Date
: June 2004
AMAN RESORTS CLOSED DUE TO A FREAK STORM
In a very sad incidence,
there has been excessive damage to the Aman Resorts property at Ranthambore and
all its tents are devastated. Hence the same is being closed until it reopens
in October’04
Date
: June 2004
Joymala
the Kaziranga Herione
Kaziranga, Assam, June 09 : Delayed reports from the field and
video replays of the attack by the tigress on the mahout Satya Pegu, tell a different
story, where human lives were saved purely due to quick thinking by the female
working elephant, Joymala.
For those who came in late, a large adult tigress, suspected to be the mother
of the two cubs rescued from Tamuli Pathar village(adjoining Kaziranga) on May
16, severely mauled the mahout of an Assam forest department elephant, which was
carrying rangers trying to dart her on the morning of May 19.
The
25-year-old mahout, Satya Pegu, who was badly lacerated, lost three fingers on
his left hand, is in a hospital in Dibrugarh. Doctors are worried about the onset
of gangrene and may have to amputate his left palm. The Wildlife Trust of India
and its partner, the International Fund for Animal Welfare have offered to cover
his medical expenses.
Reconstruction
of events and a video taken by the divisional forest officer, R.K.Das, graphically
show how Joymala pinned down the tigress with her foot as it was trying to get
up and attack the officers who had fallen on the ground.
The
reconstructed story goes a bit like this: the forest department received a message
early on May 19th about a large tiger which had killed two cows near Tamuli Pathar
village, which is close to the boundary of the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) in
the north-eastern Assam state.
By
10 am a joint team of the Assam forest department including the director of the
park, Mr N. K. Vasu, the local administration, police and the army, and the Wildlife
Trust of India(WTI)-managed Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation
(CWRC) was combing the area with five elephants trying to locate the animal.
File
photo of the team that darted the tigers. Second from left is D.D.Boro who darted
both tigers but missed the suspected mother, who later mauled the mahout.
From
the pugmarks, it looked like a very large female, which led us to suspect that
this may be the mother of the two cubs that we had rescued and released on Monday,Dr
Bhaskar Choudhary, CWRC veterinarian, who was involved in darting the two sub-adult
tigers on Sunday, said. The tigers were released late on Monday evening in the
eastern part of the Agoratuli range near the Matiaranga guard hut.
After
looking around everywhere, we first spotted the tigress in a bamboo grove near
the village. As it sensed our presence it moved into the backyard of a hut and
then quickly walked into a nearby paddy field, Dr Chaudhary said.
Range
officer, Dharanidhar Bodo, Dr Chaudhary along with a guard were riding the elephant,
Joymala, driven by Pegu. Bodo was carrying the darting gun. As the elephant moved
towards the tigress, it did a mock charge. The guard fired two blanks to discourage
her and she ran away into the next field, where the paddy was thick and hid there.
The team cautiously
moved towards it and could get to almost 20 feet where she was growling away.
Bodo could see her clearly and took a shot at it with the dart gun. The dart missed
her and this enraged her so much that she charged and took a flying leap on to
the elephant’s head. I have not seen something as dramatic as this, Vivek
Menon, executive director WTI, who recently saw the footage, said.I could never
imagine that a tiger could so effortlessly leap from the ground on to an adult
elephant’s head, which is at least 12 feet above the ground,he said.
The
footage showed that Pegu saw the tigress leaping and threw the metal ankush at
it to defend himself. The tigress saw the ankush coming, dodged it in mid-leap
and took a swipe at Pegu without actually landing on the elephant, which had stepped
back,Menon said.
It
all happened in a few seconds and before we knew what both Bodo and the guard
had fallen down,Dr Choudhary narrated. What now happened was even more amazing.
As the tigress landed on the ground Joymala quickly pinned her down with her left
fore foot and tried to control it with its trunk. The tigress struggled under
this weight for at least half a minute roaring, as other people in the vicinity
shouted and fired shots in the air. In this commotion another attempt was made
to dart it, but even this shot was off the mark. The tigress finally struggled
loose and ran away.
If
it had not been for Joymala, both Bodo and the guard would have been badly injured
or dead, he said. Meanwhile, Joymala, which was trying to aggressively chase the
tigress, was calmed by the CWRC veterinarian, who was holding on to the profusely
bleeding mahout. His fingers were hanging by few shreds of tissue and I tried
to tourniquet the wounds, he said.
The
two sub-adult tigers had strayed out of the heavily wooded Agoratuli range of
the KNP into the neighbouring Tamuli Pathar village close to the national highway.
It was speculated that the mother could be nearby, but she could not be spotted.
KNP
has one of the highest density of tigers among the protected areas in India ,
but are difficult to see due to the thick vegetation in this grassland dominated
park.
