Friday, August 27, 2010

Real tiger cub found among stuffed toys in luggage at Bangkok airport

A two-month-old tiger cub was found sedated and hidden among stuffed toy tigers in luggage at Bangkok airport after scanners detect heartbeat.
By Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok
Published: 3:15PM BST 27 Aug 2010

The endangered tiger had been sedated with tranquillisers and hidden in the bag.

But officials at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport grew suspicious when a 31-year-old Thai woman, who has not been named, struggled with her out-sized baggage at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport while boarding a flight for Iran.

Airlines to deploy automated kiosks to help trace lost bagsAn X-ray machine revealed the cub's beating heart, but when the woman was questioned, she could not explain why there was a real tiger in her bag.

"The woman trying to check in the oversized bag denied any knowledge of the tiger. She said she was carrying it for someone else," said Nirat Nipanand, an airport customs official in charge of tracking animals.

DNA samples from the cub - which has been sent to a wildlife rescue centre in Ratchaburi province - are being tested to discover whether it was born in captivity or seized from the wild.

Tiger populations in Asia are under constant threat from poaching and illegal trade and wildlife groups have been lobbying governments to increase monitoring and enforce tougher penalties.

Traffic, an organisation that fights wildlife smuggling, hailed the discovery.

Chris Shepherd, Traffic's south-east Asia deputy director, said: "If people are trying to smuggle live tigers in their check-in luggage, they obviously think wildlife smuggling is easy to get away with and do not fear reprimand. Only sustained pressure . . . can change that."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/7967743/Real-tiger-cub-found-among-stuffed-toys-in-luggage-at-Bangkok-airport.html

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Poacher to be dealt with iron hands, Sansar gets 6 years jail

PTI
New Delhi, Aug 25 (PTI) Notorious poacher Sansar Chand was today sentenced to six years jail term by a Delhi court in a case relating to seizure of a leopard skin here in 1995, saying such offence should be dealt with "iron hands". Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Digvinay Singh also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on him while awarding the maximum jail term prescribed under the Wildlife Protection Act. The court said that the offences relating to wildlife must be dealt with strict punishment to bring down poaching incidents across the country. The court raised concern over the rising menace of poaching. "Despite various steps taken by the government across the globe, the offence relating to wildlife are refusing to come down. In the Act, stringent punishment is provided which is awarded time and again to contain the offence, but still the situation does not seem to be improving," the court said. "In my considered view, such repeated offenders need to be dealt with iron hands, more particularly when there have been previous convictions and involvement in other similar offences," the judge noted. .
Source: http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/poacher-to-be-dealt-with-iron-hands-sansar-gets-6-years-jail/260531.html

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Gharial hatchlings in river Girwa



Gharials are one of the critically endangered species of the country. There are a very few places left in the country where Gharials profusely breeds naturally. Katerniaghat is one of such places left in the world. In river Girwa, Gharials are breeding in a very small strech with highest congregation of breeding individuals. This year again natural breeding of Gharials went very well and around 1400 hatchlings of Gharial started their lives in river Girwa two months back. Though their lives are uncertain due to routine flooding in the river every year and very high runoff in the month of August-September, even then the news regarding small hatchlings diving in the shallow waters around the sandbars always gives us a sense of achievement and seeing the result of intensive species conservation initiatives taken since 2005 . The above two photographs have been sent by Fazlur Rahman of Katerniaghat Foundation, which are being shared with wishing an everlasting survival of this really endangered species in our river ecosystems.
Photo credit- M. K. Shukla, Range Officer (Katerniaghat Range)

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Scat analysis indicates presence of more tigers in Buxa

