Delhi-NCR likely to generate 50,000 metric tonnes of e-waste by 2015: Assocham

LUCKNOW: India's capital is emerging as the world's dumping capital for e-waste, with hazardous activities taking place and like to generate e-waste to an extent of 50,000 metric tonnes (MT) per annum by 2015 from the current level of 30,000 metric tonnes per annum, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 25%, according to an Assocham estimate.

The Assocham latest study on "E-waste in India by 2015" revealed that currently e-waste of Delhi is approximately 30,000 metric tones per annum and employs more than 1.5 lakh workers in city's various organised and unorganised recycling units, said DS Rawat, secretary general of Assocham while releasing the Assocham paper.

"As many as 8,500 mobile handsets; 5,500 TV sets and 3,000 personal computers are dismantled in the city everyday for reuse of their component parts and materials," said Rawat.

"While the list is growing ,so is the quantity as these products are getting more affordable and more and more people are using them. Increasing usage also leads to more of them coming up for disposal, thus increasing the rate of obsolescence and replacement," added Rawat.

The paper further stated that large e-waste centres exist in Delhi, NCR, Meerut, Firozabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai, with 85,000 recyclers working in Delhi-NCR alone.

Workers are poorly-protected in an environment where e-waste from PC monitors, PCBs, CDs, motherboards, cables, toner cartridges, light bulbs and tube-lights are burned in the open, releasing lead, mercury toxins into the air.

Metals and non-degradable materials such as gold and platinum, aluminium, cadmium, mercury, lead and brominated flame-retardants are retrieved.

The paper further mentioned that Delhi alone gets around 85% of the electronic waste generated in the developed world.

In terms of total e-waste produced internally or brought from outside for recycling, Delhi's e-waste weighs between 25,000 and 30,000 metric tonnes per year.

The study highlights that though Mumbai and Chennai are the top importers of junk computers and electronic waste in India, Delhi has emerged as the main hub of e-waste recycling in India, and perhaps the world.

The e-waste imported from Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai makes its way to Delhi, as there is a ready market for glass and plastic in the NCR. Also, the wastes from Mumbai constitute a bulk of the 1,500 tonnes discarded electronics that land in Delhi's scrap yards everyday.

Assocham has also strongly advocated the need to bring out effective legislation to prevent entry of child labour into its collection, segregation and distribution.

As per the estimates, more then 35,000-45,000 child labourers in the age group from 10 to 14 years are observed to be engaged in various e-waste activities, without adequate protection and safeguards in Delhi's various yards and recycling workshops.

"Domestic e-waste including computer, TV, mobiles and refrigerators contain over 1,000 toxic material, which contaminate soil and ground water. Exposure can cause headache, irritability, nausea, vomiting, eye pain. Recyclers may suffer liver, kidney and neurological disorders," said Dr BK Rao, chairman of Assocham Health committee releasing the Assocham paper.

Due to lack of awareness, they are risking their health and the environment as well. They use strong acids to retrieve precious metals such as gold.

Working in poorly-ventilated enclosed areas without masks and technical expertise results in exposure to dangerous and slow-poisoning chemicals, adds the paper.

It also highlights that that there are no clear guidelines for the unorganized sector to handle e-waste. The recyclers are not fully aware of the health risks.

''These products have components that contain toxic substances like lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, plastic, PVC, BFRs, barium, beryllium, and carcinogens like carbon black and heavy metals. This deadly mix can cause severe health problems in those handling the waste," adds Dr Rao.

Printed circuit boards, for instance, contain heavy metals like Antimony, Gold, Silver, Chromium, Zinc, Lead, Tin and Copper. The method of extracting these materials from circuit boards is highly hazardous and involves heating the metals in the open.

"Issues relating to poor sensitisation about this sector, low organized recycling, cross-border flow of waste equipment into India, limited reach out and awareness regarding disposal, after determining end of useful life, and lack of coordination between various authorities are responsible for the non-involvement of municipalities in E-waste management," said Rawat.

He further also added that each state should develop its own scrap yards in the respective cities so that the environmental hazards would be minimized in Delhi-NCR.

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Delhi, NCR likely to generate 50,000 metric tonnes of e-waste by 2015: Assocham

LUCKNOW: India's capital is emerging as the world's dumping capital for e-waste, with hazardous activities taking place and like to generate e-waste to an extent of 50,000 metric tonnes (MT) per annum by 2015 from the current level of 30,000 metric tonnes per annum, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 25%, according to an Assocham estimate.

The Assocham latest study on "E-waste in India by 2015" revealed that currently e-waste of Delhi is approximately 30,000 metric tones per annum and employs more than 1.5 lakh workers in city's various organised and unorganised recycling units, said DS Rawat, secretary general of Assocham while releasing the Assocham paper.

"As many as 8,500 mobile handsets; 5,500 TV sets and 3,000 personal computers are dismantled in the city everyday for reuse of their component parts and materials," said Rawat.

"While the list is growing ,so is the quantity as these products are getting more affordable and more and more people are using them. Increasing usage also leads to more of them coming up for disposal, thus increasing the rate of obsolescence and replacement," added Rawat.

The paper further stated that large e-waste centres exist in Delhi, NCR, Meerut, Firozabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai, with 85,000 recyclers working in Delhi-NCR alone.

Workers are poorly-protected in an environment where e-waste from PC monitors, PCBs, CDs, motherboards, cables, toner cartridges, light bulbs and tube-lights are burned in the open, releasing lead, mercury toxins into the air.

Metals and non-degradable materials such as gold and platinum, aluminium, cadmium, mercury, lead and brominated flame-retardants are retrieved.

The paper further mentioned that Delhi alone gets around 85% of the electronic waste generated in the developed world.

In terms of total e-waste produced internally or brought from outside for recycling, Delhi's e-waste weighs between 25,000 and 30,000 metric tonnes per year.

The study highlights that though Mumbai and Chennai are the top importers of junk computers and electronic waste in India, Delhi has emerged as the main hub of e-waste recycling in India, and perhaps the world.

The e-waste imported from Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai makes its way to Delhi, as there is a ready market for glass and plastic in the NCR. Also, the wastes from Mumbai constitute a bulk of the 1,500 tonnes discarded electronics that land in Delhi's scrap yards everyday.

Assocham has also strongly advocated the need to bring out effective legislation to prevent entry of child labour into its collection, segregation and distribution.

As per the estimates, more then 35,000-45,000 child labourers in the age group from 10 to 14 years are observed to be engaged in various e-waste activities, without adequate protection and safeguards in Delhi's various yards and recycling workshops.

"Domestic e-waste including computer, TV, mobiles and refrigerators contain over 1,000 toxic material, which contaminate soil and ground water. Exposure can cause headache, irritability, nausea, vomiting, eye pain. Recyclers may suffer liver, kidney and neurological disorders," said Dr BK Rao, chairman of Assocham Health committee releasing the Assocham paper.

Due to lack of awareness, they are risking their health and the environment as well. They use strong acids to retrieve precious metals such as gold.

Working in poorly-ventilated enclosed areas without masks and technical expertise results in exposure to dangerous and slow-poisoning chemicals, adds the paper.

It also highlights that that there are no clear guidelines for the unorganized sector to handle e-waste. The recyclers are not fully aware of the health risks.

''These products have components that contain toxic substances like lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, plastic, PVC, BFRs, barium, beryllium, and carcinogens like carbon black and heavy metals. This deadly mix can cause severe health problems in those handling the waste," adds Dr Rao.

Printed circuit boards, for instance, contain heavy metals like Antimony, Gold, Silver, Chromium, Zinc, Lead, Tin and Copper. The method of extracting these materials from circuit boards is highly hazardous and involves heating the metals in the open.

"Issues relating to poor sensitisation about this sector, low organized recycling, cross-border flow of waste equipment into India, limited reach out and awareness regarding disposal, after determining end of useful life, and lack of coordination between various authorities are responsible for the non-involvement of municipalities in E-waste management," said Rawat.

He further also added that each state should develop its own scrap yards in the respective cities so that the environmental hazards would be minimized in Delhi-NCR.

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Meet the 'shark that can walk' on ocean bed!

LONDON: A 'walking shark' has been discovered by scientists off the coast of Indonesia.

Rather than swim, these slender-bodied sharks can 'walk' along the ocean floor by wriggling their bodies and pushing with their pectoral and pelvic fins, the Mirror reported.

The brown spotted fish, called Hemiscyllium halmahera, is a species of bamboo shark that can grow to 27 inches in length and lives on the seabed where it hunts marine invertebrates and small fish.

Biologist Dr Gerald Allen from Conservation International, who discovered two specimens of the shy fish in the Indonesian archipelago of Muluku with his team, said that the new species is clearly differentiated on the basis of colour pattern.

Allen said that its features include a general brown colouration with numerous clusters of mainly 2-3 dark polygonal spots, widely scattered white spots in the matrix between dark clusters.

The study was published in the International Journal of Ichthyology.

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Peacock number rises to 1,500 in Chandigarh: Survey

CHANDIGARH: If it was the presence of leopards in Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary three years ago, the growing number of peacocks in and around Chandigarh has surprised the wildlife department, which is conducting a year-long bird survey in areas around the sanctuary.

