A perception created by people living around the forests and and lapped up by journalists is that the wildlife populations, especially that of large mammals have increased phenomenally. In places where the intensity of human-animal conflict is high like Coimbatore, Valparai, Sathyamangalam, Anyrangal, Borivali, Guwahati, this perception is widespread and getting stronger with each passing day. There are several reasons for the wildlife to be visible on the outskirts of national park boundaries and other protected areas and that does not mean their numbers have overshot.

Let’s take the case of Elephants. Elephant is the largest mega herbivore in our country that is unfortunately a party to the Human-animal conflict owing to many factors. In India less than 25% of the total elephant habitat is falling within the Protected Area (PA) network that comprises of the Wildlife Sanctuaries and the National Parks. The rest of their habitat lies outside the PA network which is a mosaic of multiple use forests (Government reserved forests), plantations and cultivations that have come up in the place of the natural forests. Elephants have been destined to live outside the forested landscape, simply because of humans steadily encroaching on the forests and converting those to human habitations, cultivated lands etc. This has fragmented their habitat and their survival outside the Protected Areas has become extremely tenuous as exemplified by increased conflict related deaths.

A Charging Elephant

Increasing human wildlife interface

Even the 25% of the elephant habitats falling within PA network is not completely devoid of problems. Within PAs (Protected Areas) we have linear intrusions like roads, canals, dams, railway lines and settlements fragmenting the habitat and reducing the habitat quality. Some of the PAs and Reserved Forests have very high density of cattle that competes with elephants and other wild herbivores over the available plant biomass. Even the better large mammal habitats like Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary in the Nilgiris continue to suffer from annual man made fires that destroys the precious fodder available for the ungulates.

An elephant struggles to find food in an invasives dominated landscape

Quality of habitats has also degraded due to our intrusion resulting in proliferation of invasive toxic plants like lantana camara , Parthenium hysterophorus, Chromolaena sp  and score of other Forest Invasive Species (FIS) that have colonized good wildlife habitats. In many PAs productive riparian forests and vayals (=swamp fallows) that support luxuriant vegetation were taken over for paddy cultivation depriving the food availability for the herbivores. Collection of huge quantities of minor forest produce that includes edible fruits and even the bamboo has depleted the food source for the wild animals. All these factors have directly or indirectly forced wildlife to seek out food outside the human defined National Park boundaries. There is also a hypothesis of population constriction of large mammals in some PAs because of indiscriminate habitat loss in the surrounding areas and wildlife obviously seeks refuge in the areas with minimum human disturbance. This again cannot be claimed as an increase in population.

Comfortably ignoring all these facts, there is a vehement claim that wildlife populations have increased everywhere. The human – wildlife interface has indeed increased significantly as more roads are laid inside the forests and lengthy hard edges are created around the wildlife habitats. Even the once obscure forest roads now have many visitors and the forest boundaries have been filled up with tourist resorts, industries and housing colonies. Wildlife habitats continue to suffer from shrinkage and fragmentation.  These days an elephant or any wildlife for that matter may have to ‘encounter’ human beings several times a day during its daily movement within its range. A decade ago elephant herds might have peacefully crossed the Mettupalayam to Ooty road in the cover of the darkness. This is just not possible today with over 3000 vehicles on an average plying in this road day and night. Elephant herds stay baffled in the road side awaiting a lull in the traffic to cross the road. They stand exposed being watched by hundreds of people most of who think that the elephant numbers have increased just because they saw them! Mere increase in the sighting rate within or outside the habitat does not mean that there is a true increase in the wildlife population.

Declining wildlife populations

Wildlife populations, especially the large cats and even the elephants suffer high mortality rates. The unnatural mortalities resulting from poaching, road kill, electrocution and others continue to haunt wildlife populations threatening their very existence. Further, there is no factual basis for claiming the increase in wildlife populations as we don’t have reliable base line information to compare the numbers over a period of time. Moreover, scientifically accepted manner of enumerating wildlife populations is nonexistent in most of the areas.  

An elephant herd running away from people

A recent article published by a renowned Primatologist Titled “Monkeys common no more” claims that even the common monkeys around us are dwindling in numbers and they occur in low densities in the forests. This is contrary to the popular belief that monkey populations have dramatically increased.  Wild boars were in the news for wrong reasons. Kerala government had recently allowed killing of wild boars that ‘stray’ out of the forests in some districts. This decision is based on the opinion that wild boar numbers have exploded in the state.  Wild boars belong to the family of Suidae and they are the most widely distributed prey species for the tigers. All the three major predatory carnivores in our region, the tiger, the leopard and the dhole (mistakenly known as the Indian Wild dog) predate on the wild boars. Long term scientific study on tigers conducted in the tropical forests of Karnataka by deploying techniques such as scat (faecal matter) analysis has revealed that on an average 9.5% of tiger’s diet constitute wild boars. Experts with years of field experience assert that wild boar population is subject to high seasonal fluctuations. Increase of their numbers in some forests may be a temporary phenomenon. So knee jerk reactions to specific situations and ordering “culling” of wild boars may reduce the prey base of the predatory carnivores and even increase the human – carnivore conflict.

Worried by traffic, a wild asian elephant looks at left and then at right before crossing the road in Nagarhole National Park, India

N.Lakshminarayanan

Wildlife Conservation Society – India Program

Coimbatore

N. Lakshminarayanan

N Lakshminarayanan works in Wildlife Conservation Society – India Program and is based out of Coimbatore.

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Highway that goes through forest bisects the habitat and pose severe problem for wildlife that crosses the road. Very often wild animals get killed by speeding vehicles. So a study was undertaken to look at the problem posed by state highways that go thorough Anamalai Tiger Reserve to suggest mitigation measures to reduce the number of road kills along these roads. The roads selected for the study were road stretch between 9 / 6 – Chinnar road and Aliyar – Attakatti check posts. The main objectives of this study were:

1. to look at the road kills along 9 / 6 and Chinnar check post road and along Aliyar and Attakatti Check post road
2. to look at the vehicle traffic during week days and week ends
3. to look at the vehicle speed in day and night time as well in steep roads and in road stretch that goes through flat terrain
4. and to suggest mitigation measures to reduce road kills

Methods

Two major highways that goes through Anamalai Tiger Reserve namely 9 / 6 Check post -   Chinnar and Aliyar – Attakatti check post were selected to look at road kills of wild animals. The selected roads were walked during morning and all the animals that were found dead were noted with Global Positioning System (GPS) locations. Vehicles using theses roads during week days and week ends and during day and night time were recorded. Vehicles using these roads would be classified into heavy vehicle such as truck and bus and medium sizzled vehicle like Mazda’s and mini trucks, light motor vehicles such as car and jeeps and autos and two wheelers. Vehicle speed were recorded with the help of speed guns. Vehicle speed were recorded during day and night time and also in different terrains such as steep slopes and flat terrains.

