviction of three years rig-orous imprisonment and a fine ofRs. 10,000 to notorious tiger poach-er Dariya Bawaria. Dariya was arrest-ed in 2008 when he was caught witha steel tiger trap by the Corbett TigerReserve staff.
Similarly, on 12th January theJudicial Magistrate of Purola inUttarkashi, handed out a punish-ment of three years rigorous impris-
onment and Rs. 1,500 fine each tothree men who had been found inpossession of 20 ghoral, barking deerand otter skins were in 2010. Theseizure took place during a jointoperation by the Upper YamunaDivision forest staff and WPSI on 4June 2010. The three accused werealso given six months imprisonmentand Rs. 500 fine each under Section26 of the Forest Act.
http://www.wpsi-india.org/news/18012012.php
Huge haul of poached animal parts, 5 heldThe Pioneer, Dehradun, 09 February, 2012
The pelts of one tiger, four leopardsand about 3 kg big cat bones wereseized from five persons who werearrested in Najibabad in UttarPradesh on Thursday. The wildlifecontraband is said to have beensourced from Uttarakhand.
According to regional deputydirector (northern region) ofWildlife Crime Control BureauRamesh K Pandey, a joint operationinvolving the WCCB, UP STF andNajibabad police arrested five per-
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sons based on intelligence providedby the bureau.
The five were arrested with onetiger and four leopard pelts, bonesand two iron traps used specificallyfor trapping big cats. The kingpin ofthe gang, Dharmveer Kanjar, wasalso among those arrested. The resthave been identified as Sunil Nathand Omar of Najibabad, Navi Singhof Dharchula and the car driver,Punit Chauhan.
It is believed that Dharmveerreceived wildlife contraband fromthe plains and hilly regions ofUttarakhand. According to Pandey,Najibabad is a convenient town withlinks to both the hills and the plainsdue to which Dharmveer was able tosource banned wildlife commoditiesfrom all parts of the State.
The arrested persons confessedthat while three leopard pelts havebeen sourced from Kugadda inKalagarh forest range inUttarakhand, the tiger skin and oneleopard pelt were obtained fromRajaji National Park.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/dehradun/41459-huge-haul-of-poached-animal-parts-5-held.html
Forest officials brainstorm totake wildlife crime by thehornsIndian ExpressVivek Deshpande Nagpur, 25 February, 2012
Suddenly waking up to its dubiousdistinction as the state with the max-imum reported cases of wildlifecrime, senior Maharashtra Forestofficials have been summoned todevise a concerted strategy to deci-sively curb the menace.
The officials have had a fewrounds of meetings over the past fewdays to discuss the problem and pos-sible solutions. A meeting of theregional Tiger Cell, a joint Forest-Police forum that is supposed totackle wildlife crime, was also heldhere recently.
"We have sought wildlife crimedata from Wildlife ProtectionSociety of India (WPSI) and areanalysing it. The attempt is to checkthe pending cases and the reasonswhy they have not gone to the logi-cal end of conviction or why they
have been lingering," PrincipalSecretary (Forest) Pravin Pardeshitold The Indian Express.
Pardeshi said, "apart from takingthe pending cases to their logical endand get convictions to deter thecriminals involved, our endeavourwill be to prevent poaching insteadof later going after the poachers."
"Fortunately, due to ChiefMinister Prithviraj Chavan takingpersonal interest, for the first time,the government has approved asecret fund of Rs 50 lakh, which willbe kept with Divisional ForestOfficers (DFOs), each of whom willget up to Rs 50,000 to rewardinformers," he said.
A meeting will be held here inmid-March in which state ChiefSecretary and Director General ofPolice will also participate, Pardeshisaid.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/forest-officials-brainstorm-to-t a k e - w i l d l i f e - c r i m e - b y - t h e -horns/916443/
Forest Ministry plans to reinin poachers by employinginformers Mid-Day, Adnan Attarwala,Pune, 04 April, 2012
Move comes after WPSI data revealsthree tigers, 15 leopards, otherendangered species poached in largenumbers in state this year aloneTaking cognizance of increasing inci-dents of poaching across sanctuariesand national parks in the state, theforest ministry plans to strengthen itsanti-poaching measures by roping ininformers, and offering rewards forupdates on illegal activities involvingwildlife.
This development comes afterthe ministry sought data from theWildlife Protection Society of India,which claims that three tigers andaround 15 leopards, along with otherendangered animals and birds havebeen poached in large numbers thisyear alone in the state.
The maximum numbers of casesrelated to poaching and other illegalactivities involving wildlife havebeen reported in Maharashtra in2012. "As the sanctuary areas arewell-protected, most of the incidentsof poaching are happening outsidethe borders.
We are strengthening the anti-poaching system of informers andforest guards to ensure that the corri-dors between the two paths of thesanctuaries and the villages are pro-tected," said principal secretary(Forest) Pravin Pardeshi.