In 2010, the number of peacocks in the forest area and adjoining villages of the city was 920, but now the ongoing survey of birds has found that there are over 1,500 Indian Peafowl in the city. At least eight species have been found so far, and wildlife experts are expecting to come across at least half a dozen more varieties of peacocks. The lower Shivalik ranges are ecologically fragile and prone to soil erosion, but its peaceful environs attract many birds and animals.

Peacock has been sighted in good numbers in forest areas of Sukhna, Nepli, Kansal, Barotiwala, and Nathewala, close to Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary. Around 40 peacocks are housed in Peacock Park in Sector 39, which attracts many visitors. Earlier, the first-ever wildlife census had thrown up many surprises, with the search teams stumbling on high numbers of species considered rare so far in the sanctuary. Sighting of parakeets, cormorant, wild pig, large egret, ruby-throated bulbul, pangolin, and porcupine had come as a pleasant surprise for animal lovers. The bird survey is a follow-up to the wildlife census, with expertise being provided by Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India.

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15 new bird species discovered in Amazon

WASHINGTON: The Amazon rain-forest, a well-known epicentre of biodiversity, has offered another treasure trove — 15 new bird species.

An international team of researchers coordinated by ornithologist Bret Whitney of the LSU Museum of Natural Science, or LSUMNS in Louisiana US, has published 15 species of birds previously unknown to science.

The formal description of these birds has been printed in a special volume of the "Handbook of the Birds of the World" series. Not since 1871 have so many new species of birds been introduced under a single cover.

"Birds are, far and away, the best-known group of vertebrates, so describing a large number of uncatalogued species of birds in this day and age is unexpected, to say the least," said Whitney.

"But what's so exciting about this presentation of 15 new species from the Amazon all at once is, first, highlighting how little we really know about species diversity in Amazonia, and second, showing how technological advances have given us new tool-sets for discovering and comparing naturally occurring, cohesive ('monophyletic') populations with other, closely related populations," said Whitney said.

Amazonia is home to far more species of birds — approximately 1,300 — and more species per unit area, than any other biome, researchers said.

Technological advances such as satellite imagery, digital recordings of vocalisations, DNA analysis and high-powered computation power have taken the age of discovery to the next level, and were key ingredients in the discovery of these new species, they said.

However, such discoveries still depend on exploration of remote areas of the Amazon rain-forest, just as they did a century ago.

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Meet the 'shark that can walk' on ocean bed!

LONDON: A 'walking shark' has been discovered by scientists off the coast of Indonesia.

Rather than swim, these slender-bodied sharks can 'walk' along the ocean floor by wriggling their bodies and pushing with their pectoral and pelvic fins, the Mirror reported.

The brown spotted fish, called Hemiscyllium halmahera, is a species of bamboo shark that can grow to 27 inches in length and lives on the seabed where it hunts marine invertebrates and small fish.

Biologist Dr Gerald Allen from Conservation International, who discovered two specimens of the shy fish in the Indonesian archipelago of Muluku with his team, said that the new species is clearly differentiated on the basis of colour pattern.

Allen said that its features include a general brown colouration with numerous clusters of mainly 2-3 dark polygonal spots, widely scattered white spots in the matrix between dark clusters.

The study was published in the International Journal of Ichthyology.

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Measles-like virus may be cause of dolphin deaths on US coast

WASHINGTON: A measles-like virus that suppresses the immune system could be the reason an extraordinary number of bottlenose dolphins have died after becoming stranded along the US East Coast, a panel of dolphin experts said on Tuesday.

Since July 1, 333 bottlenose dolphins have been found dead along coastlines from New York to North Carolina, the highest number in a quarter-century and almost 10 times the average of 33 for the same period and region over the last five years, according to Teri Rowles of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Virginia has had the largest number of stranded dolphin deaths, with 174, Rowles said in a telephone briefing.

The death toll is likely higher because there have been reports of dolphin carcasses floating off the East Coast, particularly in Virginia.

Rowles and other experts from NOAA, universities and marine institutes have tentatively attributed the deaths to cetacean morbillivirus, which is related to the virus that causes measles in humans.

Morbillivirus attacks dolphins' immune systems, leaving infected animals thin and vulnerable to other diseases, including pneumonia. Many of the stranded dolphins have lesions on their skin, mouths, joints or lungs, NOAA reported.

Different kinds of morbillivirus stay within a closely related species and there is no indication this outbreak could jump to people, said Jerry Saliki of the University of Georgia.

This kind of dolphin die-off has not occurred in the mid-Atlantic region since 1987-1988. If this outbreak follows a similar course, it could last until May 2014 as dolphin populations build up resistance to the virus, Rowles said.

NOAA has declared an Unusual Mortality Event, which offers support for bottlenose dolphins in this area under the US Marine Mammal Protection Act.

No dolphin vaccine

"At this point, there isn't anything to stop the virus," Rowles said. While there are vaccines against morbillivirus that occurs in land animals, there is no vaccine that could be easily deployed to populations of dolphins, she said.

This month, NOAA declared an Unusual Mortality Event for bottlenose dolphins in Florida's Indian River Lagoon, where dolphin strandings are nearly three times the historic average this year. The agency did not offer a tentative cause for these deaths, but many of the dolphin carcasses in Florida were emaciated.

"There is a tipping point in populations," Stephanie Venn-Watson of the National Marine Mammal Foundation said. "The primary hypothesis is East Coast dolphins don't have the natural immune response to fight off the virus."

Asked whether pollution could be a factor, Rowles said experts are monitoring an area off Georgia where there are high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in the water. PCBs were banned in the United States in 1979, but they can remain at manufacturing sites for decades and are known carcinogens, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

No stranded dolphins have been reported along the Georgia coast, but that could change as the dolphins migrate south for the winter.

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Newborn tiger cubs at Panna Tiger Reserve

INDORE: Six newborn tiger cubs at Panna Tiger Reserve have become a major attraction for forest department officials these days giving a new direction to tiger conservation in the state as well as the country. Tigresses — T-4 and T-2 — have given birth to three cubs each.

Forest minister Sartaj Singh, in his address, said that the addition of half a dozen tigers in once tiger-less Panna Tiger Reserve is significant. Despite all-out efforts, tiger species in Panna had become extinct in year 2009. Forest department has set a precedent by dealing with this calamity and relocating tiger species there again.

Today, Panna tiger reserve has 11 (adult and semi-adult) tigers including five rehabilitated ones.

Panna Tiger Reserve has been conferred with the National Award by National Tiger Conservation Authority for this successful innovation.

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Greenpeace protests against Russian offshore Arctic drilling

MOSCOW: Greenpeace accused Russia on Monday of trying to block its protest against offshore drilling in the mineral-rich but ecologically fragile Arctic after Russian coastguards boarded its vessel.

The environmental lobby group said Russian officials boarded its icebreaker after activists with banners reading "Save the Arctic" piloted motor boats toward an oil exploration vessel working for Russia's top oil producer, the state-controlled Rosneft, and global major ExxonMobil.

Greenpeace steered its vessel into the Northern Sea Route in defiance of Russia's refusal to grant it the necessary permits, accusing the authorities of trying "to block us at every turn".

Russia has made tapping the Arctic's oil and gas a priority to develop a $2.1 trillion economy that is reliant on exports of energy resources. Ecologists fear drilling in the virgin region risks destroying the Arctic's unique wildlife and causing damaging changes to the global climate.

The Northern Sea Route mostly hugs Russia's northern coastline and is a primary Arctic shipping route, with experts expecting traffic to increase significantly in the coming years as warmer temperatures melt the ice and make it more accessible.

Thawing sea ice has also attracted energy companies to drill in the Arctic Ocean, which is estimated to hold about 20 percent of the world's as-yet undiscovered oil and gas.

"Offshore drilling should be banned in the Arctic, and especially in a remote sanctuary for threatened species like polar bears and narwhals where an oil spill would be impossible to clean up," Greenpeace said in a statement.

Russia's coastguard service declined to comment. Its supervisory body, the Federal Security Service, could not immediately be reached on Monday.

Rosneft, while it declined to comment on the Greenpeace protest, said it was following the highest environmental standards on the Arctic shelf.

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Monkey population has fallen by 55,000 in HP: Forest minister

SHIMLA: The population of monkeys, who have become nuisance for farmers and people in Himachal Pradesh, has come down by 55,000 as per the latest census conducted by the state forest department, forest minister Thakur Singh Bharmauri told state assembly during the question hour on Monday.

Replying to a question of Maheshwar Singh (HLP) and Jai Ram (BJP), the minister said that the population of monkeys was 3,17,112 in the census conducted in 2004 and it has dropped to 2,260,86 in the latest census conducted in 2012.

Replying to supplementaries on monkey menace in the state, Bharmauri said that the forest department has sterilised 69,000 monkeys till date and there number is declining every year.

He said that the state government has launched a scheme for developing monkey parks with fruits and food bearing plants to provide habitat for them in the forest areas and monkeys were in these parks after sterilization.

"So far five places near Todpur in Nahan, Haripur in Chamba, Slori in Churah, Bassa Farkunda in Nurpur and Simbalbada have been identified for setting up monkey parks and exercise is on to identify more places for the purpose, he added.

Forest minister said that the state government has set up three new monkey sterilisation centres at Paonta Sahib (Sirmaur), Sarol (Chamba) and Salapad (Mandi) within in seven months from January 1 to July 31, 2013.

The state government even appointed veterinary doctors, pharmacists and the process to appoint animal attendants is in progress", he added.