Results

This work was started from December 2010 and it continued until April 2011. Both roads were walked twice during the month of December 2010 and the length of the roads walked were 20.2 in Aliyar – Attakatti road and 24 kilometers 9 / 6 Check post and Chinnar Check post road. 20 (twenty) kills were found along 9 / 6 check post and Chinnar road and 75 (seventy five) kills were found along the Aliyar – Attakatti Check post road. The kills includes amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Invertebrates such as insects and crabs were also found along both roads. Several shield tail snakes were found dead during the first trip just after rains and it less number of shield tails were found dead during the second trip. Sheild tail snakes were found dead only in Aliyar – Attakatti check post road. The study roads were digitized using MapInfo Professional Version 10. The roads were digitized from 1: 50, 000 scale Survey of India Toposheets. Fifty meter contours were generated using Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission data (SRTM). Road kill locations were superimposed on the roads to look at whether there is any particular stretch has got more hills and also look at the number of kill along steep roads and roads running through flat terrain. More kills were found gentle undulating terrain and in road stretches in flat terrain. Twelve kill were noticed between Punganodai and 9 / 6 check post and fourteen kill were found between Aliyar and Attakatti check post road between contour canal junction and Aliyar check post. More number of kills were noticed between contour canal during first visit between contour canal junction and Attakatti check post this because of large number shield tails movement after rain in this stretch after rain.

Animal kills found in 9 / 6 and Chinnar Check post

Animal kills found in Aliyar and Attakatti check post

Proportion of different kills found along Aliyar – Attakatti Check posts

 Proportion of different kills found along 9 / 6 and Chinnar Check posts

Vehicle speed in flat terrain Aliyar – Attakatti Road and 9/6 Check post and Chinnar Road during the month of January 2011

Number of Vehicles using the study roads during week days in Aliyar Attakatti Rd

Number of Vehicles using the study roads during week days in Aliyar Attakatti Rd

R Arumugam

Biologist and Wildlife Consultant Anamalai Tiger Reserve Guest Lecturer TamilNadu Forest Academy, Coimbatore 149/13 Sumangalinagar Suleeshwaranpatti Po Pollachi 642 006 Comibatore District TamilNadu

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Childhood influence:
Wildlife Photography & filmmaking is a lifelong journey. When I look back, I realise that the seeds were sown early. As a kid, when one is at an impressionable age, it is often natural to get influenced by his/her parents and immediate surroundings. More so, when your father is a Professor of Zoology and often conducting post graduate Life Science and Ecology classes at our home. I used to listen to those descriptions of the complex relationships between various organisms – large and small – forgetting much of what was spoken but retaining the essence of it.

When I was eight years old, he had bought me books of Jim Corbett and Kenneth Anderson. The lucid writing style and the rich and vivid descriptions remained etched in my mind. After reading these books, and then listening to the classes, the quest to learn more about ecology and animal behaviour had firmly taken roots. My father had very good knowledge of photography and he used to bring photography books home. I remember trying to draw images of cameras looking at those colourful pages. I had never realised that those two will combine to lay a solid foundation for wildlife photography, filming and conservation which has become an all-consuming passion.

Bio-diversity and Need for Photo documentation:
Today, India is at a stage where there is huge clamour to create infrastructure. Our development model is flawed, and hence there is unequal development with cities growing bigger and bigger with migration from smaller towns and rural areas. With economic growth, more industries, dams, airports, canals etc are being planned. Unfortunately, the planners view our jungles as just source of timber or count the number of trees that would be hacked. Ecology is much more complex. There is a complex web of relationships binding various species with each other. Most of our fresh water resources originate from our forests. Many a civilisation has perished due to want of water. So protecting those bio-diversity rich areas would help in preserving our future economic security as well.

There is an acute lack of documentation of our many bio-diversity rich places and hence most of the times when a large infrastructure project is planned, these areas are easily sacrificed. These ecologically fragile areas are devastated even before we know that they exist, as documentation is non-existent. Photography can play a major role in documentation and increasing our understanding of the flora and fauna in these places. It would be impossible for one person to travel the entire length and breadth of this huge country and do a good job in documenting the rich bio-diversity. So India needs wildlife photographers who can document the various forests, sanctuaries, wetlands and other protected areas of this country. The challenge is to train the wildlife photographers so that they can see and document this amazing bio-diversity. Else, their focus will remain on the few mega fauna like tiger, lion, leopard, elephant, gaur, rhino etc.

Future of our Protected Areas:
India now has a billion plus population and increasing its population every other second. This huge population is increasing the pressures on the available land. Need and greed is fuelling the increased concretization and reduction of green areas. The wilderness areas are increasingly being fragmented and bound by human settlements. This has led to isolation of our wilderness areas. Migration of our fauna from one forest to the other is becoming impossible. This is impacting the genetic diversity and as a result, their resistance to diseases goes down. The survival of many species is at stake and in many areas one will only find the remaining few of the species being radio-collared for scientific studies or just for tracking. One has to be satisfied at the sight of lions, tigers and elephants wearing radio collars. And with the small size of our protected areas, the feeling of being in a zoo is complete.

Digital Photography and Ethics:

The rapid increase in digital technology is increasingly resulting in cameras becoming better and better. Today, one can just shoot a video and select one still frame out of the video footage from high end cameras. One can also place cameras in camera traps and later use those photographs. With increased technology, there is also the question of ethics of wildlife photographers. The younger generation of photographers are finding it difficult not to take short cuts. One can select the animal from one image and paste it with a pleasing background photographed separately and fake it as originally photographed in the field. There have been instances of even reputed photographers taking the shortcuts. So the old adage that a “Photograph never lies” is challenged severely. To verify such claims one needs to check the RAW image from the camera. Since the viewers of photographs in a magazine or newspaper won’t have the luxury to verify the authenticity of the images, the wildlife photographers will be looked at with suspicion.

This will have a major impact on use of photographs as documentary evidence of the bio-diversity of an area. So people who want to setup large projects in ecologically fragile areas will argue that the photographs are not real. So that will increase the challenge for the few of us who are engaged in documenting the wilderness areas. We will then have to take added pains of showing the RAW files, geo tagging etc.

Conservation Movement in India:

In India, there have been a few brilliant individuals who have raised their voice for conservation. However, it has never attained a mass movement, except for a few instances like the Chipko movement when villagers hugged the trees to prevent logging of those trees. The few champions of Conservation efforts in India are branded as elitist by opponents. In India, we don’t have a conservation movement. Unless we are able to raise awareness about the conservation issues and educate people about the perils of the present flawed model of economic growth, and the resulting challenges of climate change, it would be difficult to enlist the support of the masses. It is very important to enlighten the individuals and harness the power of “WE” by creating a cohesive network of like-minded citizens for conserving the fast vanishing wilderness and wildlife in this country. It is with this express purpose, I had founded the IndiaWilds so that concerned individuals can join at www.indiawilds.com/forums raise their voice and become change agents themselves.

Why Save Wild Tigers?

