Pench Tiger Reserve is the real land of Mowgli, " The Kipling country " and the area of the famous ''The Jungle Book". Rudyard Kipling was awarded the first noble prize for literature in 1907 for his brilliant work, which includes the jungle book. There existed a real human child who was nurtured by wolves. This child was caught by Leut. John Moor under the guidance of Col. William Sleeman in 1831. Rudyard Kipling took the clue from Willium Sleeman's writing on Wolf nurturing childrens and a book on "Camp life of Seoni" by R.A. Sterendale


Fish Mafia

The Exploitation of Protected Areas

Indian legislation clearly protects Tiger Reserves and National Parks under its Wildlife Protection Act and Forest Conservation Act. Despite this politicians and Forest Department officials have colluded with criminal interests to allow commercial fishing in the core area of Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradsesh which borders Pench National Park in Maharashtra, a newly designated Tiger Reserve.

The commerical proponents of fishing have argued that local people have traditional rights to fish in Pench Tiger Reserve. This is despite all the evidence that local people were not historically dependent on fishing since the Pench River is not perennial and the reservoir was only completed in 1990. In addition, no traditional fishing rights were claimed when the area was designated as a Reserve Forest in 1878.

Pench's Powerful Fishing Lobby Threatens Tiger Reserve

Fishing in the core area of Pench Tiger Reserve has already seriously affected this prime stretch of tiger habitat. Poachers have entered the park in the guise of fishermen1,4 and official records show that between 1992 and 1996, eight tigers and 16 leopards were known to have been poached in Pench Tiger Reserve. There were a further 98 poaching cases detected on prey species in the same period with at least 27 chital and sambar among the victims.1,2 Fishermen are also illegally extracting timber from the islands inside the reservoir1, and when captured, fish poachers have set fire to the forest in retaliation.

Dedicated senior forest officers have been transferred at crucial times and other staff have been beaten in outbreaks of serious violence.

"Traditional Fishermen" Exposed

When the dam and reservoir were built, seven villages were relocated and compensated by the Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra State Irrigation Departments to make way for the reservoir which was to submerge their agricultural land. Four of the villages in Madhya Pradesh were originally forest villages located by the Forest Department as a labour force.

In May 1996 the Chief Wildlife Warden of Madhya Pradesh, Mr PK Mishra, instructed the Director of Pench to issue 305 permits for fishing in contravention of the Wildlife Protection Act. This number was derived from the electoral list for the four forest villages previously moved and compensated. An analysis of these 305 people shows that most now live 25 km from Totladoh Reservoir and some up to 100 km away.

In 1995, the Maharashtra Fisheries Development Corporation and the Maharashtra Forest Minister offered to accommodate the Totladoh fishermen at a tank just outside the Pench National Park, but they refused. One forest officer has commented that this "indicates that some vested interests are misguiding the fishermen to continue illegal fishing at Totladoh".

The Fish Mafia - Exploiting the Poor

The Madhya Pradesh Fisheries Development Corporation (MPFDC) formed an illegal fisheries co-operative to exploit the fish in the reservoir as early as 1987.3 The "Fishermen Association of Totladoh", claimed to represent 700 families who reportedly were dependent on fish from Totladoh pond. The Totladoh colony was established in Maharashtra purely for the duration of the dam construction, but the former labourers continue to reside illegally inside the National Park.

Instead of the usual system, where fishermen pay a royalty of Rs 12 (35 UScents) directly to the MPFDC, a network of traders set up a system where they pay the royalty and pay the fishermen Rs 10 (28 UScents) and supply them with boats and nets. The traders then sell the fish at a market value of around Rs 50 (US$1.43) per kg.

At the peak of illegal fishing in 1994, the annual recorded catch was 700 tonnes of fish which represents US$240,000 in royalties and a market value of US$1 million, but Forest Department staff believe this was only half of the total catch and that the profit from unrecorded catches were split between politicians, administrators and the local police.

The Mafia have offered everyone with access to a vehicle large sums of money to transport the illegally caught fish. Even the former Park Director was offered US$20,000 if he would co-operate, but he refused.

A Fishy Business - The Politics of Collusion

Instead of upholding national legislation and fulfilling a commitment to the Tiger State, Kamal Nath, The Union Minister for Environment and Forests at the time, and the man behind the Tiger State concept, failed to take any action. It is widely believed that the decision to encourage fishing is tied to the election taking place at the time.

The situation was further confused when, in 1995, the former chief of all of India's wildlife, Mr S.C.Dey, wrote to the Forest Secretary of Madhya Pradesh, hinting that the State government could exploit loopholes in the Wildlife Protection Act to allow fishing to continue.9 He suggested that under Section 35(6), fishing was beneficial to the management of the Park in spite of all the problems highlighted previously by members of the Steering Committee of Project Tiger. Mr S.C.Dey later reversed his position and wrote complaining that the issuance of fishing permits in Pench Tiger Reserve was unlawful.

Silencing Opponents - Honest Men Transferred

As the case was fought in court, the Director, Mr S. Mukharia and Deputy Director, Mr CK Patil of Pench Tiger Reserve continued to oppose the political manoeuvres of their seniors and tried to stop the illegal fishing. On January 11th 1997 they were transferred "without prior approval of the Central government and probably in contravention of the guidelines of the Steering Committee of Project Tiger and in violation of the Election Commission's code of conduct.