He said that state government has laid the foundation stone of new monkey sterilisation centre at Khekhar Kania Nala (Sainj) in Kotgarh forest division and another site at Ishpur in Una has been identified for the same.

Maheshwar Singh and Jai Ram Thakur also raised the issue of death of college student and daughter of Promila Devi (divorcee), who fell from the fourth floor in Mandi after she was attacked by a monkey.

Jai Ram Thakur said that she had lost both her legs and her vision was impaired but full compensation has not been paid to the victim.

The forest minister assured to provide best possible compensation on the humanitarian ground to the victim.

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Back from Nepal, elephant begets calf at Dudhwa national park

LUCKNOW: For the 22-year old Chameli, an active member of Dudhwa's jumbo brigade, the stigma of eloping with a wild Nepali tusker did not last too long. The female gave birth to a male calf on Saturday and occupied a place of pride among its folks.

A separate cabin protected with a barbed wire has been given to the young mother to nurse its calf. Dudhwa officials are taking the best care of the mother and its newborn. "We don't want tigers, leopards or any other wild animal to attack the newborn. The mother is too weak to protect itself or the calf," said deputy director, Dudhwa, VK Singh.

The calf, not even a day old, has been christened 'Vinayak' a synonym of the elephant-god Ganesh. A day after a wild tusker got killed in a train accident in Katarniaghat, Dudhwa officials rejoiced over the birth of the male calf. Dudhwa has 13 elephants which are used for patrolling and tourism.

Chameli, who was kept at Kaima Chauki, 100 metres from the Nepal border, had disappeared from its place about two years back. The forest department had launched a hunt for the female considering it was young and of much use to the department.

But, it was not traced. This female pachyderm from Jhaldapara, however, came back on its own to the chauki after four days. The officials were happy to know the female was in family way a few months later. Chameli, in fact, has added some colour to the life of elephants in Dudhwa, which are never counted as elephant population of the park and have lived a life of captivity and confinement.

Chameli could have only taken a lesson from its older mates Pawankali, Champakali, Sulochana, Pushpakali, Pakhri and Madhu in running away and having a life of its own, even though the freedom was short-lived. The female elephants still have some hope as the wandering wild tuskers from Nepal, crossing through Dudhwa, at times chase these females sensing their presence in the vicinity.

"Many times, wild elephants break fences and create ruckus, following which females disappear for a few days and return on their own," said the official.

The six males in the group are not as fortunate as their female counterparts. Whenever they get restless for mating, forest staff pacifies them through sedatives and other artificial means. They hardly mate. Moreover, since they are in captivity, it is not easy to break the shackles and escape.

So far, Dudhwa has only once case of a male elephant, Mohan, gone missing. Later, it came back to its moorings on its own. The calves born to the female can be released in the wild. But, in the initial few years, they do not leave their mothers' side, and prolonged stay makes them part of the official brigade of jumbos.

Chameli's newborn has come more than a decade after the park got its youngest member of the group, Baltic, born in 1999.

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One million cockroaches flee China farm: Report

At least one million cockroaches have escaped a farm in China where they were being bred for use in traditional medicine, a report said.

The cockroaches fled the facility in Dafeng, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, for surrounding cornfields earlier this month after an "unknown perpetrator" destroyed the plastic greenhouse where they were raised, the Modern Express newspaper said.

Disease control authorities have sent five investigators to the area to come up with a plan to stamp out the insects.

Farm owner Wang Pengsheng invested more than 100,000 yuan ($16,000) in 102 kilograms of Periplaneta americana eggs after spending six months developing a business plan, the report Friday said.

The cockroach is generally considered a pest, but believers in traditional Chinese medicine -- which uses both plants and animals, including endangered species, say extracts from it can treat diseases including cancer, reduce inflammation and improve immunity.

By the time the greenhouse was damaged, more than 1.5 million cockroaches had hatched and were being fed food including "fruits and biscuits" every day, Wang was quoted as saying.

He had expected to make around 1,000 yuan profit for every kilogram of cockroaches sold, according to the report, but was now facing losses of hundreds of thousands of yuan.

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Maneater hunt: Himachal Pradesh govt gives nawab marching orders

CHANDIGARH: Acting on the orders of forest and wildlife minister Thakur Singh Bharmouri, principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) A K Gulati has withdrawn the controversial NawabShafath Ali Khan of Hyderabad from the maneating leopard's hunt at Thunag in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. The Nawab has shot two leopards and a cub in the stint at Thunag, but doubts remain whether the two dead male cats were actually maneaters.

"I have told the principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) to remove Khan from the hunt and ensure that Himachali shikaris do the job," Bharmori told TOI from Shimla. The controversial hunt had even been brought to the notice of chief minister Virbhadra Singh, who heads the Himachal state wildlife advisory board.

Mandi conservator of forests Harshvardhan Kathuria told TOI: "The nawab left Thunag for his home on Friday."

The Nawab had allegedly shot another maneating leopard at Bunalidhar/Keuli village on Wednesday morning near the house where two leopard attacks on humans had taken place earlier. "The leopard was shot close to the house where the attacks took place earlier. However, if another human is attacked after this, it would imply that there are more maneaters in the area. Our teams will monitor the situation for another 10 days," said Kathuria.

"The postmortem report of the leopard shot on Wednesday shows it to be of 35kg and 6 feet — from nose to tail. It had just emerged from adolescence. A leopard of that size can at most kill a child, not an adult male or woman like Mani Devi or Kashmir Singh," said sources. The post-mortem on the first leopard shot by Nawab on August 11 had also not given any conclusive evidence of it being a maneater.

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Six tiger cubs born at Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh

BHOPAL: Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) in Madhya Pradesh has added another feather to its cap.

In a major boost to efforts to revive tiger population at PTR where the feline population had disappeared completely a few years ago - two translocated tigresses have given birth to three cubs each in their third litters.

PTR's deputy director Vikram Singh Parihar spotted the hand-bred tigress named T4 feeding her three cubs on Saturday morning. T4 was translocated from the Kanha National Park (KNP) to Panna in March 2009. The tigress was a semi-wild one and had spent most of her time in Kanha inside an enclosure after being orphaned.

In November 2011, T4 had become the world's first hand-bred feline shifted to the wild, to spawn two cubs. The tigress was born in May 2006 in KNP and within days her mother had died. "It had abandoned its cubs born from the second litter in April this year," PTR director RS Murthy told TOI.

T4 was then reared in an enclosure and fed by KNP. The semi-wild tigress was carted out to Panna and released into the wild in March 2011.

"There were apprehensions about its survival in the wild, but she picked up soon, going for kills in the deep forest, where it met a lone translocated tiger, and mated," said PTR officials.

Earlier, two translocated tigresses had given birth to eight cubs at PTR, of which six had survived. "But both were wild tigresses, unlike hand-reared and shifted like T4," said the officer.

Meanwhile, another tigress T2, shifted from KNP in 2009, has given birth to three cubs. This was its third litter. In February it had eaten the cub, born nine months ago.

With six cubs now, the big cat population in PTR has risen to 20. In early 2009, PTR had lost all its tigers and the big cats were subsequently reintroduced to revive their population.

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Environment council to hold garbage meet on Sept 18

PANAJI: The problem of garbage in Goa dominated the Goa state environmental council meeting on Thursday with chief minister Manohar Parrikar promising to have many answers ready at a special meeting of the council to be held on September 18.

Environment minister Alina Saldanha told TOI that Parrikar has promised to bring forth solutions to the vexed problem of garbage in terms of collection, segregation, treatment, technology, etc. Parrikar also invited those interested in knowing more about the technology to join the Goa delegation which will visit Germany to personally inspect a functioning garbage treatment plant, the technology of which has been favoured to be adopted in Goa.

Parrikar also said that municipalities and village panchayats can be pulled up for inaction in implementing garbage management rules only once the entire garbage management system is put in place. This will happen by the end of the year, Parrikar said. Saldanha said that environment education should be imparted to students at a young age and therefore 120 schools in Goa have been selected for the Green Goa Scheme on garbage management. Under this, teachers have been trained to educate students to collect dry garbage from their homes and compounds. The students are expected to bring this to their schools and dispose it in the bins provided there. "This will not only educate the students, but also their parents who will learn about segregating waste at source," said Saldanha.

She said that fining of violators will also help. The modalities on this measure are being worked out. Besides, efforts are on to replace plastic bags in Goa with cloth bags prepared by mahila mandals, she said.

The council was also informed that the mineral policy and the forest policy have been sent to the law department for vetting and will be notified after the directions of the Supreme Court are considered.

Measures for coastal protection will be taken in consultation with the national institute of ocean technology, Chennai, which is working out the plans. The meeting also discussed issues like the status of the Regional Plan 2021, the remaining debris of the River Princess, the Mhadei river water diversion project, prohibition of public smoking, etc.

The meeting, which was chaired by governor B V Wanchoo, was also attended by high ranking government officials including chief secretary B Vijayan, department heads, environmentalists Nandakumar Kamat, Rajendra Kerkar and others.

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HC stays govt order on collection of clay from lakes

CHENNAI: Madras high court on Friday stayed till September 26 a Tamil Nadu government order, which mandated a seigniorage fee of Rs one lakh from those collecting clay for pottery from lake areas in the state.

Justice D Hariparanthaman granted the interim injunction on a petition by Tamil Nadu pottery workers association challenging the government order issued in 1981.

