Wildlife
5 endangered Khaleej pheasants, 10 red junglefowl released in Mahananda wildlife sanctuary in WB
The West Bengal forest department on Friday released five endangered Khaleej pheasants in the Mahananda wildlife sanctuary, along with 10 red junglefowl.
Khalij pheasants are listed in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, while the red jungle fowls are listed in Schedule 3.
“The Khaleej pheasants have been released after captive breeding at Dowhill in Kurseong. A bird festival will be held in the sanctuary to make people aware about the different bird species found in the region,” said Principal Chief Conservative of forest and wildlife Vinod Kumar Jadav.
Khaleej pheasants (Lophura Leucomelana) are mostly found in the Himalayan forest especially in the Himalayan foothills from Pakistan to Thailand and are most commonly seen near water and in dense undergrowth.
The red junglefowl (Gallus gallus) is a tropical member of the pheasant family, mostly found in the lower Himalaya from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, Shiwalik, Terai, the North East and Eastern India.
The Mahananda wildlife sanctuary is spread over 158 square kilometres and houses different types of animals.
Life and struggles of the sloth bear in human-dominated areas
- Sloth bears in India are at the centre of several conservation challenges, especially in human-dominated areas. Poaching is a concern in many parts of central India and their body parts are also trafficked illegally.
- Sloth bears are the world’s only bears built to eat ants. They love their occasional meat tidbits of course but thrive mostly on ants, insects, fruits and wild berries. Their diets in some areas also comprise an unlikely berry: tiny, blue-black lantana fruits. Finding lantana (Lantana camara) berries in sloth bear faeces isn’t new.
- Studies of sloth bear diets have reported this from Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the 2000s. But now researchers find that in human-dominated areas surrounding Madhya Pradesh’s Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, sloth bears consume far larger proportions of lantana berries than recorded in these studies.
- Human-bear conflict is frequent across most of its range where bears regularly come in contact with people. Deaths caused by sloth bear attacks are a concern; people, in turn, tend to also engage in retaliatory killings.
- However, local communities do harbour positive attitudes to bears too, say some researchers. Capitalising on this, and using multi-faceted conservation actions and approaches may be the only way to build support for the species across its range.
Overpass Lets Wildlife Go Safely Over Utah Highway
Video released by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources shows a variety of animals using a wildlife overpass that spans a busy interstate highway. The overpass was built two years ago over Interstate 80 to help wildlife safely move through wilderness areas near the highway and to help prevent animal-vehicle collisions.
We were having all kinds of problems with animals getting hit by cars. And sometimes the animals are large, like a moose, and people were getting hurt,” said Scott Root with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
Root said they’ve seen quite a variety of wildlife using the overpass – including moose, bears, deer and other animals in the region east of Salt Lake City. Video from cameras provided by the Utah Department of Transportation and Utah State University shows animal activity on parts of the overpass during the day and at night.
From widespread hunting to wildlife conservation — how Manipur district took 180 degree turn
A small group of nature lovers are slowly changing the impression of Tamenglong, a hill district in Manipur, from being a place notoriously known for widespread hunting of wildlife to one that protects its animals and birds.
Tamenglong borders Assam and Nagaland, and is one of the most backward districts in Manipur. Nearly 90 per cent of the district is under forest cover and it is part of the Indo-Myanmar biodiversity hotspot, reports Mongabay. Illegal hunting was rampant and the open selling of both live and dead animals widespread.
While Amur falcons, world’s longest travelling raptors, were killed in thousands about a decade ago in the district, its conservation today has put Tamenglong on the global map. Awareness campaigns by local NGOs and government initiatives are behind this success. Two orders were recently passed in the district — a complete ban on hunting of these birds and seizing all guns from households between September and December when the raptors visit the district.
“In Tamenglong villages, most households have guns. Hunting has been a way of life for them and it can’t be changed overnight. However, it is fantastic for a start to have a closed period of a few months when hunting is stopped. This shows that there is a level of awareness,” Suresh Kumar, a wildlife biologist working in Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, has been quoted by the report as saying.
Similarly, Nehemiah Panmei, a honorary wildlife warden of Tamenglong, has been trying to convince villagers to set aside land for wildlife conservation because most of the forests in the district fall under community-owned areas.
Panmei began an initiative at Azuram, a picturesque village around 26 km from Tamenglong town, where he convinced residents to set aside land for a community reserve forest.
“Killing of animals has completely stopped in our village. The villagers don’t even cut trees. Today, Azuram community forest holds a plethora of species like monkeys, barking deers, serows, pangolins, wild boars, tortoises along with a variety of birds,” Panmei has been quoted as saying.
Environment India 