The transfer of honourable senior staff serves to demoralise others and Kamal Nath himself had stated in 1995 that transfers of good staff, "conveys the wrong signal that poaching Mafia have influence in high places". Yet he did nothing to stop it.

Illegal fishing activity escalated following their departure and within two weeks the Maharashtra Forest Department had written to the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department requesting that they take immediate action. EIA was informed that on 27th January 1997, a Range Officer was seriously beaten by fishermen from Totladoh. Having caught fishermen poaching, he and his staff were attacked by a mob of 20-30 people. The Officer was beaten and threatened with fake harassment charges from the village women.

He was dumped in the forest with a serious head wound and despite calling for help from the Totladoh wireless camp, his seniors failed to come to his rescue. He finally called the Maharashtra Forest Department who took him to hospital and to the police.

Supreme Court Fails to Stop Illegal Fishing

In March 1997, the Supreme Court issued it's final judgement - a compromise, allowing the 305 permits to be issued, but under tight restrictions with all additional costs to be met by the Forest Department. Despite this illegal fishing continues unabated. In October 1997, it was reported that as many as 800 individuals were still fishing illegally.

A further incident of mob violence against forest guards has been recorded. The fish Mafia continue to use violence and the 305 permit holders as a screen for their illegal activities.14 Without support from their seniors, field staff are reluctant to take on the fishermen because of the violent repercussions.

One Range Officer in Madhya Pradesh stated that only 140 out of the 305 people issued with permits actually fish. It is also reported that many permit holders have been forced to sell their permits to middlemen. A special vigilance squad that is supposed to patrol the reservoir has been formed but does not conduct daily patrols.


BBC NEWS

Vet drug 'killing Asian vultures'

Scientists believe they have identified the main cause behind the catastrophic decline seen in Asian vulture numbers.

In the past 10 years, population losses of more than 95% have been reported in three raptor species across many areas of the Indian sub-continent.

Lindsay Oaks' research team has now shown the birds are dying after eating the carcasses of livestock treated with the common veterinary drug diclofenac.

Dr Oaks, backed by The Peregrine Fund, reports her work in Nature magazine.

"This discovery is significant in that it is the first known case of a pharmaceutical causing major ecological damage over a huge geographic area and threatening three species with extinction," the US researcher from Washington State University said.

The three species are the Oriental white-backed vulture ( Gyps bengalensis ), the long-billed vulture ( Gyps indicus ) and the slender-billed vulture ( Gyps tenuirostris ).

All three are now classed as critically endangered.

Experimental work

The birds succumb to kidney failure and visceral gout. Early signs that the raptors are affected can be seen from the way they hang their heads down to their feet for long periods.

Such has been the alarming decline in bird numbers that international organisations have pumped hundreds of thousands of pounds into research to track down the cause of all the deaths.

Now, Dr Oaks and colleagues have found high residues diclofenac in dead vultures in the field.

They have also been able produce similar patterns of disease in experimental vulture colonies fed the drug either directly or via carcasses of buffalo or goat that had been treated with diclofenac.

Other possible causes of death, such as poisoning by mercury or arsenic or infection by viruses, have been investigated and ruled out.

Diclofenac is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that has been in human use for pain and inflammation for decades. The veterinary use of diclofenac on livestock in South Asia has grown in the past decade.

Pivotal role

The Nature report has led ornithological and other conservation groups to call for the immediate withdrawal of diclofenac from use.

"Vultures have an important ecological role in the Asian environment, where they have been relied upon for millennia to clean up and remove dead livestock and even human corpses," said Dr Munir Virani, a biologist for US-based Peregrine Fund, and who coordinated the massive field investigations across Nepal, India, and Pakistan.

"Their loss has important economic, cultural, and human health consequences."

One immediate impact has been the explosion in feral dog populations which have moved into areas no longer scavenged by vultures.

Britain has invested significant research time and money on the vulture problem through its Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species.

Dr Debbie Pain, a research scientist at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: "In the 1980s, [ Gyps bengalensis ] was thought to be the most abundant large bird of prey in the world, but in little over a decade, the population has crashed by more than 99%, with the loss of tens of millions of birds.

"The decline of Asian vultures is one of the steepest declines experienced by any bird species, and is certainly faster than that suffered by the dodo before its extinction. If nothing is done these vulture species will become extinct."


NICK GORDON TO MAKE FILM ON LEGENDARY JIM CORBETT

New Delhi: The world’s most renowned wildlife filmmaker Nick Gordon recently completed the first ever film on the wild jaguar which took him 9 years. On visiting Corbett National Park to see the Tiger he was so enamored by the legend of the hunter-turned-conservationist Jim Corbett that he decided to make a film on him. The shooting is planned to start January 2005 and the project should take 2 years. Research has already begun with Corbett’s great grandniece living in Kenya, contacted for information on rare manuscripts and any objects lying with her that belonged to Jim Corbett. Gordon will weave the story around “Corbett’s life, the legacy he left behind and on the tigers or Corbett Park who are the descendants of the famous maneaters that Corbett killed.