Indian Wildlife Club Forum

Western Ghats is one of the two hot spots of India. Like many other tropical countries, very little is known about the diversity and distribution of invertebrates from India. This poor understanding of our invertebrate diversity is amply reflected in our national and regional conservation policies and goals, which is essentially formulated for large and charismatic vertebrates.

 Centre for Insect Taxonomy and Conservation (CITAC), ATREE, Bangalore, along with the Western Ghats Invertebrate Research and Conservation Group- a network of invertebrate researchers of the region - has decided to bring out an edited volume "Invertebrate diversity and conservation of the Western Ghats". This proposed volume is expected to provide an overview of on going studies on the diversity, ecology, evolution, behaviour and conservation of invertebrates of the Western Ghats.

We envisage this volume to be a benchmark publication on invertebrate diversity of the region. We are inviting manuscripts both from national and international researchers working on the invertebrates of the Western Ghats for this volume.

Broad thematic area

1.. Status review of taxa

2.. Ecological studies.

3.. Behavioural ecology.

4.. Invertebrates and Ecosystem function.

5.. Invertebrate conservation.

6.. Invertebrates in conservation education.

For more details pl. visit http://www.atree.org/idc_wg.html

80 page Concise Version plus CD with all documents: Rs. 150; US$ 15.

CD alone (containing all documents): Rs. 100; US$10. Postage extra Contact: Swati Arjunwadkar, Kalpavriksh, Apt. 5 Shree Datta Krupa, 908 Deccan Gymkhana, Pune 411004, India; Tel/fax: 91-20-25654239;

( Information courtesy yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bngbirds/)

Four students from Dr.B.V Raju Institute of Technology, Narsapur, Medak District, Andhra Pradesh have designed a "Pollution Buster".

The device includes a user module comprising a circuit which has a carbon monoxide sensor, to monitor the vehicle's emission. The receiver module placed at strategic traffic points transmits the registration number of the polluter vehicle to the pollution control authorities. The team says the concept provides a three day grace period to the motorist to correct pollution levels, before he is reported automatically.

The concept is real time and hence expected to be more effective in checking pollution. The foursome is among the four teams selected from India by Microsoft Sudent challengE 2006.

(Report courtesy Education Times June 12, 2006)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ9QxZ7hS5U

Comments on 'YouTube'

Question by Gertalian  :  Did you film this yourself?Also,are the Tigers victims of poaching,or pollution?What has caused their demise? Sorry if my questions seem stupid.

Susan: I filmed "Living With the Park" myself. The tigers are victims of poaching. The single one reason for their numbers reducing is poaching. Habitat reduction, of course, limits the popoulation from increasing. 

Comment by Gertalian :

 To answer your question"Is it time to include the villagers to help protect the Tiger?",I would say yes.Granted I am largely uninformed about the situation,but sometimes desperate circumstances call for desperate measures.

How do everyday human activities (seemingly innocuous, though) harm an already threatened species of plants/animals? I mean, do we end up harming nature even unconsciously? ( Question: Shirley Abraham)

We are all part of nature. Being paranoid about hurting nature will not be a good idea. "There is enough in nature to fulfil man's need but not greed." So the first step is to know more about nature and wild animals around us. For people in Orissa it could be Olive Ridley Turtles, for people from Assam -the Hoolock Gibbon, for Rajasthan the Great Indian Bustard and so on. So we all can be part of efforts made to protect these endangered species.

The major threat to endangered species is man's insensitiveness to the fragile web of living things. Blaming deforestation, poaching, wildlife trade etc is addressing the issue in bits and parts. For example, the temptation to cut down forests for agriculture or land grabbing will persist as long as man is conscious of the immediate wealth prospects of land and not the value of a forest for the present and future generations.

Poaching will never stop as long as the market demands and pays for it.

 Endangered species are on their way to being extinct unless we take steps to consciously protect them. Natural extinctions also occur but speeding up the extinction process by manmade causes can be disastrous simply because man does not have the know how to create the web of life.

 Resurrecting the cheetah through DNA will not bring back the cheetah into the web of life. It will probably remain in a zoo for ever.

http://www.environsciences.com

 This site contains useful information about environment/nature studies and have the details of every topic of our school & college study.

