Man-eater tigress shot down in Maharashtra

A man-eating tigress was shot dead by a sharpshooter of the C-60 anti-Naxal squad in Navegaon National Park in Maharashtra on Saturday 27 days after it first killed a woman in Bhandara district Gondia district deputy conservator of forests S V Ramarao said the animal was not more than three years old and was shot 20km from the Navegaon National Park boundary The park is 130km from Nagpur.

“We first tried to tranquillize the tigress but missed, and it charged at the team. In panic, one of the commandos, Suresh Atram, fired nine rounds to kill the animal,” Ramarao said. State chief wildlife warden SWH Naqvi had granted permission to shoot the animal on January 4. The elusive tigress had killed a cow on January10 and was in the area. Camera traps were deployed near the cattle kill on Friday to identify it.

At 10am on Saturday a team of 20-25 officials, volunteers and commandos equipped with AK-47s went to check the cameras and established the gender of the big cat. “Presuming that the animal might be somewhere near the kill, we launched a search. One of the commandos sighted the tigress 50 feet away. Assistant conservator of forests Manohar Gokhale fired a dart to tranquillize the tigress but missed. The tigress fried to come closer and a commando then fired in the air,” said Sawan Bahekar, a team member and honorary wildlife warden of

Gondia district. The tigress disappeared after the warning shot. At noon, the teams returned to find that the animal had moved its kill from the original spot. it was then decided that the rest of the team would leave while only seven people — including three commandos — would stay behind in wait of the big cat. Certain that the tigress would return, the team took positions near the kill. At 115pm, the big cat returned. Assistant conservator Gokhale shot a dart but missed. The tigress then came charging at him and commando Atram fired five rounds. Even as the animal got injured, it kept charging. Later, four more rounds were fired after which the tigress finally collapsed.”

Courtesy:- Times of India

Great Indian Bustards in peril

With only 300 left, Number has reduced by half since 2000

The #GreatIndianBustard, which has been listed as a critically #endangeredbird, is steadily moving towards extinction.

A global population count reveals that there are just around 300 birds left, compared to 600 in the year 2000 and 1260 in 1969.

In Nannaj, Maharashtra, the recent count was nine compared to 21 last year and 24 in 2008. Bustards endemic to the Indian subcontinent are seen in just six States, compared to 11 historically. They are seen in Rajasthan (shared with Pakistan), Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, #Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. They are no longer seen in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu.

The largest population of 100-125 birds is in Jaisalmer, Barmer and Bikaner districts of Rajasthan. Other places have fewer than 35 birds each. These findings were published in a recent paper, titled “Running out of time? The Great Indian Bustards”, of the #WildlifeInstituteofIndia (WII) and the Bombay Natural History Society (#BNHS). The figures were compiled from statistics taken from the forest departments of different states. Experts say the drastic fall in the numbers of Bustards brings up the need to develop core breeding areas and a landscape conservation strategy for the birds.

WII researcher Sutirtha Dutta told Times of India that while there is no “robust monitoring: of the Bustard count, the rapid decline in numbers is pretty evident. “Human interventions like infrastructure development (roads, electricity poles), conversion of agricultural land hunting - are factors contributing to the declining Bustard population,” he said.

“Bustards are terrestrial and low flying birds. They can collide with electricity poles or get hit by vehicles. These birds prefer wide, open, short grass plains and open scrubland with scattered trees. During mid-summer and the monsoons, they congregate in traditional areas to breed and avoid human disturbance. In crop lands, it is speculated that pesticides have a detrimental effect on their reproduction and survival.”

The Great Indian Bustards are slow reproducing species, Dutta said, “They have a long life span and lay just one egg a year. There is no telemetry study (useful for monitoring threatened species at the individual level) done to know their movements”, he said.

Scientific experts have stressed that there is a need to initiate a conservation breeding program for the bird. Such breeding has been taken up in Europe and Africa. The paper states that closer home, the Bustard haven in Maharashtra has seen rapid industrialization and an increase in human population over the last 30 years.

The shift in the agriculture practice – from monsoon crops like sorghum and millet to sugarcane and grapes now- has resulted in a severe habitat loss for the Bustards. Pramod Patil, who works for the conservation and protection of Bustards in the state, said the bird’s future lies in the proper protection of core breeding grasslands and promotion of traditional organic farming.

When contacted, M K Rao, conservator of forests (wildlife), Pune, said no eggs of the Great Indian Bustard have been found in Nannaj over the last three years. “We are not sure whether the eggs were destroyed. Bustards need an environment free of disturbance to lay their eggs. Grazing and the movement of vehicles and people affect them” he said.

Courtesy :- Times Of India, 24 Friday, December,2010.