Voluntary relocation from Nagarahole Tiger Reserve

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The Story of People & The Wise Big Cat

The documentary filmed by Mrunal Ghosalkar is supported by Maharashtra Forest Department, Wildlife Conservation Society-India, Rufford Foundation, Little Planet Foundation, and Doodle Factory.

Daasi – The ‘Super Farmer’

Daasi, a tribal woman who relocated from Nagarahole to Sollepura relocation center during 2007-08, has proved that there can be no substitute to hard work and willingness. With the support of WCS-India staff, who facilitated the learning and provided access to expert advice, she was able to take up agriculture activities and harvest a diverse range of crops. She was awarded as ‘Super Farmer’ recently. Today she earns around Rs 4 lakh annually from the maize, pepper, beans, tomato and chilli she grows. Here in the video, she shares her thoughts with H L Govindappa of WCS-India, expressing her determination and happiness with the way things have happened. “I am happy and want to achieve even more in coming years.. as I keep telling my son we have to get fully into the task.. showing them the way to be independent is how we can show real love.. I hope I can inspire others to follow my path.. I used to grow maize and cotton till you showed us how to start growing vegetables too.. life here is much better than in the forest where education meant long treks through the jungle.. here, our children get food… everything comes to our doorstep”, says Daasi.

Wildlife Week Celebration

Community involvement in removing plaques nailed onto trees, interacting with school children to raise awareness on plastic, distributing steel cutlery to be used as alternate, etc were part of the Wildlife Week celebrations conducted by the Turtle Survival Alliance at Nature Discovery Centre in Assam.

Dholes

Often ignored in comparison to other charismatic species, the dhole is poorly understood and less studied. With less than 2500 individuals in the wild, this wild canid species is headed to extinction unless its behaviour and needs are understood. Some studies have been initiated, including one by WCS-India researchers.

Leopard Cat

Leopard cats are the small carnivores found in Asia which controls rodent population. They are very elusive beings. WCS-India surveyed in Western Ghats using camera-traps to estimate their numbers. They were more abundant in wetter areas that received more rainfall. The highest densities were found in Bhadra landscape followed by BRT, Bandipur and Nagarahole. Also the study revealed the numbers were high in coffee plantations and multi-use forests adjoining protected areas.

IFS Workshop, 2018
IFS officers from across the country arrived in Bangalore and proceeded to the River Tern Jungle Lodges near Bhadra Tiger Reserve. They were here to participate in “One-week compulsory training on voluntary relocation for Tiger Reserves” jointly organised by WCS-India and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). The participants were taken through the story of Bhadra relocation, successfully completed in the early part of this century and often cited as a model for voluntary relocation of people from protected areas. Besides hearing the experiences of the key movers, they were also taken to the sites to see the benefits,  both to the relocated people and to the ecosystem.

Here are some of the presentations:

Here are some of the feedback from the participants:

Road Kills
Protected areas comprise less than 5% of India’s geographical expanse. India is home to 7.6% of all Mammalian, 12.6% of all Avian, 6.2% of all Reptilian, 4.4% of all Amphibian, 11.7% of all Fish, and 6.0% of all Flowering Plant Species. Many of these are found only in protected areas. Should we continue to build more roads in our protected areas? Or consider alternate options?

Star tortoise escapes the fire in a patch of grassland

A star tortoise, taking a nap in a semi grassland habitat, gets alert due to the sudden variation in the outside temperature. This was a protected reserve forest in one of the states in India where natural fires are rare but man-made fires are high. It is common for people here to set afire large forested areas during summer to let fresh grass grow and provide fodder for their cattle during the rains. Unfortunately, this fresh fodder comes at the cost of wildlife that depends on these grasslands. Luckily the tortoise escaped the heat and found refuge in an unburnt area where it hid, well camouflaged once again! Video by Harsha L, WCS India

Batagur hatching in Chambal

A star tortoise, taking a nap in a semi grassland habitat, gets alert due to the sudden variation in the outside temperature. This was a protected reserve forest in one of the states in India where natural fires are rare but man-made fires are high. It is common for people here to set afire large forested areas during summer to let fresh grass grow and provide fodder for their cattle during the rains. Unfortunately, this fresh fodder comes at the cost of wildlife that depends on these grasslands. Luckily the tortoise escaped the heat and found refuge in an unburnt area where it hid, well camouflaged once again! Video by Harsha L, WCS India

Janata Waghoba

‘Janata Waghoba‘ is a documentary by Mrunal Ghosalkar, who works as Awareness Coordinator with WCS India Program. She documents human-leopard interactions in the Niphad district of rural Maharashtra. The objective of the work is to create an understanding of human-leopard interactions by creating awareness through youth as a potential connection for engagement of concerned stakeholders. It is a collaboration between Maharashtra Forest Department, Rufford Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Society – India and Doodle Factory.

Living with Leopards by Sheren Shrestha

The film brings on the message of how it is not so difficult to coexist with this adaptable predator of Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Beginning with lessons from the Warli community and their reverence to Waghoba, the cat deity, to a novel initiative ‘Mumabikars for SGNP’ it shows how by changing people’s perception of the leopard from fear to acceptance, attacks on humans have been brought down to a large extent.

The Secret Life of leopards By Nikit Surve and Anwar Ahmed

Camera traps give a peek into the secret life of leopards of Sanjay Gandhi National Park as they woo, mate, raise cubs, feed on prey, etc. With the highest density of leopards and a good prey population of langur, barking deer, cheetal and sambar, leopards still venture out for domestic prey, simply because they are more abundant, as noted by Nikit Surve, WCS. The film clearly shows how the predator lives in close proximity to humans but shows no inclination for confrontation.