The state level environment impact assessment authority of Tamil Nadu had issued the government order which mandated people collecting clay in lake areas to deposit a sum of Rs one lakh as seigniorage fee.

In the backdrop of recent Supreme Court order on sand mining, Vellore District Collector had imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on a pottery worker who had collected the clay from a lake area for making idols of Lord Ganesha for the upcoming Vinayaka Chathurthi festival.

The association in its petition submitted that though pottery workers, who were very poor, were exempted from the fixed fee, officials were penalising them citing the apex court order.

The judge, who admitted the petition, granted the interim injunction and posted the matter for further hearing to September 26.

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Centre rejects drones for Assam's national park

GUWAHATI: The central government has turned down the Assam government's proposal for aerial surveillance of the Kaziranga National Park by drones, state forest minister Rockybul Hussain said Wednesday.

Hussain added that the proposal had been turned down "due to military and security reasons". The Union ministry of Environment and Forests had earlier cleared the proposal.

"We have received a letter from the Defence ministry today informing us that the proposal had been turned down. However, we have requested the ministry to review the decision," said Hussain.

The proposal of using drones for aerial surveillance of the park was mooted in 2012 when the park registered a sudden spate in poaching of one-horned rhinos.

Union minister of Environment and Forest Jayanti Natarajan, who visited the park last year, said she would approach the central government for sanctioning a drone for better aerial surveillance of the park.

0ver 20 rhinos were killed by poachers in Assam last year and 18 of them were killed in the Kaziranga National Park so far this year.

Hussain said two more rhino carcasses were recovered from near the national park Wednesday morning.

"The carcasses were spotted by a forest patrol in Burhapahar range of the park. Preliminary investigation indicated that militants were behind the killing," said Hussain, and added that investigations were on to trace the culprits.

Hussain said the department was proposing to fence a stretch of 50km in the Kaziranga National Park with solar powered electric fencing to stop rhinos from straying outside.

"Wildlife experts normally suggest that the free movement of wildlife should not be obstructed. However, we are planning to erect removable fencing in certain areas through which the rhinos stray outside the park and fall prey to poachers," he said.

"We will select locations after consultations with experts and wildlife NGOs who are working in Kaziranga for conservation," he said.

The minister also said that the centre had sanctioned additional firepower for the Assam forest department and the state government would now buy 2,000 self-loading rifles (SLR), 540 carbines, 30 nine mm pistols, 25 revolvers and 10 light machine guns (LMG) to equip the forest department.

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Around 9.09 lakh hectares afforested in Gujarat in 10 years

AHMEDABAD: Around 9.09 lakh hectare area has been covered under afforestation in Gujarat during the last 10 years incurring an investment of Rs 2,934.74 crore. This was stated by Union minister of state for environment and forest JayantiNatrajan while replying to a query by RajyaSabha MP from Gujarat DilipPandya.

Pandya had asked the minister whether the Union government intends to increase the share of Central funds for afforestation. She replied that the ministry is implementing the national afforestationprogramme (NAP), which is a 100% centrally-sponsored scheme for tree plantation and eco-restoration of degraded forests and adjoining areas through people's participation. "An amount of Rs 209.79 crore has been released to Gujarat to treat an area of 1,00,175 hectares since inception of NAP in 2000-2002," she said.

"Besides NAP, the ministry is also implementing the National Mission for Green India on landscape approach with people's participation. An amount of Rs 49.95 crore has been released to 21 states under the mission for addressing preparatory activities in 71 identified landscapes during 2011-12, of which Rs 1.34 crore has been released to Gujarat for two identified landscapes. Apart from NAP, funds for afforestation are also provided to the states, including Gujarat, under other centrally-sponsored schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Integrated Watershed Management Programme, National Bamboo Mission, 13th Finance Commission, among others," she said.

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Bhitarkanika records increase in migrant water birds visit

KENDRAPARA (Odisha): Bhitarkanika National Park in Odisha played host to nearly 80,000 migrant water birds this monsoon, registering a substantial rise in the number of winged guests in comparison to the preceding year.

As against 70,105 visiting birds recorded last year, this season 79,548 avian species had made Bhitarkanika wetland spots their nesting sites.

With this, Bhitarkanika national park has once again re-established its place in the state as one of the congenial heronries for migrant water birds.

There has been a steady rise in the number of local water-birds who thronged the heronry and wetland spots here for their seasonal sojourn.

The breakup of local migrant birds arriving here in past years is 2007- 52,096, 2008- 71,383, 2009-70,484, 2010- 41,168, 2011-59,973 and 2012- 70,105.

"As the monsoon was erratic this time, we expected lesser number of local migBhitarkanika records increase in migrant water birds visit

Kendrapara (Odisha), Aug 21 (PTI) Bhitarkanika National Park in Odisha played host to nearly 80,000 migrant water birds this monsoon, registering a substantial rise in the number of winged guests in comparison to the preceding year.

As against 70,105 visiting birds recorded last year, this season 79,548 avian species had made Bhitarkanika wetland spots their nesting sites.

With this, Bhitarkanika national park has once again re-established its place in the state as one of the congenial heronries for migrant water birds.

There has been a steady rise in the number of local water-birds who thronged the heronry and wetland spots here for their seasonal sojourn.

The breakup of local migrant birds arriving here in past years is 2007- 52,096, 2008- 71,383, 2009-70,484, 2010- 41,168, 2011-59,973 and 2012- 70,105.

"As the monsoon was erratic this time, we expected lesser number of local migrant birds would visit the site. But we were proved wrong. Local migrants birds visited in large number," Divisional Forest Officer, Rajnagar Mangrove (wildlife) Forest Division, Kedrar Kumar Jena, said.

The onset of monsoon had triggered chirpy cacophony along the marshy wetland spots in Bhitarkanika national park. As the spell of rains was not uniform, their arrival was delayed this time.

Prominent among the species arriving here for nesting are Grey Heron, Purple Heron, Darter, Cormorant, Large Egret, Intermediary Egret and Little Egret.

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Greenpeace denied entry to Russian Arctic

STOCKHOLM: Russia has blocked a Greenpeace ship from entering Arctic waters where the environmentalist group was planning to protest against oil exploration activities by Russian oil company Rosneft and ExxonMobil, the group said on Wednesday.

Russian authorities had denied the icebreaker Arctic Sunrise entry to the Northern Sea Route, citing questions over the vessel's ice strengthening, Greenpeace said in a statement.

It said the Arctic Sunrise has a higher ice classification than many of the more than 400 vessels that have been granted access to the Northern Sea Route this year.

"This is a thinly veiled attempt to stifle peaceful protest and keep international attention away from Arctic oil exploration in Russia," Greenpeace campaigner Christy Ferguson said in a statement.

"The Arctic Sunrise is a fully equipped icebreaker with significant experience of operating in these conditions, while the oil companies operating here are taking unprecedented risks in an area teeming with polar bears, whales, and other Arctic wildlife," she said.

Russia's Northern Sea Route Administration, which has turned down all three applications that Greenpeace has lodged this summer, referred calls seeking comment to the Transport Ministry. The Transport Ministry told the AP in an emailed statement that the application did not comply with the most recent Russian regulations. The ministry said that Greenpeace's most recent application did not include "information about the ice belt breadth, which was the reason for the refusal."

Greenpeace said the issue had not been raised before and insisted that there is no such term in the ice class certificate that ice-breakers such as Arctic Sunrise receive.

The transport ministry did not comment on Greenpeace's allegation of the political nature of the refusal. The ministry said that it had not received any more applications from the environmental group.

Greenpeace said it wanted to "expose" the offshore activities of Rosneft and US partner ExxonMobil in the Kara Sea, north of western Siberia. The companies are preparing to begin drilling operations there next year.

Greenpeace and other environmentalists have warned that drilling in the remote and icy Arctic could lead to devastating spills, threatening fish and wildlife already under pressure from climate change.

Greenpeace activists have scaled offshore platforms in waters off Greenland and northern Russia in recent years, stunts that were carried out to draw attention to the oil industry's move into the Arctic.

US officials estimate the region holds up to 13 per cent of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 per cent of its untapped natural gas. Climate change is expected to make those deposits easier to reach as the Arctic ice cap shrinks.

The melt is also opening up Arctic sea lanes like the Northern Sea Route, where shipping activities are growing rapidly.

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Is Hilsa fish on its way out?

KENDRAPARA (Odisha): Is the delicious Hilsa on its way out?

A drastic drop in the catch of Hilsa has brought into sharp focus the endangered state of the sea fish.

With the yield progressively gowing down over the years in Odisha, the price has shot through the roof making the fish out of reach of the common people.

A kg of Hilsa is selling at as high as Rs 800-1,500 in Paradip and the adjoining market places.

The same story repeats in Bengal where a two to three kg variety of the fish has nearly vanished from the market - a trend witnessed for the last few years. Whatever small variety is available, it is prohibitively costly.

"The sea going fishermen dispose of their yield through auction in the Paradip fishing harbour," said Sumant Kumar Biswal, chief of All-Odisha Tralwer Operators' Association.

While nearly 10 per cent catch is sold off in local markets of Paradip civil township, Kujang, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur, the bulk of the produce is despatched to Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, he said.

The Hilsa from Paradip is also making its way to Sambalpur, Jharsuguda and Rourkela.

Unlike in the past, the supply to West Bengal, mainly Kolkata, has almost come to a grinding halt this year, solely due to the higher price, Biswal said.