As a kid, I remember starring at a photo of a tiger in a bookstore. Many of us have been mesmerised by the tiger. From my childhood days, I have read a lot of books and research papers written about tigers in India and abroad and have spent many hours watching tigers in the wild in safaris or have also spent many hours alone waiting for a tiger to make its appearance near waterholes and other places. The more I learn about the tiger, the more I feel I am in awe about its intelligence, its beauty and the need to conserve God’s most magnificent creation. The Tiger is the Apex predator, perched on top of a complex chain of ecological relationships including animals, birds and plants. To save the tiger we also need to save its habitat. So saving the tiger will help in preserving the entire ecosystem.

Message to Students:
I feel it is important to find out what you are passionate about and then continue working on it. If you are passionate about your subject, then you will know more about it and it will show up in your work. It will help in persevering even when there are challenges. Not everybody can become a professional wildlife photographer or filmmaker or a conservationist and devote all the time. However, one can take up one cause as a Life Project and then continue working on it. I am sure one day you will achieve success.

If you are a budding wildlife photographer, then it is better that you first learn more about your subject. Unless one knows animal behaviour, it becomes difficult to predict the movement of the subject and get great images. So try reading books, journals, articles in the internet etc.

You all should try writing either in English or in your mother tongue. There is a severe shortage of good writing in various Indian languages. Keep on sharing your thoughts as you continue learning. There would be many people who will find your writings interesting and will learn from you.

Wildlife photography is also all about perseverance. One can’t just take one safari in the jungle and expect to see a tiger and create a world famous image. You need to keep on taking one step at a time and build up your work. It takes years of effort, along with your personal vision to show your subject in its own unique way.

And last but not least, please don’t forget to raise your voice to protect the remaining wilderness areas and wildlife in this country. After all millions of Indians are now starring at the specter of climate change, and our economic security and protection of our bio-diversity are interlinked.

Sabyasachi Patra

I am passionate about wildlife conservation. I am striving to make my films and photographs full of life and emotion and write articles to educate and evangelise the need for conserving the last tracts of vanishing wilderness sand wildlife in our country. I pray to the almighty that my wildlife films, photographs and writings force people to pause, look, ponder and ultimately take action. To make my ends meet, I work as Executive Director at MAIT (Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology)

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In my childhood days, inspired by stories I have passed through that phase when one tries to create bow and arrows and catapults and fire at any living creature (apart from man). For a number of us these were passing phases to be given up the minute something more interesting arrests our imagination.

However, in the semi-urban and rural areas one often find children as well as adults using catapults. Starting from the women folk who are guarding their grains from birds to people who use it to hunt birds for the pot, catapult is used relentlessly.

In one of the shocking incidents, in April 2010, kids in Jorhat, Assam killed about 250 egrets using catapults. Though all of us got shocked due to the sheer number of birds that got killed, one should try to understand the impact of the catapult on the psyche of people.

Like the young girl and her sister in this picture, who are taught to handle the catapult which is bigger than the size of their sandals, killing small birds etc conditions their mind to killing. Graduating from killing small birds to large animals later in their life, is just a natural progression.

No laws can be effective, if culturaly the people are conditioned to defy the law. In the Wildlife Act, catapult is not defined as a weapon. Where as the definition of weapon includes “ammunition, bows and arrows, explosives, firearms, hooks, knives, nets, poison, snares, traps, and any instrument or apparatus capable of anaesthetizing, decoying, destroying, injuring or killing an animal”.

I hope my fellow conservationists, naturalists, birdwatchers, bird photographers and the general public wake up to the harm created by the catapult remaining out of the law.

Sabyasachi Patra

I am passionate about wildlife conservation. I am striving to make my films and photographs full of life and emotion and write articles to educate and evangelise the need for conserving the last tracts of vanishing wilderness sand wildlife in our country. I pray to the almighty that my wildlife films, photographs and writings force people to pause, look, ponder and ultimately take action. To make my ends meet, I work as Executive Director at MAIT (Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology)

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I came across a news item from Bangladesh and immediately sat up and took notice.

Bangladesh which had promulgated its wildlife laws in 1974 is revamping it. Under the present laws, the maximum penalty for a wildlife poacher or smuggler is 2000 taka which is equivalent to Rs1316/- and a two year prison sentence. Under the soon to be enacted new laws, the sentence has been enhanced to life imprisonment and 3,00,000 taka (equivalent to Rs. 1,97,529/-).

Now lets see what is happening in a biodiversity rich country like Malaysia, which is close to us.

Malaysia is scheduled to implement its new Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 by the end of this year. In this new law, killing of an endangered species like the tiger (Malay), Rhino (Sumatran) etc will invite a maximum punishment of RM 100,000 (Equivalent to Rs. 14,04,000/-) and five years in jail or both if the animal is young or is a female. The maximum fine for killing an endangered male species of rhino, tiger etc is RM 50,000 (equivalent to Rs. 702,000/-). Also, important is the fact that for the first time crime of setting up snares, hunting, or keeping certain species captive-such as rhinos and tigers- there is a mandatory jail sentence.

Now it is in sharp contrast to laws in India. According to the current laws the maximum punishment for murdering an endangered species like a tiger is three to seven years in jail and a fine of ten thousand rupees for first offence and twenty five thousand for second offence. And offences related to trade and commerce in animal trophies, articles derived from certain animals will result in a maximum punishment of three year imprisonment and fine upto Rs. 25000/- I am sure, you will agree that this is not a deterrent enough and the wildlife crime syndicates are able to easily get people to work in their channels.
It is said that the Government is interested in amending the laws to increase the punishment. The proposed punishments for killing a tiger is five to seven years for a first time offender and seven to ten years for a repeat offender. Needless to say that the present as well as the proposed quantum of punishment is not big enough to act as a deterrent.

Faulty Prosecution process:

We all agree that the prosecution process is faulty and drags on for a long time. The rich and mighty often get away with these crimes. For example, Hindi film stars like Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, and Cricketers like Nawab of Pataudi etc are yet to be punished for killing blackbucks. And this is despite the strong and vociferous protest by the Vishnoi community.

Wildlife crimes are heard in a magisterial court rather than a Sessions court. The evidence is often dismissed because the evidence is not able to be presented properly. Since, very rarely a wildlife crime is committed in front of other people it becomes essential to create evidences and link it to the criminals. So expertise in forensics, ballistics, biology, chemistry, apart from plain old logic is required to deconstruct the crime scene and prove it in front of the court.

Argument against stringent Wildlife Laws:

A number of conservationists believe that it is more important to reform the prosecution process rather than enhancing the quantum of punishment. They cite the slow and tardy nature of the prosecution process. It is often difficult to prove the guilt. So the rate of conviction is poor.

Unfortunately, the conservationists are basing their arguments on their perception and are unable to see the big picture. It is a kind of juvenile attitude, where each kid thinks his candy is better. The solution to the issue of preventing wildlife crimes is not just by improving the prosecution process, but by strengthening the wildlife laws as well.

