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(October 05, 2018) Wildlife Week Special – More and more tigers are being seen outside protected areas, leading to unfortunate clashes with humans. Even as activists push for a mercy for Avni, chances are the trigger will be pulled when she is sighted. How can we save our national animal from the pressures of human population?Representation image © Kalyan VarmaT1, F03, K1, Sundari… the fate of these majestic big cats lies in the hands of an ever-growing human population. Even as India celebrates ...

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(October 03, 2018) The theme for wildlife week this year is ‘Big cats under threat’. Often the wild predators are more scared of humans than vice versa. A mob can play havoc on a ‘dangerous’ carnivore, as revealed in field tales from Akole.(Ghule recounts…) On Mahashivratri festival, I got a call at 1.30 p.m. A leopard was trapped inside a house at Malizap village. We set up a trap cage at the door of the house and blocked all other escape routes.While we waited for the leopard to be...

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(October 02, 2018) Wildlife Week Special: Wildlife trafficking has seen a million pangolins killed, around 7000 Asian big cats have been slaughtered for body parts since 2000, 14 million reptiles traded in a decade and so on. In India, the trade is focussed on tigers, leopards, rhinos and pangolins. The networking among the crime syndicates calls for coordination between many agencies that can detect and block the transit routes.The transnational trade in wildlife and forest products is estimated to be the fourth ...

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(September 27, 2018) Incidences of leopard scare as also attacks on humans and retaliatory killings of the carnivore are on the rise in parts of India. Experts suggest a few management solutions to handle the issue, based on their experience in the districts of Maharashtra.How best to conserve wildlife, including large carnivores like leopards? This is a global debate. One school of thought argues that protected areas – national parks and wildlife sanctuaries – with no human inhabitants offer the only ho...

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(September 22, 2018) On this World Rhino Day, a little positive hope for the Rhinos in India© Kalyan VarmaOnce upon a time, the Great One-horned Indian Rhinoceros proudly roamed all the way from Pakistan to the Indo- Burmese border. By the starting of the 20th century though, hunting and poaching had reduced their number to just about 200 across India and Nepal. With the help of stricter laws and intensified protection, the numbers stand roughly around 3400 today.Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh, a mix lan...

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(September 19, 2018) MEET OUR STAFF: K S LOKESH, Associate ConservationistLokesh has been beaten and chased from the forest. But he is one survivor who has learnt how to deal with the rigours of his job and emerged successful.He has stayed in the tribal settlements deep inside the  forest at night, roamed around, to be precise. And he is no forest dweller. He has been chased, not by animals, but by opponents, those who resisted moving the tribal people outside the forest."Today, we have done more for the tribal...

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(September 15, 2018) Joining the diversity that the small town celebrates, the tribal resettlement centres here offer its residents opportunities to join the mainstream of society.Nagarahole National ParkAs you leave the small Hunsur town and get onto the road leading to Nagarahole Tiger reserve, the town slowly metamorphoses into a pan-Indian, semi-global village. You will see boards on either side of the road announcing various ‘colonies’. A Tibetan colony, a HakkiPikki (nomadic group) colony, Marathi,...

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(September 11, 2018) Connecting Kaziranga National Park to Htamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary in Myanmar through Nagaland is a long-term project initiated, which has major implications for wildlife.From working to secure wildlife corridors between various states or regions, to aiming for connectivity between national borders is a big leap. But a natural leap worth taking, for the connectivity expert and scientist duo from Wildlife Conservation Society, India. Dr. Varun Goswami and Dr. Divya Vasudev are working on a long-t...

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(September 07, 2018) We named our first female leopard after Lakshai. I hear it is a different way of using the name Laxmi. She was a worker in the Forest Department nursery at Sugaon, Akole.Her fair face was creased with lovely smile lines that only rural people seem to have. But she had a frightening effect on her male co-workers.Lakshai, the Woman Friday at Akole, after whom the leopard was named. ©Vidya AthreyaThe Sugaon nursery is an ideal workplace. Beautifully set on the banks of the river Pravara, a tri...

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(September 04, 2018) MEET OUR STAFF: Gopalakrishne GowdaGrowing up in the parched and drought-prone district of Kolar, Karnataka, Gopalakrishne Gowda harboured a fascination for rivers. Kolar has long grappled with acute water shortages, and consistent droughts and famines, and continues to struggle with these issues. Having observed such difficulties up close is perhaps what ingrained Gowda’s resolve to protect and preserve the forests and rivers that flourished around him – a mission that he has pursue...

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