Upon receiving tip-offs frominformers, the forest department willtake action against those involved inany sort of attack on wildlife. Theministry will also employ ex-service-men as forest guards on contractbasis with a payment of up to Rs12,000 per month.
The state was forced to look intothe matter after experts and wildlifeactivists complained that the forestdepartment was not sufficiently ableto protect the sanctuaries and territo-rial areas, even though only 20 percent of the area in the state cameunder the national park and forests,while the rest is urban area.
"The department shouldenhance its Rapid Response Unit(RRU), which could be more effec-tive in curbing these incidents,which at present is not active. Assoon as they receive news of poach-ing or any attack on animals, theRRU team should be dispatched torestrain the mob," said Dr AnishAndheria, a wildlife expert.
Experts have also stressed on thefact that not only has the forestdepartment been lax in enforcingextra patrolling in the wetlands, buthas also failed to keep a check on ille-gal firearms used by locals to poachwildlife.
Last year, activists from Plantsand Animal Welfare Society had shota video of poachers killing flamin-goes at Bhigwan and Baramati.Despite an uproar over the matter,the forest department had failed totake any action.
Gruesome findIn the past week, the forest depart-ment discovered two leopard carcass-es with the paws hacked off nearPalghar. Last month, the officials dis-covered tiger bones near another vil-lage of Maharashtra, which hinted atpoaching.
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2012/apr/020412-Forest-Ministry-plans-to-rein-in-poachers-by-employing-informers.htm
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Two tigers caught in poach-ers' traps near ChandrapurWPSI, 27 April, 2012
Two tigers were caught in steel trapsset by professional tiger poachers in aheart-rending incident that tookplace yesterday in Palasgaon Rangenear Chandrapur in Maharashtra.One tiger died and the other hasbeen rescued by the ForestDepartment with serious injuries.
The scene of the crime was asmall pond in scrub forest, only 2.5km from the nearest villageGondmohadi which also has a forestchowki. The Forest Department hadbeen setting up camera traps there tomonitor a tigress with her two cubs.On Thursday evening the guardsnoticed a young male tiger lying bythe pool. It later transpired that itwas caught in a trap and it appearsthat it was clubbed to death by thepoachers. The guards then noticed asecond tiger, presumed to be themother, caught in a trap on theopposite side of the bund. One ofthe guards got his foot caught in athird steel trap but managed to getout of the device by removing hisshoe. The poachers had ringed thewaterhole with the tiger traps. Moreforest staff soon arrived but theycould do little to help. A third tigerwhich was lurking in the vicinity,menacingly snarled and charged atthe rescue party in the fast fadinglight.
Senior forest officers and twoWPSI personnel rushed to the spot.Finally, at 3:15 am, nearly 8 hoursafter the trapped tigers were firstseen, the forest officers managed todart the trapped tiger that was stillalive. To everyone's surprise it turnedout to be a large male tiger. The tigerwas badly injured; three of the toeson its front leg had been torn off andits foot was fractured.
WPSI is now pulling out all stopsto assist the Forest Department in itsinvestigation to nab the culprits.Coming only a few days before theFirst Stocktaking Conference toreview implementation of TheGlobal Tiger Recovery Program inNew Delhi from 15-17 May, thisdistressing incident illustrates thattiger poaching continues to be amajor threat to the future of wildtigers.
http://www.wpsi-
india.org/news/27042012.php
Once upon a tigerIndian Express, BelindaWright & Debbie Banks, 29May, 2012
It is time we called for zero-toler-ance, not just on poaching, but alsoon trade in all tiger parts
Why does it always take a tragedyfor the system to get rolling? Afterthe fifth tiger this year was founddead on May 18, hacked to pieces, inthe forests of Chandrapur district inMaharashtra, the state governmentsprang into action.
The entire Tadoba landscape isnow on red alert. The state forestminister has urged field staff toshoot-on-sight armed poachers whorefuse to surrender (although, truthbe told, most forest guards havenever even seen a tiger poacher), staffvacancies are being filled, govern-ment funds have been released togather secret intelligence, a SpecialTiger Protection Force is being putin place (four years after a grant of Rs50 crore for this purpose wasannounced in Parliament), and 100extra patrol vehicles have beenordered. With a bit of luck, theuproar will act as a deterrent to elu-sive tiger poachers, and the big catsof Chandrapur and Tadoba can relaxfor the time being.
Let us hope that other states willnow follow this lead. The crisis inMaharashtra illustrates how woefullyinadequate present protection mea-sures are for wild tigers. Despite Rs600 crore being allocated by the gov-ernment in the 2008-12 Five-YearPlan for tiger conservation efforts,the basics - including patrolling,field monitoring, detection, intelli-gence-led enforcement, investiga-tion, prosecution and, last but notleast, accountability - are all in asorry state. Many believe that thereason for this failure is that the for-est department system itself is obso-lete.