Shabbir Husain Qureshi, the man who was arrested with one of the biggest catch of wildlife parts in Indian history – 4 tiger skins, 70 leopard skins and 18,000 leopard claws – was released after quickly finishing his sentence. Obviously, he went back to committing wildlife crimes again.

Why punishments should be exemplary?

I would disagree with people who feel the present level of punishment stipulated in the laws is sufficient or who feel that we need not focus our energy in enhancing it.

Take the example of Indians who travel abroad. The so called elites, or the middle classes as well as the working class people like plumber etc are all very careful in obeying the rules in a foreign country like Singapore. The supposedly simple acts of indiscretion like spitting or defecating in public, which people here are so used to, is not at all practiced by our people in a country like Singapore. The level of punishments in the small country like Singapore acts as a big deterrent. If we are able to slap exemplary punishment for killing a tiger, then definitely the people on the ground who actually kill the tiger or act as conduits will refrain from doing so. We will then have a small amount of crime to contend with.

Recognition for wildlife crimes as equally important:

Today, Wildlife crimes are given less importance as perhaps there is a feeling that wildlife is an expendable commodity. Murder of a schedule I species like tiger is not treated as equivalent to the murder of a human being. And this is despite the tiger being the vahana (vehicle) of goddesses Durga. And ofcouse, we use the term poaching for killing of wildlife, where as murder is the term used for killing a human being.
If we look at some of the gruesome murders committed in India, like killing a person and skinning him or killing a person and burning her body in a tandoor (clay oven), the crime was adjudged to be the rarest of the rare and the persons given death penalty.

Now let’s look at the modus operandi of a poacher engaged by a crime syndicate. The poachers lay snares to trap a tiger; the tiger is caught and tries vehemently to free itself. With every effort, the snare tightens more and more and the tiger keeps on bleeding due to the snare cutting deeper into the flesh. The tiger is then discovered a day or two later, sometimes ever later, and then the poacher places the gun virtually on the tigers head and shoots it point blank. The tiger is then skinned. The flesh and bones are dried and sent to be consumed in a country abroad. Is it not gruesome enough?

Do you think we should condone such cruelty? Is this not a rarest of the rare case and fit for capital punishment?

It is time, we toss away our rule books and rewrite those to keep in sync with the times. Also, apart from wildlife related laws, the laws related to falsification/fabrication of evidence etc should be made stringent, so that people don’t readily agree to testify to cover up a crime.

Apart from strengthening all our laws, we should not overlook the importance of educating the communities that get involved in wildlife crimes. At times, the accomplices of poachers are poor individuals from the local community, who succumb to enticements and agree as they are often told that the crime will not come to light and if at all it is known, then the tardy process of law enforcement will result in them coming out in bail. The forest department with the help of NGOs and local media should undertake sustained campaigns to increase the awareness about wildlife crimes. That will go a long way in saving our wildlife till the law ministry is able to strengthen the laws.

A word for conservationists:

I think it would be pertinent to recall the story of the blind men and elephant that we had read during our school days. A few blind men came across an elephant and each one touched a particular part of the elephant. One of them felt that the elephant is like a snake, the other thought it to be a rope. The third one felt the elephant to be like a wall. And there were answers like pillar etc. One can know that each one is right in his or her own way, but still collectively they were farther from the truth.

I won’t be surprised if someone feels that our conservationists are acting like the blind men and the elephant. I hope our conservationists share their perceptions with each other and arrive at the overall picture. That will go a long way in saving our last tracts of wilderness left in this country.

Sabyasachi Patra

I am passionate about wildlife conservation. I am striving to make my films and photographs full of life and emotion and write articles to educate and evangelise the need for conserving the last tracts of vanishing wilderness sand wildlife in our country. I pray to the almighty that my wildlife films, photographs and writings force people to pause, look, ponder and ultimately take action. To make my ends meet, I work as Executive Director at MAIT (Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology)

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Anyone who is born is destined to die. However, one feels sad when a young soul passes away. You feel annoyed when you realise that the premature death is due to rash driving. And I am sure, you would be devastated when you realise that this rash driving has orphaned three small kids who can’t fend for themselves.

Precisely that has happened in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve.

The Jhurjhura tigress who had three small cubs have been felled by an errant jeep. The cubs hardly five months old, are too young to fend for themselves. And no other tigress can play the role of a surrogate mother and teach them hunting skills.

And now look at the tragedy of the absurd being played out in Bandhavgarh.

Initially, the forest department denied that the jhurjhura tigress was killed. The Field director was quoted as saying that a male tiger has been killed. Then he said that the death is due to fighting with another tiger.

It was an egregious blunder from the Field Director, as fighting with another tiger would have left behind deep wounds, unlike the present case where external wounds were not found on the body of the tigress. Then it was said that the tigress died due to possible drowning or poisoning. Then they said that the tigress is not the jhurjhura tigress but its daughter from its previous litter aged 30 months.

In the meanwhile, the Forest department had identified 11 vehicles that had gone in those routes and brought the guides and drivers of those vehicles for questioning. It should be noted, that in each vehicle one guide is mandatorily given by the forest department. It was said that the forest department would seize the vehicles.

The markings in the face and the body clearly established that the tigress is indeed the Jhurjhura tigress. I have been photographing her for many years and have seen her raise successive litters to adulthood. I can easily recognize her image from front as well as sides. I used to joke that I have an annual date with her in the waters of Bandhavgarh. I can remember her careful foot steps during stalking when the hind leg exactly falls on the place vacated by the fore leg. I have been privy to watch her shower motherly love on her cubs. She is ready to admonish her cubs when required. She often used to show annoyance whenever tourists intrude into her privacy. My life has been filled with some pleasant memories of her.

Today, I feel a sense of tremendous loss. I feel a sense of shame, shame of having been born in the same race as the insensitive criminals who hit the tigress and the criminals who are helping cover up the crime.

I feel disturbed, when I see that a majority of wildlife photographers and tour agents, who routinely enjoy clicking the images of this beautiful tigress and sharing the images in photo sharing sites, are today silent. Perhaps, they have moved on in life? Ready to enjoy the moment till it lasts? Is this the trait of the human species?

Or is it because the culprits are supposed to be powerful individuals that people have chickened out? Are we so fearful of the powerful and the influential?

I feel annoyed watching this theater of the absurd. And I feel disturbed watching the studied silence of the papparazi – the wildlife photographers – who were hounding her and her cubs when she was alive.

Remembering the moments of bliss that I had experienced with her, I am sharing a few images here.

May God Bless Her!

Sabyasachi

Sabyasachi Patra

I am passionate about wildlife conservation. I am striving to make my films and photographs full of life and emotion and write articles to educate and evangelise the need for conserving the last tracts of vanishing wilderness sand wildlife in our country. I pray to the almighty that my wildlife films, photographs and writings force people to pause, look, ponder and ultimately take action. To make my ends meet, I work as Executive Director at MAIT (Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology)

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Laxminarayanan and his brother Hari had wanted to go to Bandipur, and were urging me to plan a trip. Mr. TNA Perumal, the doyen of wildlife photography of the yesteryears, agreed to join and soon four of us were on our way to Bandipur.

