Roopak Gangadharan
21-12-2009, 05:57 PM
So much for priorities ... A beautiful species getting wiped out forever takes back stage to a Common place Restaurant which is probably no different from a billion others. The aesthetic sense of the average Indian tourist seems to have evolved into Nonsense……...:confused:
Memorials for politicians inside Tiger Reserves, Resorts on Elephant migratory paths and now this.............
Roopak
BANGALORE: The city’s avid birdwatchers who find a haven in the Nandi Hills
— habitat to 125 bird species — are in a flutter over a sprawling restaurant
proposed by the Horticulture Department for this tourist hotspot.
The one-acre large food court, which includes a landscaped lawn, could
destroy or severely disturb the evergreen shola forests that are home to the
threatened Nilgiri Woodpigeon *(Columba elphinstonii)* and other rare birds,
according to ornithologist S. Subramanya.
With the Rs. 80-lakh open-air food court, planned to come up near the Old
School building, the Horticulture Department hopes to replace the eateries
that dot the hill station and reduce litter.
Nandi Hills has the distinction of being the only place outside the Western
Ghats where this large pigeon, distinguished by a prominent “checkerboard”
pattern on its nape, is found, said Dr. Subramanya.
He added that the food court could permanently destroy the forests where the
woodpigeons — as well as bulbuls, thrushes, warblers and flycatchers —
thrive.
The woodpigeon finds a place in the International Union for Conservation of
Nature’s “red list” as a “vulnerable” species that “has undergone a major
decline, which is thought to be continuing owing to ongoing forest loss.”
There is a small population of around 15 Nilgiri Woodpigeons in the Nandi
Hills, said Dr. Subramanya. “They are considered a ‘relic population’ and no
one knows how they came to live here so many kilometres away from the
Western Ghats,” he said.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/12/21/stories/2009122157910300.htm
Memorials for politicians inside Tiger Reserves, Resorts on Elephant migratory paths and now this.............
Roopak
BANGALORE: The city’s avid birdwatchers who find a haven in the Nandi Hills
— habitat to 125 bird species — are in a flutter over a sprawling restaurant
proposed by the Horticulture Department for this tourist hotspot.
The one-acre large food court, which includes a landscaped lawn, could
destroy or severely disturb the evergreen shola forests that are home to the
threatened Nilgiri Woodpigeon *(Columba elphinstonii)* and other rare birds,
according to ornithologist S. Subramanya.
With the Rs. 80-lakh open-air food court, planned to come up near the Old
School building, the Horticulture Department hopes to replace the eateries
that dot the hill station and reduce litter.
Nandi Hills has the distinction of being the only place outside the Western
Ghats where this large pigeon, distinguished by a prominent “checkerboard”
pattern on its nape, is found, said Dr. Subramanya.
He added that the food court could permanently destroy the forests where the
woodpigeons — as well as bulbuls, thrushes, warblers and flycatchers —
thrive.
The woodpigeon finds a place in the International Union for Conservation of
Nature’s “red list” as a “vulnerable” species that “has undergone a major
decline, which is thought to be continuing owing to ongoing forest loss.”
There is a small population of around 15 Nilgiri Woodpigeons in the Nandi
Hills, said Dr. Subramanya. “They are considered a ‘relic population’ and no
one knows how they came to live here so many kilometres away from the
Western Ghats,” he said.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/12/21/stories/2009122157910300.htm