But on paper at least, the tigerconservation problems in India havelargely been solved with endless gov-ernment reports and guidelines. Andthe world is impressed. The tragedyin Maharashtra ironically coincidedwith an international stocktakingmeeting in New Delhi on the Global
Tiger Recovery Programme (GTRP)and its ambitious goal of doublingthe world's remaining wild tigerpopulation by 2022. Discussionsfocused on 13 National TigerRecovery Plans and, with India lead-ing the way, global efforts and coop-eration to combat tiger poaching andthe illegal trade in tiger parts.
However, the reality is that what-ever a tiger range country does toaddress these problems, its effortswill be undermined by the fact thatpoaching is driven by consumerdemand, usually from outside itsborders. For India, Nepal,Bangladesh and Bhutan the threatcomes from markets in China wheretiger skins are used as home décorand taxidermy, and bones and othertiger body parts are used for medici-nal purposes. Recently, authorities incentral India uncovered news that an"order" had been placed for 25 deadtigers. In Southeast Asian tiger rangecountries, the market forces comenot just from China and the emerg-ing market of Vietnam, but from alocal demand for skin, bone andtiger meat.
Ending the demand for tigerparts requires clear policies from the13 governments, including India andChina, that signed up as the "custo-dians of the last remaining tigers inthe wild" to the St PetersburgDeclaration on Tiger Conservationin September 2010. If policy isunclear in a consumer country - as itis in China, where skins of tigers of"legal origin", including farmedtigers, can be labelled, registered andsold - then demand reduction andenforcement efforts are constantlyundermined.
Tiger conservation is a global,emotive issue. The internationalcommunity is calling for a "zero-tol-erance" on poaching. But surely it istime that we also called for zero-tol-erance on trade in all parts of tigers,from all sources, wild and captivebred. That is exactly what the 175parties to the Convention onInternational Trade in EndangeredSpecies of Flora and Fauna (CITES)decided upon in The Hague in2007, when they voted that tigerfarms should be phased out, declar-ing that "tigers should not be bredfor trade in their parts and deriva-tives".
Sadly, we are a long way from
implementing that decision. Theproblem of tiger farming has gotworse, not better, and the GTRP haslargely ignored this threat. The4,000 tigers in captivity in China in2007 has now grown to 6,000 tigers.Thai police have arrested several peo-ple trading in tigers destined to besliced and diced, including by butch-ers right in the capital Bangkok.Tigers farmed in Thailand, Laos andVietnam are finding their way intothe Vietnamese tiger bone glue mar-ket. The trade in farmed tiger parts isperpetuating a demand for bodyparts that leads to the poaching ofwild tigers. Clear and uncompromis-ing actions are required from govern-ment leaders if the spirit of StPetersburg and the commitments toCITES are to be met.
It's a familiar story too withenforcement efforts aimed at con-trolling the trade in Asian big cats.Every tiger range country has com-
mitted to CITES to enhanceenforcement. There are statementson "intelligence-led enforcement","multi-agency cooperation" and"international cooperation", butvery little evidence that any of this ishappening. We need to take a hardlook at why professional law enforce-ment agencies are not cooperating ata national level to generate, collate,analyse, and act upon intelligence onthe criminals involved in organisedtransnational wildlife crime. Whyare tiger range countries not makingmore use of Interpol and its securecommunications network and mas-sive database on known and suspect-ed criminals? Why is it so hard tocentralise records of seizures, arrests,prosecutions, and convictions onwildlife crime?
These are not new problems.They have been recognised as animpediment to wildlife crimeenforcement for decades. But instead
of having an honest and strategic dis-cussion about how to overcomethem, governments keep making thesame glib promises time after time.
As global concerned citizens,taxpayers and donors, we need toknow that action is being taken todeliver on these promises, not just inthe interests of saving wild tigers butto combat all forms of environmen-tal crime. We need a way of assessingwhat actions our governments areand are not taking, beyond simplymaking seizures of dead animals.
Only then can we all play a partin honest and targeted decisionsabout the gaps in enforcement andwhere we need to focus our efforts tosecure a future for wild tigers.
Belinda Wright is executive director,Wildlife Protection Society of India.Debbie Banks is lead campaigner,Environmental Investigation Agency,London
TCF-Corbett Wildlife Research andConservation Programme
From January to April 2012, TCFrecorded 142 cases of cattle depreda-tion by tigers or leopards. Out ofthese, 16 cases were of cattle maulingand 126 cases were of cattle killing.A total amount of Rs. 2,10,150/-was disbursed as interim relief, while,an additional expenditure of Rs 32,262/- was incurred as operationalcost related to kill inspection.