We started early in the morning from Bangalore and reached Bandipur Forest Rest House by around 12 noon. After unpacking, we were ready to have our lunch. The macaques were trying to sneak inside the room and had to be careful with our food and photographic equipment.

In the afternoon, we entered into the forest and soon sighted an elephant and calf on the road. The light was a bit harsh and the elephants were close.

I was driving with my EOS 1D Mark II and Canon EF 400mm f2.8 L IS lens on my lap. The elephants were too close for my 400mm. There was an armada speeding towards us in the road, and the elephants immediately got into the bush. We turned left and after sometime came across three Sambars (Cervus unicolor). The Sambar had a pronounced sore patch. The sambar was on the left side and I had to handheld my 400mm f2.8 IS and photograph through the left window.

George B. Schaller in his much acclaimed book – The Deer and the Tiger had this to say about the Sore patch :

“One of the manifestations of the early part of the rut is the “sore neck: (J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 1921; Morris, 1988) or “sore spot.” On the ventral surface of the neck is a line of hair, somewhat darker and less sleek than the surrounding pelage, which runs down the mid-line from the throat to the lower part of the neck. At the begining of the rut, the hair falls out at the terminus of this line, and the skin seems to slough off, forming a circular area about one to two inches in diameter which is bloody in appearance and exudes a seous fluid, “a kind of whittish looking oily or watery substance” (Thom, 1937). The area around the sore spot is sometimes swollen, and Kemp (1914 [quoted in J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 1921]) observed that hair is occasionally rubbed off over an area as large as eight inches long and six inches wide. I noted the first sore spot on November 15 and the last one on December 15. Many sore spots began to heal during the first half of December, and by January the only evidence of them was an area of pinkish skin lightly overgrown with hair. Sore spots were not seen at other times of the year at Kanha, but in Kaziranga Sanctuary two stags and a hind all had them on May 3…….”

It should be noted that we saw the sore patch on August. The flies were swarming around the sore patch. After watching the Sambar for a few minutes, we drove ahead.

Soon we came across a lizard near the water. It kept on moving towards us and soon was close enough for me to just get its head filling the entire frame. After a few minutes, I found one Ford Endeavour moving towards us and I discovered Dr. Ajit Huilgol in that vehicle. And a couple of minutes later, the traffic jam was complete with a forest department canter reaching the place. The monitor lizard had moved away and was appearing as a small object. We then moved ahead.

Towards evening the lights started going down and we came across a herd of elephants. And I discovered that there were a few tourist vehicles about 30 yards behind the elephants. A few elephants from the herd were yet to cross over to the left side and were hidden in the dense lantana bushes. The elephants at the left started mud bathing. The matriarch gave the signal for the elephants to move. An approximately 3 year old juvenile elephant came close to my SUV and felt a bit intimidated. The matriarch moved ahead to calm it and they entered into the dense lantana bushes on our left. The sighting was not conducive for great photography. However, I was happy at observing the elephants and listening to their rumbling sounds.
We then moved ahead and arrived at a T junction.

When I turned to the left, we could find a few langurs on the ground eating lantana leaves. Lantana, being an exotic first imported by the British as flowering plants have gone wild and invaded our forests. The leaves have toxic impact on the herbivores. However, it seems that langurs have got accustomed to eating its flowers, buds and leaves. I am not sure whether anyone has done any study on the impact of lantana on the langur. Normally, I don’t stop for shooting langurs. However, the lighting was good. And Mr TNA Perumal, the pictorialist that he is, never missed an opportunity to photograph any subject in good lighting. I accordingly stopped the Safari and photographed the langurs with my 400mm. I opened the door and placed the lens in the wedge between the vehicle and the door and got enough stability to get sharp images.

The sun was setting and light had gone down low enough to prompt us to return to the Forest Rest House. We soon started chatting over a cup of tea. The images were downloaded, and after an early dinner we were about to retire for the night when we heard alarm calls.

Any visitors to Bandipur would be surprised at the congregation of spotted deers (Axis axis) near the forest rest house in the evenings. In the night, you can see the deers resting on the ground in the forest rest house compound. This is an attempt to avoid predators. However, leopards come nearby to hunt. We moved out but couldn’t see the leopard. Later around midnight again we heard alarm calls. However, it seems the leopard was not successful. I was hopeful that we might sight a carnivore the next day and didn’t realise when I fell asleep.

I was woken up by Laxminarayanan at around 4 am. We got ready and then met Mr. Jayakumar and group there and proceeded ahead. We were about to turn left when they moved ahead to turn left. So we drove ahead and took a right turn. Alas, who knew that we are going to miss the tiger?
In the early morning dew, we photographed a jungle fowl and a mongoose. At a distance we could find a few tourist vehicles. I drove ahead and found an elephant digging a salt lick. The sound of digging was audible. Since the elephant was on my right, I waited for Mr. TNA Perumal to click a few shots before I created some images. At f3.2 aperture, I could get the entire body covered by depth of field and was happy with the images.

We then turned back and came to the main road. I decided to enter into an unused road. Mr. Perumal said that chances of sighting in such dense vegetation is remote. However, I decided to move ahead. We then reached an antipoaching camp and turned left and climbed a hill again. Suddenly a Changeable Hawk Eagle flew and sat on a branch on our left. The background was not cluttered as there were branches criss crossing behind its head. It sat patiently for about half an hour. So I could change converters and create various compositions. It was about 9 am and there were no more sightings on the way.

After a quick breakfast, we decided to go to Gopalswamy Betta. Though I was not keen on taking my heavy 400mm f2.8 IS lens, Mr. Perumal said that there are chances of sighting elephants on the slopes and asked me to carry the lens. It was however, packed in my bag.

We were about to reach the Bandipur forest gate and saw a spotted deer (Axis axis) near the road side chewing on a kurkure packet. Herbivores, due to the salt content, like to lick and chew the empty wafers packets dropped by visitors. In the process, the stand on or near the road side and get hit by speeding vehicles. At times, they swallow these packets and die as well. On one earlier occasion, I had seen an elephant dung containing a polythene laced with blood. When I was struggling to remove my camera and lens from the bag kept in the backseat, the deer moved into the lantana vegetation. Several cars came speeding and narrowly missed hitting us. Fortunately, I could document the deer chewing the plastic wafer packet using 800mm focal length.

We then proceeded towards Gopalswamy Betta. Somehow, we missed the entry road and took a detour on a broken road. It was certainly not an issue as I had 4WD in my vehicle. On reaching the entry gate to Gopalswamy Betta, I was pleasantly surprised when the guard checked for plastics and took away polythene bags from the tourist vehicles. I wish this practice can be adopted in other places, including Bandipur.

