More at http://www.sanctuaryasia.com |Report
of roads. These signboards warn motorists of the presence
of wild animals such as otters and direct them to drive
cautiously. The local Forest Department assisted with this
work by transporting the boards to the designated spots.
SUNIL AND THE SEED SAVERS
In Haryana’s Mangar Bani forest, Project Leader Sunil
Harsana has been braving the oppressive heat to lead
birding trails, tree walks and, most importantly, seed
collection drives! Trailed by children who are members of his
Mangar Eco Club, Sunil walks in the forest and collects the
seeds of native trees. These collected seeds will be planted in
degraded areas of Mangar Bani during the monsoon!
Sunil also recently took 40 members of the Eco Club
to the Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary to teach them about
waterbirds, bird migration, bird identifi cation and the
importance of Protected Areas. Now that’s what we call
nurturing the next generation!VANODAYA VOLUNTEERS NAB
POACHER
Members of Project Leader Ashwin Gurusrikar’s Vanodaya
Wildlife Trust helped the Karnataka Forest Department nab
a poacher in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary! An undercover
informant with Vanodaya sent a message to volunteer
Chandni Gurusrikar that a chital had been killed and was
being transported to a local market. Chandni informed the
Forest Department of the details, and worked with them to
set up check points on the road. Thanks to Vanodaya’s tipGIB CAMPAIGN UPDATE
On December 7, 2018, Sanctuary partnered with
Conservation India and The Corbett Foundation to launch
a national campaign to save the critically endangered
Great Indian Bustard (GIB).
At the time, we invited prominent wildlife supporters
to endorse the campaign and also launched a petition
directed at the Ministry of Power. Though the campaign
gained heavy traction, garnered over
11,000 signatures and prompted
movement from bustard range
states and the centre, we did
not directly receive a response
from the Ministry of Power.
However, on March 18th, the
concerned Ministry responded
to a letter on the matter sent
by former Indian cricketer
Anil Kumble who has been
in support of the campaign.
While the letter outlined some
perfunctory measures taken by
the Ministry, it did not detail any
sincere commitment to mitigating
the problem.
“What is missing in these letters is a strict
deadline that power and energy agencies need to adhere
to, without which, the implementation is perpetually
delayed and not at a speed that is meaningful to the
species recovery. To make any impact on in-situ recoveryof the GIB, it is important that powerline segments already
identifi ed by the Wildlife Institute of India in Thar and
Kutchh be mitigated by undergrounding the most critical
segments and marking medium risk segments with bird
diverters within a year or two, not after fi ve years or so,”
said Sutirtha Dutta of the Wildlife Institute of India.
Devesh Gadhvi of The Corbett Foundation, who has
been working for the conservation of the GIB in Kutchh,
Gujarat, reiterated Mr. Dutta’s concerns, adding that
the Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation
Limited substation is being developed right
in the middle of the GIB’s wintering and
breeding ground in Kutchh, barely 50 m.
from the forest boundary. Mr. Gadhvi
also illustrated the absolutely pointless
measures being taken in the name of
collision mitigation on the Power Grid
Corporation’s Kutchh-Banaskantha line.
Here, a single balloon has been installed
as a bird diverter between every two
pylons. Thus each diverter is at a distance
of approximately 320 m. from the next, but
for diverters to be at all eff ective they have
to be placed every fi ve metres.
It is clear that while the government is paying lip
service to the issue of the GIB’s impending extinction, no
concrete measures have yet been realised on the ground.
To read the letter that the Ministry of Power sent to Anil
Kumble and his response, as advised by GIB experts, log
onto http://www.sanctuaryasia.com.GI
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