Ken Betwa interlinking is in violation of all laws
Dr Raghu Chundawat is a leading conservation biologist who has spent ten years researching on the tigers of Panna Tiger Reserve. His seminal work on tiger conservation describes their fantastic recovery of the Panna tiger population from 1996 to 2001. Much of this recovery is going to be undone with the Ken-Betwa interlinking work on which both the MP and UP governments are determined to push ahead at full steam thereby displacing thousands of tribals and villagers living inside the reserve.
“If the forest department had said no, as this interlinking is a violation of our environmental laws, then no one — whether he be a Supreme Court judge, a bureaucrat, a chief minister or the prime minister — could have over ruled that observation,” Dr Chundawat tells.
The Daudhan dam will see submergence of ten villages with over 10,000 villagers. But there are already 11 major and 171 minor irrigation projects in the Ken basin and therefore the goal of this Ken-Betwa interlinking is extremely questionable.
The Ken Betwa interlinking defies logic. Both the central and state government are willing to spend over Rs 40,000 crore on a project that will destroy the ecology of an entire region.
It will involve the destruction of our precious forests, wildlife as well as fertile agricultural land and yet the government is determined to go ahead?
It has not received forest clearance. The wildlife clearance has been challenged by the Central Empowered Committee set up by the Supreme Court. The environment clearance has been challenged in the NGT and yet they are pushing ahead at top speed.
Uttarakhand Forest Dept discovers Rare orchid species, found in India first time
The Research Wing of the Uttarakhand Forest Department discovered a new and rare species of Orchid, as per an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer. Known as Cephalanthera erecta var. oblanceolata, it was discovered in the Chamoli district.
The species discovered was previously not reported in India. This discovery was made by a team of Range Officer Harish Negi and Junior Research Fellow Manoj Singh while exploring the Mandal area of Chamoli district. This terrestrial orchid was found at an altitude of 1870 meters in the humus-rich Rhododendron-Oak forest.
Sanjiv Chaturvedi, IFS, also the Chief Conservator of Forest (Research), confirmed this discovery and said: “It is for the first time that Cephalanthera erecta var. oblanceolata has been reported in India and this has now been officially recognized by Botanical Survey of India (BSI) as a new edition to list of Indian flora”.
Meet The School Teacher Making Way For 500 Elephants to Cross 25 Tea Gardens
S P Pandey, a primary school teacher from Malbazar in Jalpaiguri district, has been conducting sensitisation workshops for the last two years across five elephant corridors — Apalchand-Mahananda, Gorumara-Apalchand, Apalchand-Kalimpong (via Sylee TG), Apalchand-Kalimpong (via Meenglass TG) and Chapramari-Kalimpong.
The 43-year-old has seen some success, thanks to his efforts to safeguard the rights of wild animals and mitigate conflicts since 2013. For this, he was recently recognised as a Green Corridor Champion by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI). He is now working in collaboration with the WTI to further champion the cause.
He approached more than 25 tea state owners and requested them to replace electrical fencing with natural fencing like wood, bamboo or bushes. This was the hardest exercise, according to Pandey, “Only three owners changed their fencing but the rest refused to remove the existing ones and said they won’t put in electrical fencing in the future. Putting up or dismantling fences involves high costs, which the owners are not ready to pay.”
According to Pandey, a network of 26 Quick Response Teams (QRT) covering the entire northern elephant corridor belt has brought about the most change. Every team has a minimum of six local volunteers who have been trained by the WTI and Pandey in mitigating HECs.
How Rajasthan & Gujarat villages try to keep their land from solar & wind firms
Some Indian states saw a string of protests over the last couple of months against renewable energy projects on village land, even as the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic was raging in the country.
On July 6, 2021, police officials lathi charged locals participating in a dharna against plans to lay electricity lines across pasturelands in Gajner, a village in Bikaner district, western Rajasthan.
The land has been owned by the community for years, said locals. Geeta Kumar, the sarpanch of Gajner, has been protesting against this project alongside locals for over 200 days because of non-recognition of the land as village commons.
In 2018, Adani Renewable Energy Park Rajasthan Ltd (AREPRL) was allotted 6,115 bighas (about 3790 acres) for solar projects in a village called Nedan near Pokhran. Locals, specifically those practising agriculture on the land, filed a petition in the Rajasthan High Court, declaring that they have been cultivating the land for the last 40-45 years. The land, located around 70 kilometres from the Desert National Park, was recognised by the Wildlife Institute of India as a ‘potential area’ for the conservation of great Indian bustards, a critically endangered species — India only has a population of around 150.
And it’s not just solar power. On August 6, 2021, villagers in Kutch went on a protest to stop Suzlon from installing windmills in their forests and grazing lands. The area is also home to threatened wildlife species like the caracal, spiny-tailed lizard and hyena.
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Sustainable strategies needed to manage human-wild boar conflict in Goa, experts say
In July, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant initiated the process to declare the wild boar as vermin in the state. Previously, Uttarakhand and Bihar have declared the wild boar as vermin too.
The wild boar regularly enters farmlands in these states, significantly damaging crops and this is leading to growing conflicts between the species and humans. At present, there are 16 species of wild boar and wild pigs worldwide. What is found in India is a sub-species of the Eurasian wild boar and is widely seen across the country. A major reason for their large population is that they are prolific breeders and breed throughout the year. Over the years, a set of global trends has contributed to the escalation of human-wildlife conflict worldwide.
According to the Human-Wildlife Conflict Worldwide, a report published in 2005, these trends or reasons can be grouped into human population growth, land use transformation, habitat loss of wild species, degradation and fragmentation, growing interest in ecotourism and increasing access to nature reserves, increasing livestock populations and competitive exclusion of wild herbivores, abundance and distribution of wild prey, increasing wildlife population as a result of conservation programmes, climatic factors and stochastic events.
Scientific research and stakeholder commitment are key to the development of appropriate and sustainable strategies for both resolving the problem and conserving different ecosystems and their wildlife inhabitants, indicate experts.
Co-existing with wild boars is possible as seen in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district, where a few locals have come up with humane strategies to reduce the human-wild boar conflict in the area. Thiru M. Anand, a 47-year-old vegetable grower, says, “We avoided live wires. Instead, we opted for solar fencing around our cultivated lands which delivers a brief yet fierce shock to anyone that comes in contact with it. It has reduced wild pig attacks while ensuring no life is lost. We also have a group to alert nearby farmers to guard their fields at night if a wild boar is spotted in the area. Dogs are also kept in the fields to scare them away.”
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