On the other hand, traders from Vishakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Rajmahundry have shown interest in procuring Hilsa from Paradip.

The supply to Andhra Pradesh is fetching good price too. While in the wholesale the Hilsa fetches Rs 500-600 a kg in general, those despatched to Andhra Pradesh are sold at a premium of Rs 150 a kg, he said.

"The drop in the yield is unprecedented. Never before, the Hilsa catch had fallen to such a low level. Those who had pinned their hopes on bountiful catch are left thoroughly disappointed," All-Odisha traditional Fish Workers, general secretary, Narayan Haldar, said. MORE PTI CORR SKN MD RCJ 08201245 NNNN

Ramanranjan Rout, a Paradip-based Hilsa trader, said that there were reports of better yield in Dhamra (Bhadrak), Balaramgadi and Kansaphala fishing hubs in Balasore district.

The season for Hilsa catch extends from mid June upto first week of September. The emerging trends indicate that the catch is least likely to pick up in coming days, Tushar Sardar, a representative of local Hilsa traders, says.

Fishing in the sea takes up at least five to six days. Now-a-days, the crew hardly get five to 10 kg of Hilsa in one trip. Each trip on a mechanised vessel costs about Rs 10,000, including the fuel cost.

"The drop in the Hilsa yield is hitting us hard. We are compensating the Hilsa yield with other sea fish. That is forcing us to prolong our voyage. It is leading to additional cost of fuel," a seagoing fishermen Bibhisana Das said.

Additional Fisheries Officer, Paradip, Ranjit Dash, said that the factors leading to low yield in Paradip were under the scrutiny of the Marine Fisheries Department.

The last year saw 229 metric tonnes of Hilsa yield from Paradip and adjoining Kendrapara district while the preceding year the produce was 348 tons. In 2010-11, yield was 522 MT.

This speaks the volume of drop in the yield, he said. Hilsa is a sensitive fish species. And its breeding ground is mostly concentrated in the confluence of river and oceanic waters. After being bred in fresh water, the fish makes its way to seawater again by undertaking a return journey to confluence points.

Experts are of the view that increase in the pollution level along the water bodies connected to the Mahanadi river system, erratic monsoon and deficient rainfall has resulted in the disappearance of the itinerant Hilsa.

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Blackbucks rescued by forest officials

BERHAMPUR (Odisha): Three blackbucks were rescued by forest officials near Tara Tarini Temple in Ganjam district of Odisha, officials said on Tuesday.

"We rescued the animals yesterday to ensure their safety," divisional forest officer (Berhampur) S S Mishra said.

The animals will be released in the deer park at Taptapani, he said.

Though Balipadara-Bhetanai are known to be blackbuck habitats in Ganjam district, the animals are straying due to an increase in their population.

The animals are moving to Jagannath Prasad, Belaguntha, Buguda, Polasara, Kodala, Khallikote, Aska and Bhanjanagara blocks.

The census in July 2011 had put the blackbuck number at 2,181 in Aska, Buguda, Polasara, Khallikote and Berhampur forest ranges compared to 1.672 in 2008. Their number was 551 in 1998, 786 in 2004 and 1,101 in 2006.

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Sikkim becomes only state to increase forest cover

GANGTOK: Sikkim has become the only state to have increased its forest cover in the past two decades and has launched an ambitious Rs 31 crore project of plantation in additional 1,000 hectares in the next five years to further enhance its green area.

The forest cover in the tiny northeastern state has been increased to 47.34 per cent in 2013 from 43.95 per cent in 1993, the only state to achieve this.

A target has been fixed to bring additional 1,000 hectare land area under forest cover during 12th Five Year Plan in Sikkim with financial target of Rs 31 crore, an official release said.

Sikkim is also greenest state in the country. The forest cover based on interpretation of satellite data is 3,359 sq km which is 47.3 per cent of state geographical area as compared to 21 per cent of the national average.

In terms of forest canopy dense class, the state has 500 sq km area under very dense forest, 2,161 sq km under moderately dense and 698 sq km under open forests. The forest area in the state under very dense forest, moderate dense forest, open forest is 7.05 per cent, 30.45 per cent and 9.84 per cent respectively in comparison to national average of 2.54 per cent, 9.76 per cent and 8.73 per cent respectively.

Sikkim has a total 47.69 per cent of geographical area under forest and tree cover. The estimated tree cover in the state outside forest cover is 25 sq km which is 0.35 per cent of its geographical area.

The state has launched various protection and conservation measures like Sikkim green mission, ten minutes to earth and 'smriti vans', the release said.

It has 5,841 sq km total recorded forest area out of total geographical area of 7,096 sq km which is 82.31 per cent compared to 23.41 per cent recorded forest area at the national level. The recorded forest area in Sikkim is highest among all states.

The Sikkim government has spent around Rs 10 crore on green mission so far and around 45 lakh indigenous trees, shrubs, herbs, climbers, creepers, conifers and green foliages including fruits and medicinal plants have been planted under the green mission to create a store house of genetic diversity.

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European forests head towards carbon saturation point: Study

OSLO: The ability of Europe's aging forests to absorb carbon dioxide is heading towards saturation point, threatening one of the continent's main defences against global warming, a study showed on Sunday.

Forests from Spain to Sweden are getting older, packed with trees less good at soaking up the emissions blamed for rising world temperatures, mounting sea levels and increasing numbers of heatwaves and floods, experts said.

Trees are being threatened by more fires, storms and insect attacks, said the study published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Some parts of the continent have also started cutting down some forests, it added.

That all meant Europe should no longer assume its forests would be able to continue absorbing carbon emissions from factories, power plants and cars, at the same rate, it added. Forests currently soak up about 10 percent of Europe's emissions.

"These regrowing forests have shown to be a persistent carbon sink, projected to continue for decades, however, there are early signs of saturation. Forest policies and management strategies need revision if we want to sustain the sink," the Nature Climate Change report said.

Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggested saturation point could be reached by around 2030 unless governments took action, said Gert-Jan Nabuurs, of Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands, who led the study with experts in Finland, Switzerland and Italy.

Green Europe

Europe is in its greenest state for centuries, with forests probably covering the largest area since Medieval times - largely thanks to a rush of planting to rebuild the continent after the ravages of World War Two, said the report.

But data since 2005 showed the growth of those forests was now slowing as their trees got older.

Trees absorb the gas from the air and build it into their trunks, roots and branches as carbon. They lessen their absorbtion as they grow older and release the stored carbon when they die and rot.

Manmade emissions of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas that is released by burning fossil fuels, are very likely to be the main cause of rising temperatures since 1950, a U.N. panel of climate experts says.

Better management could help avert the problem of Europe's aging forests, Nabuurs said. The authors also recommended selective harvesting and more new forests.

Annemarie Bastrup-Birk, a forestry expert who works at the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen who was also an author of that report, said the decline in forest growth was mainly in France and Germany with continued gains elsewhere.

"It's still very regional," she told Reuters, warning that the Nature Climate Change study might be premature in raising concerns about a continent-wide problem.

The European Union plans to cut its overall greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 as part of international efforts to slow global warming. Each nation can count the uptake of carbon in forests towards the total.

An international report on the state of Europe's forests in 2011 said the net annual increase in living tree wood in the European Union slowed to 609 million cubic metres in 2010 from 620 million in 2005.

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Shifting lions from Gujarat: MP govt seeks Rs 7cr from Centre

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh government has sought over Rs 7 crore from the Centre to shift Asiatic lions from Gujarat to its Palpur Kuno Sanctuary under Sheopur district of Gwalior division.

The move came following a Supreme Court judgement on April 15 which held that the species was under threat of extinction and needed a second home.

"... the Supreme Court has passed final orders on the shifting of Asiatic lions from Gujarat to Madhya Pradesh directing the ministry of environment and forests to take urgent steps for their reintroduction," former Madhya Pradesh principal chief conservator of forests (Wildlife) PK Shukla has said in a letter to enviroment ministry (MoEF).

"The Hon'ble Court has set a time limit of six months from the date of issuance of court's order for reintroduction of lions."

"As the time limit is brief for such a huge task, we were eagerly expecting directions from MoEF regarding the course of action, but we have not received any directions from the central government so far," he said.

The copy of the letter, which was written on May 16, was accessed by wildlife activist Ajay Dubey via RTI.

The letter also mentioned details of annual plan expenditure of operations to carry out impending works for reintroduction of lion and had sought central assistance.

Shukla had sought grant of Rs 737.42 lakh for various works, including transportation of animals, strengthening of protection infrastructure and habitat development among others at the sanctuary, located about 300 kms from here.

Dubey said, "Four months have already passed and not much is being done on the shifting of lions. We will write to MoEF in this regard as well as to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi to shift lions as early as possible."

The wildlife activist had earlier filed a PIL demanding ban on tourism inside tiger reserves across the country and restructuring of government policies in this regard, which was granted by the apex court.

Currently, there are around 400 Asiatic lions in Gujarat's Gir sanctuary.

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Sikkim becomes only state to increase forest cover

GANGTOK: Sikkim has become the only state to have increased its forest cover in the past two decades and has launched an ambitious Rs 31 crore project of plantation in additional 1,000 hectares in the next five years to further enhance its green area.

The forest cover in the tiny northeastern state has been increased to 47.34 per cent in 2013 from 43.95 per cent in 1993, the only state to achieve this.