TCF also provides monetaryassistance to villagers who aremauled or get fatally injured in wildanimal attacks. TCF has disbursed atotal of Rs. 5000 as interim relief formedical treatment to two individualswho were mauled by a tiger nearKumbhgadar village in March 2012.
Annual Tiger Fest
TCF organized an "open for all" TigerFest on 2nd February 2012. The eventcomprised of two sessions, morningsession and afternoon session. Of the27 registered schools with TCF, 26
Schools participated actively in all theprograms and won various prizes. Theprogrammes for the day includeddebate competition, stall competition,banner-painting competition andNukkad Natak. The winners of allcompetitions were awarded at the endof the event. The kids from fewschools also painted their faces withanimal designs to make the event evenmore colourful and interesting. Theevent was attended by Mr. J. S.Hiyanki (District Education Officer,Nainital), Mr. R.K. Mishra (FieldDirector - Corbett Tiger Reserve), Mr.C.K. Kavidayal (Deputy Director,CTR), Mr. P.S. Shrivastava(Divisional Forest Officer, Ramnagar),Mr. U.C. Tewari (Sub DivisionalOfficer, CTR), Mr. R.K. Tiwari (SubDivisional Officer, Ramnagar), Mr. R.K. Vashishta (Sub Divisional Officer,Terai West Forest Division), Mr.Satish Chandra Upadhyay (RangeOfficer- Research Wing, CTR) andMr. Pramod Kumar (Commissionerof Police, Ramnagar).
Regional Camp of 'Kids forthe Tigers' Programme
On 10th February, TCF organized aone-day Regional Camp of the 'Kidsfor the Tigers' programme in collab-oration with Sanctuary Asia. Fivestudents were selected based on theassessment during their performancein previous Nature Trails pro-grammes conducted from time totime. A wildlife safari ride was orga-nized for students along the BijraniRange of Corbett Tiger Reserve forthe whole day in two sessions -morning and afternoon. The safaristarted from Amdanda gate and thekids were taken on different forestroutes throughout the day. Thecamp was attended by 5 kids and oneteacher from 5 local schools. Theafternoon session of safari was alsopreceded by a 20 min HealthAwareness Workshop by Dr. K. K.Yadav to provide basic health guide-lines to the young minds. The kidswere fortunate enough to spot a tigerand an elephant herd during theregional camp.
TCF- Bandhavgarh Rural Medical OutreachProgramme
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32 June 2012
THE CORBETT FOUNDATION
The Rural Medical OutreachProgramme is aimed at providingprimary health care facilities to vil-lagers in rural areas with a message tosecure community support in tigerconservation living in and aroundthe Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. TCFmedical team provides health check-ups facilities both at its office locatedin the Bijheriya village (in the bufferzone of BTR) and through routineweekly camps. Villagers from about30 villages are getting benefittedfrom this scheme and 2975 local
people were treated from January2012 to May 2012.
Presentation on TigerConservation:The programme was conducted inthe Government High School,Dhamokhar, Government MiddleSchool, Tala and GovernmentMiddle School, Bijhariya. Around200 students of 8th to 10th standardand their teachers enthusiasticallyparticipated in the programme. Theprogramme included a number of
presentations on importance of tigerconservation and how they can con-tribute towards the conservation oftiger and nature. Such interactionswill prove fruitful in mitigatingfuture man-animal conflict.
TCF- Kanha
TCF regularly conducts conserva-tion awareness programmes in 31villages located in the buffer zone ofKanha Tiger Reserve.
Wildlife Trust of India gives1Lakh to Bor tiger attack victim kinTNN Jun 6, 2012, 01.49AMIST
NAGPUR: In a considerate gesture,the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI),an NGO working for tiger conserva-tion in the country, gave 1 lakh to thekin of a tiger attack victim in BorWildlife Sanctuary, 60km from herein Wardha district.
Sitaram Wadhve, a permanent for-est labourer posted in Pendhri beat ofBor, was mauled to death by a tiger onApril 19, in the sanctuary while he wasfilling a water hole in Chichkhori area.
It was assumed that Wadhve,being a daily wage forest labourer (vanmajoor), would not get welfare bene-fits from the government. However,WTI has launched unique initiative toprovide insurance cover of 1 lakh eachto field staff of all the national parksand sanctuaries in Maharashtra. Thishas come as a succour for Wadhve'sfamily.
As Wadhve was covered underthe scheme, a demand draft of 1 lakhwas handed over to his wife Malti byconservator of forests M S Reddyrecently. Assistant conservator offorests Uttam Sawant and WTImanager Prafulla Bhamburkar werealso present.
Apart from the 1 lakh aid byWTI, Wadhve's family received 2lakh from Forest Welfare Fund andanother 2 lakh is expected towardshuman kill compensation.