On reaching the summit of the hill, we got down to macro shooting. I hadn’t brought a macro lens, but Mr. Perumal started shooting. I discovered that it is a good place for macro work. After a quick trip to the temple, we proceeded back to Bandipur. We sighted and counted a herd of seven elephants at a distance feeding on the leaves and branches on the hill slope. After observing them for about fifteen minutes, we moved ahead as the afternoon safari time was fast approaching.

On reaching the forest rest house, I found a big wild boar close by. On a whim, I took out my new Nokia N97 phone and tip toed towards it to create a full frame image. Well, the phones have a long way to go before serious photographers like me can use it.

We reached a waterhole where the previous day a tigress was sighted. Unfortunately, we only found a gaur. I tried a few shots handholding my Canon 1D Mark II and Canon EF 400mm f2.8 L IS USM lens plus 2xII Tc combination. The weight is killing, but I got a few sharp images.

Later in the evening, we found a kid langur playing and then found gaurs in low light. An adult male gaur was getting ready to mount on a receptive female. It needed some more time, and we didn’t have much time in our hands as the forest gates closing time was fast approaching. We had to call it a day.

Next day early in the morning apart from cheetals we didn’t have much sightings. We then waited at a place as Hari and Mr Perumal wanted to photograph the deers and langurs. I was watching a langur at a distance debarking a tree. After some time it moved ahead and started mating with a female langur. Fortunately, I was ready and despite handholding my heavy lens, the images were sharp. Soon it was time for us to move ahead and bid adieu to Bandipur.

(Originally written on August 2009)

Sabyasachi Patra

I am passionate about wildlife conservation. I am striving to make my films and photographs full of life and emotion and write articles to educate and evangelise the need for conserving the last tracts of vanishing wilderness sand wildlife in our country. I pray to the almighty that my wildlife films, photographs and writings force people to pause, look, ponder and ultimately take action. To make my ends meet, I work as Executive Director at MAIT (Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology)

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Leaders are visionaries. They show us their vision and lead us towards the Promised Land. Or atleast, they used to lead us till leadership became the domain of dynasties. In India, the former Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpaee was initially ridiculed when he unveiled his Golden Quadrilateral and East-West, North-South corridor dreams. With the success of the Golden Quadrilateral, every political party in India has understood the power of those grand dreams. Unfortunately, those grand dreams are limited to infrastructure projects and today the motto is “the bigger, the better”.

It is now an established fact that Energy is a great enabler in reducing poverty, and enhancing equity among the masses. It is also a prerequisite for India’s emergence as an Industrialised Nation. At a time when India is inviting foreign investment with open arms, the deficit of electricity has become more pertinent and is threatening to become the spoilsport. The response to this deficit is to think of mega power projects, which is in line with the current accepted wisdom: of big being better. However, the question is whether big is always better?

India currently has about 1.8 lakh Megawatts of power generation capacity. The transmission losses are about 30%. This amounts to 60,000 mega watts of power ie. Equivalent to 15 Ultra mega power projects of 4000 MW size each. If we consider that each MW of capacity creation costs about 4 crores of rupees, the total amount saved can run upto 240,000 crores. A leaking ship requires the hole to be plugged rather than thinking of building another ship. Unfortunately, the proponent of this simple truth is likely to be branded as anti-development and thus anti-people and the opinion would be trashed with impunity.

These mega power projects leave a huge environmental foot print. Each power plant requires several thousand acres of land. Since Relocation and Rehabilitiation is an issue, the proponents of these power projects mostly try to acquire wetlands that are breeding grounds of hundreds of bird species, flora and fauna. Typically these places are termed as wastelands and commandeered for setting up these mega projects. This means the mega power plants are situated at a great distance from the consuming centres. So the vicious cycle of power generation, transmission losses during wheeling over long distances, distribution losses starts yet again.

History is replete with instances of civilisations perishing due to the fury of Nature. From the earliest days of mankind, we have understood the powers of Nature and have revered it. We have worshipped the wind, the fire, the water, the sun, earth etc from time immemorial. Unfortunately, today we are at a cross purpose with nature. The powers to be of India’s belated march towards industrialisation have closed their eyes towards the impact on nature. It is time that we wake up to such realisms, and think of securing our future generations by planning for a greener outlook.

The use of non-conventional energy sources like solar, wind, biomass etc. can decrease the dependence on present and future demand of electricity from mega power projects. Furthermore, these non-conventional energy sources can be tapped to light up homes of various rural communities that either are off the grid supply now or have irregular power supply. Supplying power to these far-flung communities also increases the losses. When one considers that India has about 6lakh villages, establishing a grid network to connect all the farflung villages is a gigantic task & costly task. It is better to design a system where some of the remote villages are off the grid but have tap renewable energy sources for their energy needs.

India is blessed with abundant supply of sunshine as opposed to countries in Europe. Therefore, it is vital that we tap solar energy to fulfil our energy needs. Far-flung rural communities can be provided with a combination of solar energy generating systems and households connected to a mini grids; thus enabling their de-hyphenation from major power grid. The energy thus generated can be used by the community while the excess energy generated can recharge the batteries.

At the moment, solar energy appears to be costlier than the thermal or hydel power and critics are ready to dismiss usage of solar power as an elitist dream. Is that so?

In India the production capacity for Photo Voltaic Cells is about 200 MW. However, the domestic demand is hardly 10 MW. So about 180 MW is being exported. Considering that most of these are used in Europe where the average sunlight is less than that in India, we need to think why we don’t find any cost advantage in Solar energy. The answer is the hidden subsidies and the flawed way of calculations. The unit cost of power for a consumer is same whether the consumer is near the generating station or whether he is in a remote location. The cost of providing power to farflung communities are hidden in this pricing mechanism. When one considers the transmission losses incurred to connect far flung houses, the solar appears to be cheaper.

Increased or mandatory usage in certain designated areas is likely to lead to greater economies of scale. The Government of India can make an amendement to the Electricity policy to mandate the distribution utilities to purchase a specific portion of their energy needs from renewable energy sources. This would give a boost to the generation and consumption of renewable energy sources in India. Furthermore, allowing renewable power plants to sell part of their capacities as per rates applicable to Unscheduled Interchange will make the cost of solar energy look attractive in India. It would also help if the Government channelises its efforts in ensuring more R&D in this area keeping the longterm in mind.

The Government of India needs to increase the efficiency of the existing power transmission and fully harness the potential of alternate energy resources rather than waste lakhs of crores of rupees in creating new conventional power generating souces. It is not only a colossal waste of scare resourses, but also creates a huge environmental footprint burdening future generations.

Sabyasachi Patra

I am passionate about wildlife conservation. I am striving to make my films and photographs full of life and emotion and write articles to educate and evangelise the need for conserving the last tracts of vanishing wilderness sand wildlife in our country. I pray to the almighty that my wildlife films, photographs and writings force people to pause, look, ponder and ultimately take action. To make my ends meet, I work as Executive Director at MAIT (Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology)

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To make the matters worse, I was thinking that the ticket wont get confirmed, so hadn’t packed. Naturally, something or the other would be missed. However, I had never imagined that I will miss my tripod. I had packed the tripod in its cloth bag, but while rushing from the room, I forgot to pick it up. What a costly mistake. 