The Centre for Wildlife
Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) is a joint venture of the Assam forest
department and the Wildlife Trust of India, and is supported by its partner the
International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). This rescue and rehabilitation facility
for animals of the region is a first of its kind facility in India has handled
over 300 animals in the last two years including mega-herbivores like elephants,
rhinos and wild buffaloes. These were the first tigers brought to the facility
in two years of its existence.
Date
: June 2004
Sarus crane on the verge of extinction
Need to protect all marshes
and wetlands by Lt-Gen Baljit Singh (retd) ...from the pages of TRIBUNE newspaper
(11th June 2004) On May 28, 2004,
the media was flush with news of the
maiden test flight of India's first indigenous civil aircraft, named after Sarus
crane. Sadly, that is a crude paradox though, because not many Indians are aware
that the beautiful and graceful Sarus crane is on the fast track to extinction.
In the early decades of the 20th Century, India was home to the largest population
of Sarus crane in the world. They umbered in the thousands and were seen throughout
the sub-continent except south of the Godavari. So it is worrisome, that the latest
census by the Wildlife Institute of India should show a countrywide count of 2,468
birds only. Of this world population, more than 35 per cent Sarus are today concentrated
and depended upon the marsh-lands in UP's Etawah and Mainpuri districts alone.
By a strange paradox, the World Bank chose to fund a wasteland reclamation project
in these two districts which entails specifically to drain out the marshes, the
essential lifeline habitat of the Sarus.
It is generally accepted that
the Himalayan Mountain Quail was last seen in 1876. Sadly, bird photography was
not in vogue in those times and so generations of Indians since, have known this
attractive bird only through some excellent paintings which have survived. And
for the scientists, there are a few preserved skins in museums across continents.
The pink-headed duck was never sighted after 1935. Although the likes of EHNL
Lowther and Col RSP Bates had pioneered bird photography in India by then, this
very handsome bird was perhaps never photographed. The pink of its head and neck
set up a dazzling contrast with the rich dark-brown plumage of the rest of its
body. Both birds were endemic to India alone. Their extinction is an irrevocable
heritage loss for the world at large and India especially.
Luckily, there
have not been any more bird extinctions since, though over 100 species of India's
birds have reached a critical stage in survival. Fortunately, many of these birds
have caught the popular imagination of most Indians and with persuasive motivation
they might rally to help favourable conditions for the survival of these species
into the future. The Sarus among all these species perhaps has the most deep-rooted
mythical appeal with the larger cross section of rural and urban Indians. Not
just because at 1.50 to 1.75 m it is tallest of all the 15 species of cranes in
the world. It's because the Sarus is perceived by most Indians as the living legend
of conjugal fidelity and that they pair for life, in-variably transcending the
marital vow "till death do us part". This belief of immutable bonding by Sarus
pairs has made the bird universally worshipful among all tribals and non-tribals
of India.
The most intimate life history of the Sarus crane in the field
was painstakingly observed, collated and penned with great sensitivity, for the
first time, by the Mughal Emperor Jahangir and it pre-dates the first book on
Indian birds by about 250 years. The text of the latest Jahangirnama (translated,
edited and annotated by Wheeler M.Thackston, Smithsonian Institute, Washington,
1999) for the period March 1616-March 1617 reveals the first ever recorded description
of the Sarus:
"The Sarus is a bird something like a crane, but it is
larger than a crane by a ratio of ten to twelve and has no feathers on its head,
just skin stretched over bone. For a distance of about six fingers behind the
eyes and down the neck it is red. Mostly they live in pairs in the wilderness
though occasionally they can be seen in flocks." In our mindset, the Sarus crane
remains even today the symbol of the eternal romance on earth. It predates the
classics such as the Persian Layli and Majnun and the Shakespearian Romeo and
Juliet. One has to witness the tenderness, the grace, the joy and love's ecstasy
of the Sarus crane's yearly mating dance, to understand the quality of bonding
which for them extends even beyond life on earth.
And yet the Sarus
crane today figures in the "Red Data Book: Species of Indian Birds" whose future
is gravely threatened. The Sarus crane cannot survive without marshes or wetlands
which are literally being drained out, land filled, bulldozed and plough over.
The founding fathers of the Constitution had clearly visualised that the state
and the nation as a whole shall jointly protect and care for its wildlife and
their habitat. For, the Directive Principles of State Policy under Article 48
A enjoin upon the "State to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard
forests and wildlife". Article 51 A {Fundamental Duties of a citizen) states in
clause (g)" It shall be the duty of every citizen to protect and improve the natural
environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and to have compassion
for living creatures".
In real terms, the environment comprising forests,
tiger reserves, national parks, marshes, wetlands etc., today amount to less than
5 per cent of India's landmass only. Let us not grudge this miniscule space left
to our wildlife and instead apply our minds to use the other 95 per cent of land
more scientifically and productively to provide better quality of life to all
Indians.