Another tiger captured fromhuman settlement in UttarPradesh
LUCKNOW (Uttar Pradesh), June21, 2012: A young male sub-adulttiger that had been roaming out offorests in the northern Indian stateof Uttar Pradesh was tranquilisedthis afternoon by the Wildlife Trustof India (WTI) team, assisting theForest Department. This comes afteranother was caught by the ForestDepartment assisted by WTI andreleased in Dudhwa National Parkon April 26.
The tiger was reportedly outsince February this year. On June 1,WTI team was authorised to capturethe animal by the Forest Departmentto prevent conflicts with people.
The tiger had been killing poul-try and small livestock, and even tieddogs. No human kill was reported,although an injury as a result of acci-dental encounter was reported.
"The tiger was first sighted inFebruary by local people," said DrAnil Kumar Singh, Regional Head,WTI. "It was tranquilised this after-noon at 3:00 pm by our veterinarianDr Shahnaz Amin who was in thefield along with our biologistDevendra Singh."
The capture site where the tigerwas located since the WTI teambegan tracking them on June 1 isabout 10 km south of Haripur rangeof Pilibhit forest division.
"Being covered in dense ipomeashrub, tracking and capture was
quite a difficult exercise in the cap-ture site. We had placed bait andcovered the area with nets. When thetiger was found having taken thebait, the team entered into the bushin elephants and a tractor. The tigerwas cornered and tranquilised,"added Dr Kumar.
The authorities have mandatedfor the tiger to be released in Pilibhitforests.
Tiger poacher convicted, sen-tenced to three years inprison
THANAGAZI (Rajasthan), June 15,2012: A poacher was convicted by aCourt here on Thursday for killing atiger in Sariska Tiger Reserve in May2003. He was sentenced to threeyears' imprisonment.An accomplice of the notoriouspoacher - Johru, this is the seventhconviction for the accused JiwanDas. His previous sentences includea five-year imprisonment awarded inDecember 2011 and a seven-yearimprisonment awarded in June 2011for two other cases of tiger poaching."Johru was convicted in the samecase earlier. Das had been abscond-ing. He was arrested last year andsome hunting equipment (includinga trap) recovered from him by a teamled by Alok Kumar, AssistantConservator of Forests," saidKoushal Bhardwaj, Wildlife Trust ofIndia (WTI) advocate who is assist-ing the prosecution.
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WILDLIFE TRUST OF INDIA
Satellite data shows 'healthy'movement of the rescuedtigerDUDHWA TIGER RESERVE,May 4, 2012: Preliminary satellitedata has indicated 'healthy' move-ment of the Rahmankhera tiger inDudhwa Tiger Reserve, where it wasreleased on April 26. The tiger has sofar explored an area of approximate-ly 12 sq km.
The adult male tiger was cap-tured from Rahmankhera on April25, more than three months after itwas first sighted in the human-dom-inated landscape. Believed to haveoriginated from the Dudhwa land-scape, it was satellite-collared andreleased in Dudhwa TR by a team ofexperts from the UP ForestDepartment, Wildlife Trust of India(WTI) and Wildlife Institute ofIndia, following its capture. Thepost-release monitoring is currentlyongoing.
"At this moment, it is difficult topredict the animal's movement,"says Dr Anil Kumar Singh, whoheads WTI's Conflict Mitigationoperations. "Till the time it estab-lishes its territory and settles in therelease site, the team will be on alert,tracking the animal."
This is the first case in UttarPradesh of a captured tiger beingreleased back to the wild. The two
tigers captured previously in jointefforts by the UP Forest Departmentand WTI were moved to captivefacilities.
"Unlike the others, this tiger wasnever involved in any human con-flict despite roaming in high humandensity areas. So sending it back tothe wild was the obvious choice,"says JS Asthana, Principal ChiefConservator of Forests (Wildlife),UP Forest Department. "This is anideal tiger habitat with a decentprey-base, and the tiger should settlein naturally in the due course oftime."
"Conflict with humans is one ofthe major threats to the survival oftigers and other big cats," says DrNVK Ashraf, Chief Veterinarian,WTI. "For mitigation efforts to besuccessful, it must have a holisticapproach in dealing with the prob-lem. Patrolling, awareness cam-paigns, well-trained and equippedRapid Response Teams will helptackle situations when they arise."
WTI has dealt with 13 cases ofhuman-tiger conflicts across thecountry. Of these, five were returnedto the wild, including one that hadcaused death of two people in north-ern Assam but was released in Manasas it was not a man-eater. Two diedduring conflict and the rest werecubs or man-eaters, sent to life-time
care centres.
Tiger poacher sentenced tofive years imprisonment
ALWAR, May 1, 2012: TheCourt of the Additional ChiefJudicial Magistrate - II, Alwar, onSaturday, convicted poacher KaliaBawaria for hunting a tiger in SariskaTiger Reserve on May 7, 2003. Hewas sentenced to five years imprison-ment and a fine of Rs 35,000.