A target has been fixed to bring additional 1,000 hectare land area under forest cover during 12th Five Year Plan in Sikkim with financial target of Rs 31 crore, an official release said.

Sikkim is also greenest state in the country. The forest cover based on interpretation of satellite data is 3,359 sq km which is 47.3 per cent of state geographical area as compared to 21 per cent of the national average.

In terms of forest canopy dense class, the state has 500 sq km area under very dense forest, 2,161 sq km under moderately dense and 698 sq km under open forests. The forest area in the state under very dense forest, moderate dense forest, open forest is 7.05 per cent, 30.45 per cent and 9.84 per cent respectively in comparison to national average of 2.54 per cent, 9.76 per cent and 8.73 per cent respectively.

Sikkim has a total 47.69 per cent of geographical area under forest and tree cover. The estimated tree cover in the state outside forest cover is 25 sq km which is 0.35 per cent of its geographical area.

The state has launched various protection and conservation measures like Sikkim green mission, ten minutes to earth and 'smriti vans', the release said.

It has 5,841 sq km total recorded forest area out of total geographical area of 7,096 sq km which is 82.31 per cent compared to 23.41 per cent recorded forest area at the national level. The recorded forest area in Sikkim is highest among all states.

The Sikkim government has spent around Rs 10 crore on green mission so far and around 45 lakh indigenous trees, shrubs, herbs, climbers, creepers, conifers and green foliages including fruits and medicinal plants have been planted under the green mission to create a store house of genetic diversity.

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Adorable new mammal species found 'in plain sight'

WASHINGTON: Imagine a raccoon with a teddy bear face that is so cute it's hard to resist, let alone overlook. But somehow science did -- until now.

Researchers announced on Thursday a rare discovery of a new species of mammal called the olinguito. It belongs to a grouping of large creatures that include dogs, cats and bears.

The raccoon-sized critter leaps through the trees of mountainous forests of Ecuador and Colombia at night, according to a Smithsonian researcher who has spent the past decade tracking them.

But the adorable olinguito should not have been too hard to find. One of them lived in the Smithsonian-run National Zoo in the Washington for a year in a case of mistaken identity.

"It's been kind of hiding in plain sight for a long time" despite its extraordinary beauty, said Kristofer Helgen, the Smithsonian's curator of mammals.

The zoo's little critter, named Ringerl, was mistaken for a sister species, the olingo. Ringerl was shipped from zoo to zoo in the US from 1967 to 1976 to try to get it to breed with other olingos.

It would not. "It turns out she wasn't fussy," Helgen said. "She wasn't the right species."

The discovery is described in a study in the journal ZooKey.

Helgen first figured olinguitos were different from olingos when he was looking at pelts and skeletons in a museum. He later led a team to South America in 2006.

"When we went to the field we found it in the very first night," said study co-author Roland Kays of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. "It was almost like it was waiting for us."

It is hard to figure how olingos and onlinguitos were confused for each other.

"How is it different? In almost every way that you can look at it," Helgen said.

Olinguitos are smaller, have shorter tails, a rounder face, tinier ears and darker bushier fur, he said.

"It looks kind of like a fuzzball ... kind of like a cross between a teddy bear and a house cat," Helgen said.

It eats fruit, weighs about 1 kilogram and has one baby at a time. Helgen figures there are thousands of olinguitos in the mountainous forest, travelling through the trees at night so they are hard to see.

While new species are found regularly, usually they are tiny and not mammals, the warm-blooded advanced class of animals that have hair, live births and mammary glands in females.

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Antarctic ice core reveals how last ice age ended

WASHINGTON: Analysis of an Antarctic ice core has revealed that warming in the frozen continent began about 22,000 years ago, a few thousand years earlier than suggested by earlier records.

The new research shows that Antarctic warming began at least two, and perhaps four, millennia earlier than had been previously believed.

Most previous evidence for Antarctic climate change had come from ice cores drilled in East Antarctica, the highest and coldest part of the continent. However, a U.S.-led research team studying the West Antarctic core found that warming there was well underway 20,000 years ago.

National Science Foundation- (NSF) funded West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide site is in an area where there is little horizontal flow of the ice, so the data are known to be from a location that remained consistent over long periods.

The WAIS Divide ice core is more than two miles deep and covers a period stretching back 68,000 years, though so far data have been analyzed only from layers going back 30,000 years. Near the surface, one meter of snow is equal to a year of accumulation, but at greater depths the annual layers are compressed to centimeters of ice.

T.J. Fudge, a University of Washington doctoral student in Earth and Space Sciences and lead corresponding author, said that sometimes we think of Antarctica as this passive continent waiting for other things to act on it. But here it is showing changes before it 'knows' what the North is doing.

Fudge identified the annual layers by running two electrodes along the ice core to measure higher electrical conductivity associated with each summer season.

Evidence of greater warming turned up in layers associated with 18,000 to 22,000 years ago, the beginning of the last deglaciation.

Fudge said that this deglaciation is the last big climate change that we're able to go back and investigate. "It teaches us about how our climate system works", he said.

He said that it is not surprising that West Antarctica is showing something different from East Antarctica on long time scales, but we didn't have direct evidence for that before.

Fudge noted that the warming in West Antarctica 20,000 years ago is not explained by a change in the sun's intensity. Instead, how the sun's energy was distributed over the region was a much bigger factor.

He said that it not only warmed the ice sheet but also warmed the Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica, particularly during summer months when more sea ice melting could take place.

Fudge explained that changes in Earth's orbit today are not an important factor in the rapid warming that has been observed recently.

He added that Earth's orbit changes on the scale of thousands of years, but carbon dioxide today is changing on the scale of decades so climate change is happening much faster today.

The research has been published online in the journal Nature.

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Global meet on environment from Sunday

KOLKATA: With focus on environmental management in the running of organizations, an international panel of academicians, policy-makers, entrepreneurs and research scholars will come together at a conference beginning here Sunday.

The three-day meet 'Environment and its impact on society' will see participants from the Netherlands, United States, South Africa, Bangladesh and other countries at the J.D. Birla Institute here.

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Adorable new mammal species found 'in plain sight'

WASHINGTON: US researchers are announcing the rare discovery of a new species of mammal.

It is a raccoon-sized creature with a teddy bear face called the olinguito.

A Smithsonian researcher says it lives in the mountainous forests of Ecuador and Colombia where it leaps through the trees at night. It eats fruit and weighs about 2 pounds (1 kilogram).

One of them also once lived at the National Zoo in Washington where it was mistaken for a similar animal.

The discovery was announced Thursday.

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Greenpeace challenges Rosneft vessel in Arctic waters

MOSCOW: Activists from environmental lobby group Greenpeace on Tuesday challenged a ship from Russian oil giant Rosneft in the Barents Sea, in a bid to stop oil exploration work they say is harming the Arctic ecosystem.

Rosneft, which has been increasingly targeted by campaigners over its Arctic shelf exploration drive, dismissed Greenpeace's concerns and said the seismic survey was being strictly monitored for its environmental impact.

Greenpeace said in a statement that its ice breaker ship Arctic Sunrise had confronted the Rosneft-contracted vessel Akademik Lazarev which was firing deep underwater sound cannons for seismic testing.

A Greenpeace spokesman told AFP in Moscow that the Arctic Sunrise was three nautical miles from the Akademik Lazarev and that the Greenpeace crew had launched smaller speedboats that came within 100 metres of the Russian vessel.

"The smaller boats are pacing alongside the Lazarev with protest banners and are documenting its activities," said the spokesman, Aaron Gray-Block.

Greenpeace said its campaigners contacted the Akademik Lazarev's captain by radio, demanding that the vessel cease its operations and telling him that the seismic work was preparation for potentially devastating oil projects.

"Seismic testing can damage the hearing of whales and other wildlife, and even lead to fatalities," the statement quoted Greenpeace Arctic campaigner Christy Ferguson as saying from the bridge of the Arctic Sunrise.

"But the ship's captain refused to talk about this and cut off the conversation quickly," she added.

Greenpeace said that among other animals the Barents Sea is home to narwhals, bowhead whales, walruses, and polar bears.

Greenpeace said it would continue to protest against the seismic testing -- used to draw up undersea maps ahead of drilling -- over the next days.

Exploiting Russia's vast Arctic energy reserves has become a major strategic priority for Rosneft and it has signed exploration cooperation deals with BP, ExxonMobil and Statoil.

Rosneft insisted it carefully follows environmental regulations and said it was using sophisticated modern technologies that follow international regulations.

"Rosneft executes its exploration programme in the Barents Sea in compliance with all environmental requirements of the Russian law and the license agreements," it said in a statement to AFP.

"During the seismic survey, a programme of environmental monitoring and safe operations control are being implemented."

However Greenpeace accuses Western oil majors of wanting to work in Russia to take advantage of environmental protection practices that are more relaxed than in their home countries.

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Tiger prey base count in Sunderbans

KOLKATA: After finding the presence of at least 103 tigers in the Sunderbans, a figure more than the official estimates, the foresters now want to back the number with a Prey base of tigers in the Sunderbans, mostly spotted deer and wild boars, has always been under scanner. in the mangroves.

Prey base of tigers in the Sunderbans, mostly spotted deer and wild boars, has always been under scanner. To put to rest all controversy over this, the forest department has undertaken an extensive herbivore estimation in the mangroves from Tuesday.

