The hidden side of human-elephant conflicts: orphaned calves | Mongabay
Elephant calves are sometimes the casualties in the tussle for space between humans and elephants. While some orphaned calves are accepted back into their herds, many young ones find it difficult to survive in the wild without their mothers who died from electrocution or other accidents. In cases of separation from herds, the immediate response of the forest department in Tamil Nadu is to unite the calf with its herd. The Tamil Nadu state government is working on short-term solutions such as tracking elephants and introducing stringent rules for electric fences to curb electrocution, and long-term solutions such as securing continuous migratory paths for elephants.
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How a community-based initiative restored dwindling hornbill population in Western Ghats | The Hindu
A community-based conservation initiative, involving the Kadar tribal community, has brought the dwindling hornbill population to a viable level in the Vazhachal Forest division of the Western Ghats. The Hornbill nest tree monitoring programme, involving the Kadars, an indigenous community, was started in 2005 in the Vazhachal forest division with the technical support of the Western Ghats Hornbill Foundation to address the declining hornbill population and restore their vanishing nesting habitat. The unique low-elevation riparian forest in the Athirappilly-Vazhachal areas is the only location where all four south Indian species of hornbills can be seen.
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MP: After 25 years, Indian Bison to be reintroduced at Sanjay Tiger Reserve | Free Press Journal
About 50 Indian Bisons will be sent from Satpura Tiger Reserve and Kanha National Park to the Sanjay Tiger Reserve in Sidhi for rehabilitation purpose. The plan is to keep three female bison with one male bison in order to extend the family of the species which went extinct from the park 25 years ago. The Satpura Tiger Reserve has the maximum number of about 5,000 bison in the state.
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Pre-monsoon census kicks off in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve | TOI
A seven-day pre-monsoon census process began in the buffer zone of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) in the Nilgiris on Tuesday. The number of carnivores, prey base and vegetation in the buffer zone comprising ranges such as Singara, Sigur and Northeast Slope will be estimated with forest staff and anti-poaching watchers walking transect lines. Thirty-four transect lines have been formed in the three ranges for the exercise. The exercise will conclude on June 4 and the collected data will be sent to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for compilation.
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New green tree frog species discovered | Arunachal Times
A new green tree frog species has been discovered from Arunachal Pradesh by a team of researchers from Dehradun (Uttarakhand)-based Wildlife Institute of India, Dresden (Germany)-based Senckenberg Natural History Collections, and the Namdapha Tiger Reserve (NTR). The frog has been named the Patkai green tree frog (Gracixalus patkaiensis), after the historical Patkai hills range, where the NTR lies.
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Osmania University scientist, researcher son discover new bat species; name it after bat-biologist husband | Indian Express
A new species of bat has been discovered by Osmania University scientist Dr Bhargavi Srinivasulu and her son Aditya Srinivasulu, a PhD scholar at the University of Reading in the UK. The new species, found in a cave at Makuta in Kodagu district of Karnataka, has been named Miniopetrus Srinii or Srini’s Bent-winged Bat, after Dr Bhargavi’s husband and renowned bat biologist from Osmania University, Prof C Srinivasulu.
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