Kalia was apprehended in 2005from his hideout by a team ofRajasthan Forest Department led byParta Ram, Range Officer, Sariska. Agun and three traps were recoveredfrom his possession.
This is the fourth conviction forKalia, according to Koushal Sharma,Advocate, Wildlife Trust of India(WTI) who assisted the prosecution.
"Every such conviction is areminder of how individual by indi-vidual, the entire population of tigerswere wiped out of Sariska," saysAshok Kumar, Vice Chairman andTrustee, Wildlife Trust of India."However, this also proves the worthof Indian legal system and sends outa strong message to offenders, thatthe law will catch up to them, andmake them pay the price for stealingfrom the country."
Tigers: Threatened, but not lostBy K Ullas Karanth, 09 June, 2012
Tigers are a typical "umbrellaspecies". Every week, each cat mustkill one large prey animal --- deer,wild pig, wild cattle or antelopes.Sustaining a viable population of100 wild tigers (of which 25 will beterritory-holding females that pro-duce cubs), will require 50,000 preyanimals. Such prey, even whenpacked at a high density of 25 ani-mals into each square kilometer --- adensity typical for deciduous forestsunder strict protection --- wouldneed a 2,000 square kilometer area.
Tigers need even more habitat inrainforests and mangroves that sup-port lower prey densities. This essen-tial ratio of 500 preys for each livingtiger ensures that a viable populationof tigers automatically ensures pro-tection of large landscapes shelteringmany other life forms - ranging fromrare frogs to giant trees. This cultur-al appeal of the tiger, which is nottransferable, is what generates thesocial support necessary for conser-vation of large landscapes: a raresnail or frog, however much endan-gered, simply cannot be a similarumbrella. This is the significance ofthe tiger: each living tiger embodiesautomatic protection of millions ofother creatures as well as forests vital
to human survival.In spite of its iconic value, the
tiger's global range, however, hasshrunk by 93 percent in the past 150years. Today tiger 'source popula-tions', which breed and produce sur-pluses, occupy less than six percentof former range. India now holdshalf the world's tigers. Although theforest cover suitable for tigers occursover 3,00,000 square kilometers inIndia, surviving source populationsoccur in less than 25,000 squarekilometers. Although now there are40 or so "tiger reserves" covering40,000 square kilometers, several ofthese simply cannot support viablesource populations on their own,and, some are even virtually devoid
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34 June 2012
CENTRE FOR WILDLIFE STUDIES (CWS)
of tigers.The key threats to our surviving
tigers include over-hunting of preyanimals by local people (this is themost important reason why tigershave lost 90 percent of their range);tiger poaching for commerce or inconflicts with humans (mostly inand around remaining source popu-lations); and the steady degradationand fragmentation of larger forestlandscapes under a variety of ruraland industrial pressures. To addressthese threats squarely, strict anti-poaching protection and majorinvestments in voluntary relocationof human settlements have becomethe most urgent conservation needs.Increasingly, however, massive "con-servation investments" targeted attiger reserves, appear to be takingthe form of misguided and destruc-
tive "habitat management" practiceson one hand, and rural developmentactivities under the label of "eco-development" on the other. Boththese interventions suck funds andattention away from more criticaltasks. Management practices of tigerreserves now clearly need closerscrutiny and radical reorientation.
While the current practice ofmonitoring of tigers once in fouryears ---using an unwieldy and statis-tically outdated methodology --- isindeed an improvement over the ear-lier "pugmark census" fiasco.However, it does not meet real needsof intensive monitoring of remainingsource populations (the last estimatefrom the exercise was about 2,000animals including cubs). A shifttowards intensive monitoring of eachsource population, year after year,
using the best possible methods(such as camera trap or DNA cap-ture-recapture sampling) has becomeessential. A recent amendment to thetiger monitoring protocols by theNational Tiger ConservationAuthority holds out the hope that, atleast in future, we will know for surehow 90 percent of our wild tigers arereally faring.
Without objective metrics, tigerconservation can, and often does,rest merely on fanciful anecdotesand tiger tales. Conservation actionmust be rooted in sound science,although conservation actors maynecessarily be inspired by the sheeremotional appeal of the big cat.Given protection and reasonablemanagement, India can hold at leastfive times more tigers than it doesnow.
