Indian Wildlife Club Ezine (February, 2002)

NEWS.........
Susan Sharma, Founder, IndianWildlifeClub.com

Mr. Sanjay Singh, District Forest Officer, Shabad, Bihar was abducted and killed on February 15, 2002. The killers are suspected to be naxalites or illegal miners against whom the conscientious DFO took action. Jharkhand is home to the Palamau tiger Reserve and Dalmia Wildlife Sanctuary.

Can the forest department work in isolation to protect the forests and wildlife?

At the symposium on elephant conservation, held in December 2001at Hardwar, Mr. S.S Bist, Director Project Elephant, made a passionate plea for relaxing the provisions of the Wildlife ( protection Act), 1972. To quote him' the policy and law regarding the Asian elephant in India has not kept pace with field realities'.

In 1977, elephant was included in Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act. This meant that Ganesh, the long tusker from Latehar, Bihar, who killed 42 people and 472 cattle could not be caught. Illegal mining blasts and denuding of forests drove the peaceful herds from Palamau to seek nutrition in the crop fields nearby causing increased resentment among the farmers.

Asian elephants are different from other endangered species in as much as they cannot be confined within the traditional protected areas. Elephant migration into other forest areas take place through forest corridors. These corridors need to be free of cultivation , mining, grazing etc if elephant -human conflicts are to be avoided. Many of these corridors are not under the Forest department. Issues like shifting cultivation and mining call for suitable amendments in the existing land-use policies.

In the meantime Mr. Bist recommends amendment to the Wildlife (Protection act) to permit capturing of such elephants for domestication and trans location. We feel that such captures , besides removing the immediate threat to crops and life, will also project the Forest Department as ensuring conservation with a humane face.

At any rate, there is need for immediate action if more deaths of misguided avenges are to be avoided.

Indian Wildlife Club members can post their views on the above issues in the Club Blog. The team at IndianWildlifeclub would appreciate it very much if comments on all the articles appearing in the e-zine are posted on the Club Blog. This will help us improve our content and reach out to more wildlife lovers all over the world.

Let that be our forum to interact with each other! To join click here.

On plastic:

When I tell somebody we mustn't use plastic they look at me incredulously. Everybody is aware in the big cities that plastic is harmful, it is banned in many metros in india, still nobody bothers to follow. We used to carry our own baskets and bags for shopping earlier. The grocer was a small store guy who would pack everything in old newspaper and fasten cotton thread to keep the packet holding. On returning home we used to just empty the groceries into their respective containers and the packing ended in waste basket and well bio-degraded in no time. That was not long ago. Just a decade of years and see the sea change. Now we walk hands free to the bhajiwalla and to our superstores. everything is plastic packaged and then placed in a polythene cover and all this adds to the rubbish generated everyday. And none of this will degrade in a million years. So what do we have- great dumps of plastic in landfills and plastic covers that decorate the beautiful countryside like eyesores! Not to speak of global warming!!! Of course we all complain about the extremeties in the weather that is taking place and the water shortages, but we can't live without our plastic bags. Habits can be made. Nobody likes to brush at night. But once it becomes a habit you can't get sleep without brushing!!!

Here is an after thought:

In a world polymerised with plastic implants, Happiness comes in vials and Pills.

Here is a site which I found very relevant and useful http://www.obviously.com

Susan