On 1st of November 2008, I got down at Naupara junction. It is a small junction with hardly any construction. I got into an auto rickshaw. And what a drive it turned out to be! 

I don’t know whether the driver would have ever seen F1 in TV. Being in a remote corner of India, this seems to be impossible. However, the way the auto driver started driving his auto at breckneck speed, dodging the pot holes, he would have put aspiring formula one drivers to shame. 

I had a tough time understanding the language as I don’t follow Telugu. I reached the forest guest house. I could see pelicans and painted storks flying by. I could see a watch tower constructed within the premises. Without waiting for the watchman to open the door of the Forest Rest House, I climbed up the tower and could see a small colony of pelicans nesting in a nearby tree. The sun was setting and I took some record shots of pelicans. Normally, I am not so keen in photographing Pelicans and Painted storks nesting. The background comes out pretty clumsy. I tried photographing them against the setting sun to make it slightly different than the run of the mill pelican shots. 

I came back to the room and unpacked. I had a chat about Mr. Mrutyunjaya Rao – a man whom I had come to support in the fight to save the Telineelapuram wetlands – to understand the area. I asked the watchman to get some food from a nearby hotel. In the meanwhile, a few local guys arrived and striked a conversation. Initially I was polite with them till the time one of them offered to arrange someone to remove my loneliness. I had to show them the door and then retired for the night. 

Lets see what is in store tomorrow. 

It was tough sleeping in the forest rest house. The building is hardly maintained as this is not a regular tourist spot. There is a watchman who hasn’t got his salary for a long long time. Naturally, he felt very good when I tipped him yesterday. It was a difficult night and I woke up feeling uneasy. 

I finished my morning chores and then slept for half an hour. I was woken up by a local guy whom I had met earlier. He was from Orissa and had settled in the village. I went out to photograph the pelicans and painted storks. I was urged by the locals to shoot the painted stork and I realized that they feel painted stork is better. On questioning, I was told that every year they wait for the arrival of painted storks and consider the day of their arrival as an auspicious day. 

The forest watchman brought tea and breakfast for me. After having breakfast, I took an autorickshaw. There were confusions galore, as I could not understand their language. The auto rickshaw driver and the forest rest house watchman took me to the sea thinking that I am a normal tourist. I could not even convey it to them that the extremely bumpy ride was a waste of time. I had lunch in a small thatched roof restaurant. In such kinds of places, there is no point in asking for the menu. You eat whatever is given. Surprisingly, the hotel owner knew a smattering of hindi and provided me with some piping hot vegeteraian meals. 

A Pelican builds its nest in Telineelapuram

A pelican flys by with Painted Storks in the background

I then went to another place and could find lots of Open billed storks in the fields. I could find a pair of pied kingfishers perched on an electric pole. Black wing stilts, cattle egrets, median egrets, Indian roller, common rail, water hen, coots, shoveller, kite, harrier…. 

It was tough trying to photograph using only my 300mm lens as it was difficult to handhold my 400mm lens that weighs 5.3 kgs. All the time I was cusing myself for forgetting my tripod without which the 400mm lens was difficult to use. 

Will this be the sunset for the beautiful wetlands

We kept on moving on the auto rickshaw and stopping whenever I saw a bird. This went on till the auto rickshaw reached a checkgate. I got down and started shooting some shovellers and immediately a guard came running towards me. He told me that I am not allowed to photograph there. On asking he told me that a Thermal Power Plant was being set up by East Coast Energy Ltd. I had an argument, as I was not encroaching upon their territory and was photographing in the area opposite to their area on the other side of the road. The supervisor of that place who appeared more like a goon, threatned me and told me that they will file a police complaint against me. See the temerity of these people. This is a company that had applied for environmental clearance and it was pending. They guys are constructing without the environmental clearance and threatening me of dire consequences. 

These guys were filling mud in the place to change the very nature of that place. I saw lot of dumpers dumping mud and construction being done at a very fast pace. I was amazed, as I had been told that some activity is going on, but hadn’t expected work to be going on at such furious pace. Clearly, they wanted to change the nature of that place and then prove that a wetland never existed. Unfortunately, in India our wetlands are not documented. This makes it easy for people to “reclaim” that land by terming it as wastelands. 

A PIL was already filed by Mr. Mrutunjaya Rao. I was happy to send my images to strengthen the fight against such blatant violation of environmental norms. We should be happy that there are still some good people around to take up the cause of conservation. Dr. J S Sarma, who was the Ex- Forest secy of Andhra Pradesh had also lend his voice in support of the movement against the Thermal Power Plant in telineelapuram. Fortunately, the committee decided that the Power Plant needs to be shifted to another location. 

The following is the text of the meeting of the Expert Appraisal Committee on Environmental Impact Assessment of the Thermal Power Project. I have reproduced the minutes of both the meetings. 

This meeting was held on June 11, 2008.  The minutes of the meeting is as follows: 

Ministry of Environment & Forests 

(IA Division) 

*** 

SUMMARY RECORD OF THE 24^th MEETING OF RECONSTITUTED EXPERT APPRAISAL COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF THERMAL POWER AND COAL MINE PROJECTS 

          The 24^th meeting of the reconstituted Expert Appraisal Committee for Environmental Impact Assessment of Thermal Power and Coal Mine Projects was held on June 11-12, 2008 in the SCOPE Complex, New Delhi.   

2640 MW Bhavanapadu Thermal Power Project near Kakrapalli Village, Sri Kakulam District, Andhra Pradesh by M/s East Coast Energy Pvt. Ltd. 

The proposal was considered by the Committee and the proponent made a presentation on the proposal.  The proposal is for grant of environmental clearance for setting up of a 2640 MW (4×660 MW) thermal power project at Kakarpalli village, Sri Kakulam District,Andhra Pradesh.  The TORs for the project were prescribed on 6^th August, 2007.  The public consultation was held on 23.4.2008. Super Critical Technology will be adopted. Project will be implemented in two phases. The land requirement for the project is 2450 acres. The water requirement is 155.12 cusec. Seawater will be used. There would be no fresh water requirement. CoolingTowers will be installed. COC of 2 will be adopted.  Imported coal requirement for both the phases is 8.98 MTPA, which has been tied up with Global Fuels Pte Ltd., Singapore.   However, indigenous coal for phase-II is also proposed, for which coal linkage is being sought from the Ministry of Coal. Imported coal will be transported by sea to the dedicated Jetty at Meghavaram village. Project area is reported to be out side the CRZ area.  Railway line is at less than 500m distance. It is proposed to shift the project colony from the present location. Impervious lining in the ash pond will be done.  

The Committee observed that the project proponent has submitted both the fuel options i.e. imported   and indigenous coal for the project and also prepared EIA report having both the option. The imported coal has been tied up with the supplier where as indigenous coal is not yet confirmed. In view of this, the Committee decided to consider the project with imported coal to be used in this project.  