"We are following guidelines laid down by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to estimate the number of herbivores in the mangroves. Since Sunderbans is a unique landscape, we are banking on river or boat transect method for physical enumeration of the herbivores," said Soumitra Dasgupta, field director, Sunderbans Tiger Reserve (STR).

According to him, it will be a three-phase exercise and continue till October. "This month, the exercise will end on Wednesday. Thirty forest department teams, each comprising three members, will criss-cross the rivers and creeks in the mangroves for visual detection of the prey species," Dasgupta added.

The foresters will also take the GPS location, where the herbivores will be sighted, to determine the area-specific density. Dasgupta said by the end of November they would be able to give a rough estimation of herbivores in the forests.

There were efforts earlier to estimate the number of herbivores in the mangroves. But no concrete methodology could be established based on which a reliable estimation could be given.

In 2011, scientists of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) had carried out boat transects covering an area of only 187 kilometres in the mangroves to determine the prey density. "Each boat transect was repeated for a minimum three times and a maximum six times. Prey density along the creeks surveyed in Sajnekhali and west of STR turned out to be comparatively low with only 13.3 deer per square kilometres," said their report.

But this exercise, Dasgupta said, will cover all the rivers and creeks in the Sunderbans. "During the next two phases in September and October, we will rope in NGOs whose expertise will help give a reliable estimation."

A study by scientists Ullas Karanth and George Schaller revealed that there is a natural balance between the number of prey species and tigers. "A full-grown tiger needs to eat 50 deer a year to survive. Since breeding rate of deer is always balanced by the killing rate of tigers, a block of 500 deer can provide sufficient food base, 50 deer a year, to one tiger," the study had said.

And going by this, Sunderbans needs to have a minimum 50,000 deer to sustain a population of at least 103 tigers.

The forest department is also planning to set up prey breeding centres in the mangroves. Some experts had earlier opined that there should always be a prey base analysis first before setting up such breeding centres.

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Timing a rise in sea level

Thirty-five years ago, a scientist named John H Mercer issued a warning. By then it was already becoming clear that human emissions would warm the earth, and Dr Mercer had begun thinking deeply about the consequences.

His paper, in the journal Nature, was titled "West Antarctic Ice Sheet and CO2 Greenhouse Effect: A Threat of Disaster." In it, Dr Mercer pointed out the unusual topography of the ice sheet sitting over the western part of Antarctica. Much of it is below sea level, in a sort of bowl, and he said that a climatic warming could cause the whole thing to degrade rapidly on a geologic time scale, leading to a possible rise in sea level of 16 feet.

While it is clear by now that we are in the early stages of what is likely to be a substantial rise in sea level, we still do not know if Dr Mercer was right about a dangerous instability that could cause that rise to happen rapidly, in geologic time. We may be getting closer to figuring that out. An intriguing new paper comes from Michael J O'Leary of Curtin University in Australia and five colleagues scattered around the world. Dr O'Leary has spent more than a decade exploring the remote western coast of Australia, considered one of the best places in the world to study sea levels of the past.

The paper, published July 28 in Nature Geoscience, focuses on a warm period in the earth's history that preceded the most recent ice age. In that epoch, sometimes called the Eemian, the planetary temperature was similar to levels we may see in coming decades as a result of human emissions, so it is considered a possible indicator of things to come.

Examining elevated fossil beaches and coral reefs along more than a thousand miles of coast, Dr O'Leary's group confirmed something we pretty much already knew. In the warmer world of the Eemian, sea level stabilized for several thousand years at about 10 to 12 feet above modern sea level.

The interesting part is what happened after that Dr O'Leary's group found what they consider to be compelling evidence that near the end of the Eemian, sea level jumped by another 17 feet or so, to settle at close to 30 feet above the modern level, before beginning to fall as the ice age set in.

In an interview, Dr O'Leary told me he was confident that the 17-foot jump happened in less than a thousand years — how much less, he cannot be sure.

This finding is something of a vindication for one member of the team, a North Carolina field geologist, Paul J. Hearty. He had argued for decades that the rock record suggested a jump of this sort, but only recently have measurement and modeling techniques reached the level of precision needed to nail the case.

We have to see if their results withstand critical scrutiny. A sea-level scientist not involved in the work, Andrea Dutton of the University of Florida, said the paper had failed to disclose enough detailed information about the field sites to allow her to judge the overall conclusion. But if the work does hold up, the implications are profound. The only possible explanation for such a large, rapid jump in sea level is the catastrophic collapse of a polar ice sheet, on either Greenland or Antarctica.

Dr O'Leary is not prepared to say which; figuring that out is the group's next project. But a 17-foot rise in less than a thousand years, a geologic instant, has to mean that one or both ice sheets contain some profound instability that can be set off by a warmer climate.

That, of course, augurs poorly for humans. Scientists at Stanford calculated recently that human emissions are causing the climate to change many times faster than at any point since the dinosaurs died out. We are pushing the climate system so hard that, if the ice sheets do have a threshold of some kind, we stand a good chance of exceeding it.

Another recent paper, by Anders Levermann of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and a half-dozen colleagues, implies that even if emissions were to stop tomorrow, we have probably locked in several feet of sea level rise over the long term.

Benjamin Strauss and his colleagues at Climate Central, an independent group of scientists and journalists in Princeton, that reports climate research, translated the Levermann results into graphical form, and showed the difference it could make if we launched an aggressive program to control emissions. By 2100, their calculations suggest, continuing on our current path would mean locking in a long-term sea level rise of 23 feet, but aggressive emission cuts could limit that to seven feet.

If you are the mayor of Miami or of a beach town in New Jersey, you may be asking yourself: Exactly how long is all this going to take to play out?

On that crucial point, alas, our science is still nearly blind. Scientists can look at the rocks and see indisputable evidence of jumps in sea level, and they can associate those with relatively modest increases in global temperature. But the nature of the evidence is such that it is hard to tell the difference between something that happened in a thousand years and something that happened in a hundred.

On the human time scale, of course, that is all the difference in the world. If sea level is going to rise by, say, 30 feet over several thousand years, that is quite a lot of time to adjust — to pull back from the beaches, to reinforce major cities, and to develop technologies to help us cope.

But if sea level is capable of rising several feet per century, as Dr O'Leary's paper would seem to imply and as many other scientists believe, then babies being born now could live to see the early stages of a global calamity.

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Greenpeace challenges Rosneft vessel in Arctic waters

MOSCOW: Activists from environmental lobby group Greenpeace on Tuesday challenged a ship from Russian oil giant Rosneft in the Barents Sea, in a bid to stop oil exploration work they say is harming the Arctic ecosystem.

Rosneft, which has been increasingly targeted by campaigners over its Arctic shelf exploration drive, dismissed Greenpeace's concerns and said the seismic survey was being strictly monitored for its environmental impact.

Greenpeace said in a statement that its ice breaker ship Arctic Sunrise had confronted the Rosneft-contracted vessel Akademik Lazarev which was firing deep underwater sound cannons for seismic testing.

A Greenpeace spokesman told AFP in Moscow that the Arctic Sunrise was three nautical miles from the Akademik Lazarev and that the Greenpeace crew had launched smaller speedboats that came within 100 metres of the Russian vessel.

"The smaller boats are pacing alongside the Lazarev with protest banners and are documenting its activities," said the spokesman, Aaron Gray-Block.

Greenpeace said its campaigners contacted the Akademik Lazarev's captain by radio, demanding that the vessel cease its operations and telling him that the seismic work was preparation for potentially devastating oil projects.

"Seismic testing can damage the hearing of whales and other wildlife, and even lead to fatalities," the statement quoted Greenpeace Arctic campaigner Christy Ferguson as saying from the bridge of the Arctic Sunrise.

"But the ship's captain refused to talk about this and cut off the conversation quickly," she added.

Greenpeace said that among other animals the Barents Sea is home to narwhals, bowhead whales, walruses, and polar bears.

Greenpeace said it would continue to protest against the seismic testing -- used to draw up undersea maps ahead of drilling -- over the next days.

Exploiting Russia's vast Arctic energy reserves has become a major strategic priority for Rosneft and it has signed exploration cooperation deals with BP, ExxonMobil and Statoil.

Rosneft insisted it carefully follows environmental regulations and said it was using sophisticated modern technologies that follow international regulations.

"Rosneft executes its exploration programme in the Barents Sea in compliance with all environmental requirements of the Russian law and the license agreements," it said in a statement to AFP.

"During the seismic survey, a programme of environmental monitoring and safe operations control are being implemented."

However Greenpeace accuses Western oil majors of wanting to work in Russia to take advantage of environmental protection practices that are more relaxed than in their home countries.

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Beach tourism, development killing turtles: WWF

KOLKATA: Unregulated tourism and development activity along beaches like Mandarmani and Digha in West Bengal is killing turtles including the vulnerable Olive Ridleys, say researchers.

"In Digha intense tourism pressure has resulted in the decline of turtles and based on information revealed by local people, no nesting population of Olive Ridley turtles was observed in the area in the last five to six years," says a latest study by WWF on the status of marine turtles.

East Midnapore's 60-km-long coastline, which has popular tourist beaches like Mandarmani, Digha and Shankarpur, is less than 200 km away from Kolkata.

The coastline extends to Odisha where in Gahirmatha beach and elsewhere lakhs of Olive Ridleys congregate annually for mass nesting.