Hindu,
PTI
Kolkata, August 3, 2010
The Buxa Tiger Reserve in north Bengal, identified as a low density tiger reserve, may in fact harbour a greater number of the big cats as indicated by initial reports of scat samples.
“We had sent 83 samples to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad of which 55 were fit for analysis. Preliminary reports confirmed that 33 of these samples are of tiger origin,” Field Director of Buxa Tiger Reserve R.P. Saini told PTI.
During the tiger estimation exercise, scats were collected to enable DNA profiling of tigers in the reserve, but the exercise could not be completed due to rain and another full-fledged exercise would be undertaken after the monsoon, he said.
Describing the preliminary findings as “very encouraging”, he said it clearly indicated the presence of a number of tigers in the Buxa Tiger Reserve.
Asked to give the number of big cats in Buxa Tiger Reserve, he said although a detailed report about the number and gender of the tigers was yet to be received, it could be anything between 12 and 16.
Questions were frequently raised about the presence of tigers in Buxa Tiger Reserve where a big cat was photographed for the first time since its inception.
NTCA had identified Buxa as one of the reserves having low density tiger population and constituted a special team last year for urgent appraisal of the reserve.
He said that reports regarding preliminary findings were submitted to the state government as well as the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
Encouraged by the reports, the State government has sanctioned Rs. 30 lakh to the Buxa Tiger Reserve for the development of grasslands in the reserve, he said.
Saini said scats were also sent to ‘Aranyak’, an NGO based in Assam, for analysis and their preliminary report. He also said that 35 of the samples belonged to tigers.
He said that GPS positioning was recorded during the scat collection and after receiving the detailed report camera traps would be set up in areas with high tiger density.
BTR authorities had earlier toyed with the idea of going in for captive breeding to maintain the tiger population.
Now they have decided to relocate nine villages from the core areas of the reserve. The villages to be relocated outside the core area are Jainti, Bhutiabasti, Gangutia, Raimatang, Butrhi, Adma, Pana, 27 mile and 28 mile, he said.
The relocation would start anytime after funds were received from the government for the purpose, he said adding residents of eight villages had already agreed to opt for a monetary package for relocation.
Link: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article549620.ece

Monday, August 2, 2010

High-tech tracking on for man-killing tiger

TNN, Aug 1, 2010, 12.59am IST

LUCKNOW: If not the first ever, it is at least a rare practice of high-tech tracking of a man-killing tiger that Pilibhit forest officials have taken up. The forest department is getting help from the wildlife organisations which are providing the department the needed expertise and the `cameras' which can incessantly click for 60-odd days.

The sub-adult tiger which made its first killing on May 3 and latest on July 27 has been lying inactive for past some days. Jamuna Prasad of Dilawarpur village in Ghundchai beat of Deoria range of Pilibhit forest division was killed by the man-eater on July 27.

On Saturday, forest department decided to change the position of eight web cameras which were installed at the killing sites on July 25. "We will now install cameras every 2 km," said divisional forest officer (DFO) Pilibhit VK Singh. The entire Deoria range of 712 sqkm will be divided into 25 grids, each of four sqkm area. A camera will be installed at every grid to locate the tiger.

It was on July 25 that the tiger was clicked by the cameras. It has remained elusive since then though it struck again two days after. The cameras click automatically moment the animal passes by. Every two days the camera trappings are downloaded. The trappings so far have given some clue on the tiger. "It is not at all injured but we cannot say what is making it to kill men," said DFO.

The tiger since May 3 has killed five men and preyed on them partially. It struck on June 7 and 23 and July 25 and 27. However, all the victims had gone to the forest as their bodies were recovered from about 5 km inside the forest area. This is, in fact, the reason why the forest officials are hesitant to brand the big cat a `man-eater'.

Though tiger is not compulsively seeking a human prey, vigil is on in the area to trap it before it makes another kill. The precautionary measures will be followed during the monsoon period. The villagers who enter the forest will be treated as tresspassers. On Saturday, two tresspassers were caught by the forest staff.

An awareness campaign too is underway in the area. Villagers are being informed about the tiger's presence and the precautions they should take.
Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/High-tech-tracking-on-for-man-killing-tiger/articleshow/6242292.cms