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TIGER MMORTALITY IIN IINDIA: JJAN - JJUNE 22012
DATE LOCATION STATE CAUSE OOF DDEATH // SSEIZURE IINFO
13 JAN 2012 CORBETT TIGER RESERVE UTTARAKHAND NATURAL23 JAN 2012 ZARAN RANGE, CENTRAL MAHARASHTRA ALL PAWS WERE CUT
CHANDA PROJECT DIVISION, COMPT 121
25 JAN 2012 KAZIRANGA ASSAM NATURAL3 FEB 2012 NAVGAON FOREST DIVISION ASSAM POACHING4 FEB 2012 HALDIBARI BEAT, KARBIANGLONG ASSAM POACHING7 FEB 2012 KANHA RANGE, MADHYA PRADESH FOUND DEAD, DETAILS AWAITED
KANHA NATIONAL PARK17 FEB 2012 NAGARHOLE TIGER RESERVE KARNATAKA IN FIGHTING17 FEB 2012 KOPPA DIVISION, KARNATAKA POACHING
BHADRA TIGER RESERVE19 FEB 2012 LOHARA, OUTSIDE BUFFER MAHARASHTRA ROAD/RAIL ACCIDENT
OF TADOBA T.R20 FEB 2012 DHOLKHAND, CORBETT UTTARAKHAND IN FIGHTING
TIGER RESERVE, DHOLKHAND COMPTT 11
1 MAR 2012 PADMAPUR BEAT, MAHARASHTRA N.ACHANDRAPUR FOREST DIVISION
7 MAR 2012 AMANGARH, UTTAR PRADESH N.ABIJNORE FOREST DIVISION
8 MAR 2012 TIPESHWAR SANCTUARY MAHARASHTRA N.A12 MAR 2012 ORANG N.P ASSAM NATURAL13 MAR 2012 BANDHAVGARH NATIONAL MADHYA PRADESH FOUND DEAD, DETAILS AWAITED
PARK & TIGER RESERVE30 MAR 2012 BIJRANI RANGE, UTTARAKHAND NATURAL
CORBETT TIGER RESERVE2 APR 2012 MELGHAT TIGER RESERVE MAHARASHTRA 15-20 DAY OLD DECOMPOSED
CARCASS FOUND ON 16 APRIL 2012, NATURAL
24 APR 2012 TERAI WEST, PHANTO AREA UTTARAKHAND NATURAL25 APR 2012 KAZIRANGA N.P (CORE) UTTARAKHAND NATURAL26 APR 2012 TADOBA-ANDHERI TIGER RESERVE MAHARASHTRA FOUND DEAD IN METAL TRAP
BUFFER ZONE-PADAMPUR, NEAR A POND. BUFFER OF TATRCOMPT 569, NEAR PALASGAON, SNARES & TRAPSBUFFER
27 APR 2012 BANDIPUR TIGER RESERVE KARNATAKA DEAD TIGER FOUND ON4 MAY 2012. CARCASS ABOUT 1 WEEK OLD., NOT KNOWN
28 APR 2012 PERIAKADAI, VALPARAI, TAMIL NADU TIGER INJURED BY PORCUPINE ANAMALAI TIGER RESERVE, QUILLS. ENTERED CATTLE SHEDMONOMBOLY RANGE AND WAS GORED BY A COW,
NATURAL28 APR 2012 NAGARHOLE, NAGARHOLE TIGER KARNATAKA IN FIGHTING
RESERVE12 MAY 2012 BANDHAVGARH TIGER RESERVE, MADHYA PRADESH DETAILS AWAITED, IN FIGHTING
TOURISM ZONE18 MAY 2012 CHANDRAPUR FOREST DIVISION, MAHARASHTRA TEN PIECES OF TIGER BODY
COMPT 520, NEAR GHANTACHOWKI PARTS FOUND. HEAD ANDTO BORDA ROAD PAWS MISSING. BODY PARTS
FRESH., POACHING24 MAY 2012 HARIPUR RANGE, PILIBHIT DIVISION UTTAR PRADESH SUSPECTED, POISONING25 MAY 2012 HARIPUR RANGE, PILIBHIT DIVISION UTTAR PRADESH SUSPECTED, POISONING27 MAY 2012 DUDHWA TIGER RESERVE UTTAR PRADESH IN FIGHTING
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June 2012 37
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TIGER PPARTS SSEIZURES IIN IINDIA: JJAN-JJUNE 22012
DATE LOCATION STATE CAUSE OOF DDEATH // SSEIZURE IINFO
1 JUN 2012 BANDIPUR TIGER RESERVE, CORE KARNATAKA BODY PARTS INTACT, NOT KNOWN1 JUN 2012 PENCH, MAHARASHTRA MAHARASHTRA NOT KNOWN1 JUN 2012 RAMNAGAR FOREST DIVISION UTTARAKHAND FOUND INJURED IN RAMNAGAR
FOREST DIVISION ONE WEEK BACK, DIED IN TREATMENT AT NAINITAL ZOO
1 JUN 2012 MAGDHI RANGE, BANDHAVGARH MADHYA PRADESH INJURED, DETAILS AWAITEDNATIONAL PARK & TIGER RESERVE
5 JUN 2012 SUNDERBANS WEST BENGAL ONE CUB FOUND DEAD, NOT KNOWN
5 JUN 2012 AMPOKHRA RANGE, TERAI UTTARAKHAND 4 CUBS BURNT IN FIRE AT WEST DIVISION ARMY'S REMOUNT TRAINING
SCHOOL & DEPOT6 JUN 2012 BHOPAL DIVISION MADHYA PRADESH ELECTROCUTION9 JUN 2012 SUNDERBANS WEST BENGAL PRESUMED OLD AGE, NATURAL29 JUN 2012 WELGAON, DHABA RANGE, MAHARASHTRA SUSPECTED KILLED BY
CENTRAL CHANDA FOREST WILD DOGS, NATURALDIVISION, COMPT 561KOLSA NAVIN