From: welldunn77 To: "Susan Sharma"

Subject: Lovely Peacock one, Susan

Sent: Sunday, May 28, 2006 9:57 PM

Hi, Susan, the peacock video was lovely, tried to post comment at youtube, but cannot log in, for some funny reason, so doing it here...will 'fix' that later, very busy. Have a great week,

sincerely

Penny Lynn aka Penelope

She spent most of her short life working on turtles and there is a small memorial to her right next to the turtle pond at the Madras Crocodile Bank.

Viji (as Vijaya was called) was India’s first woman herpetologist when such a career was unknown in this country. In 2006, 19 years later, her name was formally given to the cane turtle that she spent so much of her time studying. Herpetologists analysed the DNA of Reiner’s now-dead turtles and recently re-named the turtle Vijayachelys silvatica in her honour.

Read more about this remarkable woman who made a difference to wildlife at the following link

http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/sanctmagazine/archivedetail.php?id=775

Subansiri, a tributary of Brahmaputra

Lower Subansiri (LS) Hydel Project is planned on the river Subansiri, one of the main tributaries of the mighty Brahmaputra. The LS dam is the first project by NHPC (National Hydropower Corporation) in a three-stage cascade plan, Upper Subansiri and Middle Subansiri being the other two. 

The project is on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border in one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. The project proposes to use around 4,000 hectares (ha.) of forestland, out of which 3,436 ha. will be submerged, largely in Arunachal Pradesh, by the 116 m dam.

• Subansiri and Dulung RFs have been listed by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) as Important Bird Areas (IBAs).
• There is also an elephant-corridor immediately downstream of the dam site.
• The Subansiri is one of the most crucial rivers in India for the long-term conservation of the golden mahseer.

Tipaimukh, Brahmaputra

NEEPCO,( North Eastern Electric Power Corp)  is building a 6000 cr project Tipaimukh dam again on the Brahmaputra. Tipaimukh Dam Project at the Manipur-Mizoram border  envisages construction of a 162-meter high dam.

India and Bangladesh share 54 common rivers' waters.   Tipaimukh is a power generating venture.

It  is interesting to note here a similarity in the protest against the proposed Tipaimukh High Dam both in Bangladesh and in Manipur.

• The Bangladesh people are saying that diversion of water from the Brahmaputra river to the Ganges will definitely dry up the water in the downstream areas, thus seriously affecting agricultural lands in northern parts of the country during the lean season.
• In Manipur, the protest is about losing several hundred hectares of irreplacable agricultural lands located along the river basin of the Barak, Irang, Makru and Tuivai rivers as a result of submergence of the lands once the Dam is commissioned.

For a f report on other projects on Brahmaputra go to

http://wrmin.nic.in/cooperation/brahmaputra.htm

The Chennai Mathematical Institute, spread across five acres in Siruseri, proposes to implement a grey water recycling system in its premises.

The project, in its first phase, would be designed to treat about 2,000 litres of used water. Grey water refers to waste water produced after cleaning, washing and bathing. The treated water could be used for gardening or ground water recharge.

Grey water is easier to treat than black water or water from toilets. This is because black water is loaded with pathogens that are difficult to get rid of through a simple treatment system. Sultan Ahmed Ismail, Managing Director of Ecoscience Research Foundation, who designed the project for the Chennai Mathematical Institute, said that root zone treatment would be used to treat the grey water.

The principle behind the system is quite simple. Grey water is allowed to flow through a horizontal filter that is three metres long, two metres wide and 30 centrimetres deep. The water is passed through a filter of pebbles and gravel. The water also passes through a reed bed, which is slightly sloped so that the water flows easily.

Root zone treatment The reed bed is crucial to the water treatment. The best plants to use for the reed bed include Canna (kal vaazhai), Banana and Colocasia (a yam). The plants keep the soil partially aerobic by pumping atmospheric oxygen to the roots, where some micro organisms live. These bacteria help in the break down on any suspended solids in the grey water.

Once the first phase of the project is fully operational, Mr. Ismail also proposes to treat black water through a more elaborate technology. A composting shed for solid waste management is also being planned.

Chennai Mathematical Institute is an autonomous institution for teaching and research in Mathematical Sciences. It is supported by the Department of Atomic Energy.

SOURCE : The Hindu, Monday, May 22, 2006