          Based on the presentation made and discussions held, the Committee desired information on the following:- 

(i)                EIA report should be modified with imported coal as fuel. 

(ii)              Revise the land and water requirement accordingly. 

(iii)            Distance from railway line should be kept > 500 m as per siting guidelines of the ministry for the thermal power plant. 

(iv)            Land use of the project land as well as study area of the project. 

(v)              Location of intake and outfall points should be given. These locations should be selected based on physical modelling. Details of modelling and the results obtained there from should be furnished. It may be kept in view that the intake and outfall points are away from the mangroves. 

(vi)            Impact of the project on marine environment should also be covered. 

(vii)          Details of desalination plant and disposal of sludge. 

(viii)        Topography of the area should be given clearly indicating whether the site requires any filling. If so, details of filling, quantity of fill material required, its source, transportation etc. should be given. 

(ix)            Impact on drainage of the area and the surroundings. 

(x)              Information regarding surface hydrology and water regime. 

(xi)            Facilities like jetty are to be created specifically for coal transportation; details of the same along with their impact should be provided. Details of other associated activities like dredging, if any should also be furnished. 

(xii)           Revise Marine study taking discharge temperature < 3⁰ c instead of 7⁰ C and also do mathematical modeling. 

(xiii)        Coastal fumigation study for air quality data. 

(xiv)        Location of any National Park, Sanctuary, Elephant / Tiger Reserve (existing as well as proposed), migratory routes, if any, within 10 km of the project site shall be specified and marked on the map and got authenticated by the State Chief Wildlife Warden. 

(xv)          Ash dyke area should be shifted to the down wind direction i.e. north of the project site. 

(xvi)        Detailed plan of ash utilization / management with imported as fuel. 

(xvii)      Details of evacuation of ash. 

(xviii)    Measures of socio economic influence to the local community proposed to be provided by project proponent. As far as possible, quantitative dimension to be given. CSR initiatives should also be specified with proper funding details. 

(xix)        Particulate emission should not exceed 50 mg/Nm3. 

(xx)          Area under greenbelt should be increased making 1/3 of total area and details of local species to be planted.  

(xxi)        Phyto barriers should be put up in between CHP and the plant. 

(xxii)      Details of the auxillary fuel to be used, if any, in the project (type of fuel, quantity to be used and maximum inventory to be stored at site).  

(xxiii)    Risk analysis taking into account the worst-case scenario including cascading effect based on the maximum inventory of storage.  The risk contours should be plotted on the location map.  It may clearly be shown whether the risk will be contained within the plant premises.  

(xxiv)    Time bound action plan to address the issues raised during public hearing along with financial allocation. 

           The presentation made by the project proponents show that the project site is a low lying area which collects the drainage from the surrounding areas and the overflow from there   reaches the sea through a connecting creek. Some of the members have opined that this could be a marshy land and prone to submergence even facing tidal impacts. The concerns in regard to general drainage of the surrounding area were also expressed during the public hearing conducted for the project. In view of these aspects, the committee felt the need for inspection of the site   by a sub group comprising Shri T.K.Dhar and Dr. Asha Rajavanshi with a representative of the Ministry.  As Prof. R V Rama Rao is located at Visakhapatnam and he is fully conversant with the area, he has been requested to offer his specialist services in respect of hydrology and coastal dynamics as a special invitee to the committee. 

          It was decided that the proposal may be brought back before the Committee for its further consideration after the requisite information as mentioned above and the reply to the observations of the sub group has been received from the project proponent. 

Sabyasachi Patra

I am passionate about wildlife conservation. I am striving to make my films and photographs full of life and emotion and write articles to educate and evangelise the need for conserving the last tracts of vanishing wilderness sand wildlife in our country. I pray to the almighty that my wildlife films, photographs and writings force people to pause, look, ponder and ultimately take action. To make my ends meet, I work as Executive Director at MAIT (Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology)

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It was our first trip to Sariska. I was getting impatient. The speedometer indicated it would not be safe to drive faster, given the numerous villages and the speedbrakers on the road. We started late in the morning due to heavy fog. And now I was getting worried because I thought I will miss the evening light.

I was taking my friend to give a feel of the jungle, so that the regular city folk can slowly imbibe the pleasures associated with the jungle. We quickly drove into the jungle directly without checking into the Tiger Den resort run by RTDC. That would have meant lunch and effectively blocking our entry into the Sariska National Park.

It was a Saturday, and we learnt that on Saturday’s and Tuesday’s the entry to the park is free as people visit the temple inside the park. We drove straight into the jungle, slowly watching both the sides for any visible sign of animals. I had told my friends from my past experience in other jungles, that he should not expect to see the tiger in Sariska, because the topography of the place makes it quite impossible to know even if the apex predator is close by. However, we never came across a single pugmark or did we hear an alarm call. Later the priest at pandupole put paid to all our hopes when he said “edhar koi share bare nahin hai”. So much for tiger conservation and to the figures provided thrown up in the census by the Park authorities.

An interesting feature of this place is the speed breakers in the road inside the National Park. We came to know that this is to deter the tourists from driving fast and crashing into animals when they were crossing the road. From a distance you can see a pile of white coloured stones on the sides of road, indicating the presence of speed breakers. They can effectively help you in sighting a speedbreaker and slowing down. I could see lot of tourist driving fast because people are not interested in watching a deer or sambar. All of us are guilty of persuing a tiger. If we can educate the tourists about interpreting animal behaviour, only then they would stop to watch even the herbivores. Other wise it is back at counting the number of species then saw in their trip.

This fanatic following for the tiger has led to people being very impatient and wanting to drive through the jungle all day as if they are on a hunting trip. Our Gypsy driver also tried to cash into this craze by claiming to site a tiger atop a cliff. A close focussed shot through my digital camera and blowing it into a bigger size finally revealed that there was no tiger. Obviously our driver was not amused at the prospect of losing a good tip.

The animals near the tarmac are slightly accustomed to the vehicles as opposed to the chital and sambar near the kaccha roads. We could guess that the number of gypsies and jeeps plying in the katcha road is far less than the vehicles moving in the tarmac connecting pandupole.

Probably I could instill some amount of discipline and understanding in my friends when I pointed towards a group of sambar deer with their fawn and asked my friends to watch out for a show of affection by the sambar towards its offspring. Soon it happened and my friend was very happy when he could capture it in his handycam. I now strongly believe that if all the lovers of wildlife start taking their friends to the jungle at least once or twice a year then it would be easier to spread the message of conservation.

(12^th December 2004)

Sabyasachi Patra

I am passionate about wildlife conservation. I am striving to make my films and photographs full of life and emotion and write articles to educate and evangelise the need for conserving the last tracts of vanishing wilderness sand wildlife in our country. I pray to the almighty that my wildlife films, photographs and writings force people to pause, look, ponder and ultimately take action. To make my ends meet, I work as Executive Director at MAIT (Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology)

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