DATE LOCATION STATE CAUSE OOF DDEATH // SSEIZURE IINFO
11 JAN 2012 KOTABAGH, RAMNAGAR, UTTARAKHAND TIGER CLAWS, TIGER WHISKERS,CORBETT TIGER RESERVE TIGER CANINES, TIGER BONES
18 JAN 2012 PANITANKI, NAXALBARI, BAGDOGRA, WEST BENGAL TIGER SKINSMAHANANDA WILDLIFE SANCTUARY
9 FEB 2012 NAJIBABAD UTTAR PRADESH TIGER BONES, TIGER SKINS9 FEB 2012 SOUTH BALAGHAT DIVISION MADHYA PRADESH TIGER SKINS26 MAR 2012 ANAMALAI TIGER RESERVE TAMIL NADU TIGER SKINS6 APR 2012 PERIYAPATNA TALUK, DODDA KARNATAKA TIGER TEETH, TIGER CLAWS,
HARAVE FOREST TIGER SKINS6 APR 2012 MUDUMALAI TIGER RESERVE TAMIL NADU TIGER BONES (RIBS & CHIN),
TIGER SKINS11 APR 2012 BADIGERI DIVISION KARNATAKA TIGER SKINS12 JUN 2012 CHAMRAJNAGAR TERRITORIAL KARNATAKA TIGER ONE SKIN OF A
RANGE, BRT CUB, TIGER SKINSSOURCE: TIGERNET.NIC.IN NA: NOT AVAILABLE
GTFNEWS
38 June 2012
1. Five officers, one from Bangladesh, two each from Bhutan and Vietnam, sponsored by GTF supported from theRTCF grant of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, have successfully completed the 3 Months Certificate course oftraining in Wildlife Management at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, on 31st January 2012 and havereturned back to their countries.
2. The GTF and IFAW/WTI jointly organised a "Tiger Watch" programme in India between 4th to 15th February2012. Under this programme two Russian Wildlife Inspectors visited tiger reserves in India and learned about tigerconservation efforts in India.
3. The GTF sponsored one Indian participant in the PROTECT-Managers Course organised by FREELANDFoundation at Bangkok, Thailand, in March 2012.
4. Technical Staff of GTF visited Indonesia on 123-26 April 2012, and assisted them in finalizing their NationalTiger Monitoring Framework and in setting up GTF National Core Group
5. The Global Tiger Forum in collaboration with the National Tiger Conservation Authority, Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests, Government of India, the Global Tiger Initiative and the World Bank organised the 1stStock Taking meeting of Senior Officials and Experts to Review the Implementation of the Global Tiger RecoveryProgramme at New Delhi, India, between 15 - 17 May 2012.
6. GTF delegates participated in the 1st meeting of South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN) atColombo, Sri Lanka, on 4-6 June 2012.
7. Mr S.P. Yadav, DIG (NTCA), represented the Secretary General, GTF, in the High- Level Event: Global TigerInitiative: Outcomes and Challenges, held at Washington D.C., USA, in June 2012.
Category A: Tiger Range Countries.1. India 2. Bangladesh 3. Cambodia 4. Nepal 5. Bhutan6. Myanmar 7. Vietnam
Category B: Non Tiger Range Countries.1. United Kingdom
Category C: International Non GovernmentOrganisation.1. International Fund for Animal Welfare2. TRAFFIC International3. WWF International
Category D: Honorary Individuals.
Category E: National Non Government Organisation1. Ranthambhore Foundation, India2. Tiger Research and Conservation Trust- India3. Wildlife Protection Society of India4. Wildlife Trust of India5. Corbett Foundation, India6. National Trust for Nature Conservation - Nepal7. Wildlife Conservation Nepal, Nepal8. Centre for Wildlife Studies, India
Category F:Associate Members1. The US Fish and Wildlife ServiceSpecial invitee status1. IUCN
Of the GTF
CURRENT MEMBERS OF THE GLOBAL TIGER FORUM
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