The study, conducted by a team led by Punyasloke Bhadury of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Kolkata, observed that cars and other four-wheelers were being driven along the Mandarmani beach.

Such activity may have resulted in rapid decline of nesting Olive Ridleys which nest on sand, observes the ecologist in the report.

He said that rampant tourism continued to pose a serious threat to turtles which might be nesting along the coastal areas of East Midnapore.

Developmental activity associated with tourism, he pointed out, could also be affecting the nesting population, if any, in Dadanpatrabar.

Beach erosion is another serious threat to occasional nesting populations of Olive Ridleys reported by local inhabitants.

To counter beach erosion, several unplanned steps have To counter beach erosion, several unplanned steps have been taken including casuarina plantations along the coastlines that has affected turtle nesting, the report says. To prevent coastal erosion, sea walls were erected in Junput, Shankarpur and Digha coastlines.

"The construction of dykes and embankments, as evident in the Junput coastal area, could adversely affect turtle migrations and nesting in the region," says the report.

The researchers found olive ridley turtle carcasses in the beaches of Junput, Dadanpatrabar, and Shankarpur during the study in close vicinity to fishing villages.

"Interviews with the fishermen (10-15 fishermen from each village) revealed that a majority of these dead turtles were noticed during gill net trawling activities in the coastal and offshore waters in the Bay of Bengal," they said.

Fisher folk and local villagers told the researchers that olive ridley turtles caught in the fishing nets were extracted for their meat, which was subsequently sold to aquaculture farm owners for use as fish feed.

Marine turtle eggs were also collected for consumption by the fisher folks.

The prevalence of an age-old practice, where local inhabitants consumed blood of marine turtles for medicinal reasons, including that of reducing blood pressure, was revealed by fishermen.

The WWF report suggests that tourists visiting the region should be sensitised more about the marine turtles and a possibility of introducing wildlife tourism, in particular turtle tourism, can be explored.

Such an initiative could generate revenue for turtle conservation and at the same time create job opportunities for the local communities.

The researchers concluded that the future of marine turtles visiting the East Midnapore coastal belt for nesting is bleak unless conservation steps are taken.

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India's remarkable growth story clouded by a degrading environment

JAIPUR: The past decade of rapid economic growth has brought many benefits to India, but on the flip side the environment has suffered the most, exposing the population to serious air and water pollution. India's remarkable growth record, however, has been clouded by a degrading environment and growing scarcity of natural resources. Mirroring the size and diversity of Indian economy, environmental risks are wide ranging and are driven by both prosperity and poverty.

A new report by the World Bank finds that environmental degradation costs India $80 billion per year or 5.7% of its economy. For an environmentally sustainable future, India needs to value its natural resources, and ecosystem services to better inform policy and decision-making especially since India is a hotspot of unique biodiversity and ecosystems.

In a recent survey of 132 countries whose environments were surveyed, India ranked 126th overall and last in the 'Air Pollution (effects on human health)' ranking. The survey concluded that India has the worst air pollution in the entire world, beating China, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. Also, according to another recent WHO survey, across the G-20 economies, 13 of the 20 most polluted cities are in India. Simultaneously, poverty remains both a cause and consequence of resource degradation: agricultural yields are lower on degraded lands, and forests and grasslands are depleted as livelihood resources decline. To subsist, the poor are compelled to mine and overuse the limited resources available to them, creating a downward spiral of impoverishment and environmental degradation.

Over the last decade, India's strong growth has increased employment opportunities and allowed millions to emerge from poverty. Among the three striking findings of the report, environmental sustainability could become the next major challenge as India surges along its projected growth trajectory.

Besides, for an environmentally sustainable future, India needs to value its natural resources, and ecosystem services to better informed policy and decision-making. "But does growth so essential for development - have to come at the price of worsened air quality and other environmental impacts? Green growth is necessary. With cost of environmental degradation at 5.7% of GDP, environment could become a major constraint in sustaining future economic growth. Further, it may be impossible or prohibitively expensive to clean up later," reads the report.

"While the overall policies focus should be on meeting basic needs and expanding opportunities for growth, they should not be at the expense of unsustainable environmental degradation," said Muthukumara Mani, senior environmental economist at the World Bank.

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On cross-country mission for a green planet

LEHRAGAGA (Sangrur): After spreading awareness about organic farming through his documentary 'Toxic Tears', Dutch researcher Tom Deiters is on a tour to various parts of Asia to apprise people, especially schoolchildren, of the after-effects of deforestation.

A nature lover, Tom, 35, is helping save the globe from climate change and environmental pollution. He along with Thai national Om Sunisa Jamwset is looking for solutions and actions to be taken to help and care for nature. Be it remote areas of Thailand, Sri Lanka or the Himalayas, the duo is out to provide nature-based education to youth and children under the project - 'Climate change school tour Asia'.

During one of his trips to Thailand in February 2012, Tom visited Wongsanit Ashram at Ongkhark village of Siam. Om Sunisa was living there for about seven years teaching eco village design. Tom met Om at the Ashram and started working together for the cause.

At present they are in Punjab and are interacting with schoolchildren in Lehragaga, a place which has seen many farmers' suicides due to debt and a focus of his documentary.

Tom and Om have formed the NGO Next Gen Oceania & Asia, Gaia School Asia. "We are on our journey to the Himalayas and we are providing nature-based education to youth and children along our journey from Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and Bangladesh," said Tom.

Tom had last visited Punjab in February 2011 and had prepared 'Toxic Tears' highlighting the ill-effects of excessive use of pesticides and insecticides for farming.

He had also tried to highlight how the MNCs are targeting even the small farmers in making them use their products. "We are holding workshops and are teaching at local schools in different areas about climate change, pollution, deforestation and all other problems nature is facing. We also try to find solutions and actions we can take to help and care for nature", said Om Sunisa, who is a teacher and youth empowerment trainer. Sunisa, 33, teaches how to design eco houses and villages in Thailand and more than 600 students are working under her stewardship.

The duo make the children plant trees after the workshop sessions. "We have planted over 1,500 trees in three different countries, said Om. After Punjab, the duo is heading for Ladakh to work with a school in Nubra valley.

Toxic Tears

Toxic Tears, a 25-minute documentary on excessive use of pesticides, had made waves across the globe. The documentary was screened on October 23, 2011 at Glasgow's international human rights documentary film fest. It was screened at the environmental film festival, Accra in Ghana (Africa) on June 15, 2011. Amsterdam-based researcher Tom Deiters had completed the documentary in 2011. "He visited Punjab's toxicity-prone villages to carry out research on farmers' suicides and found how the excessive use of pesticides was wreaking havoc on farmers.

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58 tigers die in Madhya Pradesh in past five years

BHOPAL: As many as 58 tigers have died in the past five years due to poaching, territorial fights and old age in various big cat habitats in Madhya Pradesh.

Of the total deaths reported, nine were due to poaching and 49 were because of other reasons.

The maximum number of 18 tigers had died in 2009, followed by 13 last year, 12 in 2010, nine in 2011 and six between January and May this year, according to data of forest department given in response to an RTI application filed by wildlife activist Ajay Dubey.

Of these, three cases of poachings each were reported in 2009 and 2012, and one each in 2010, 2011 and in February, it said.

As many as five of these tigers had died due to electrocution and three others by poisoning. One tigress had died after sustaining injuries due to trap laid by poachers, the reply said.

The death of the other 49 tigers was due to cannibalism, territorial fights, accident, diseases like pneumonia and old age among others, it said.

Six tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh — Bandhavgarh, Kanha, Panna, Bori-Satpura, Sanjay Dubri and Pench — have about 257 big cats.

Tiger population in the country was estimated to be 1,706 as per 2010 data.

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Area under jhum cultivation significantly reduced in Arunachal Pradesh

PTI Aug 9, 2013, 06.23PM IST

(Jhum cultivation, also…)

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh has made a significant progress in gradually doing away with the age-old practice of jhum cultivation or shifting cultivation, which degrades the environment.

Jhum cultivation, also known as the slash and burn agriculture, is the process of growing crops by first clearing the land of trees and vegetation and burning them thereafter. The burnt soil contains potash which increases the nutrient content of the soil.

In line with the Centre's stress on conventional methods of cultivation, the state with a 72 per cent forest cover had been able to reduce the total area under jhum cultivation from 1,10,000 hectares to 84,000 hectares in the last 10 years, the state's agriculture department said.

Agriculture department adviser A K Purkayastha said, "About 8.4 lakh metric tonnes of biomass gets lost due to burning of trees resulting in a huge emission of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides and other gases. The emission has been reduced by taking up rice and maize cultivation in terraces."

Purkyastha said that the harmful effects of jhum cultivation included rapid soil erosion due to deforestation of hill tops and slopes and high runoff velocity and siltation of reservoirs, rivulets and valleys.

"The harmful effects also resulted in the rapid decrease of jhum productivity due to removal of top soil by runoff water and very little time to recuperate soil fertility due to reduced jhum cycle," he pointed out.

Sixteen districts encompassing the eight Northeastern states, including West Kameng and East Siang districts in Arunachal Pradesh, are among the recently-identified 100 most climate-sensitive districts of the country.

A study has indicated that climate change can create impediments to some traditional practices especially paddy cultivation and fish culture in the famous Apatani plateau of Arunachal Pradesh.

Purkayastha said that slashing or felling down of trees, herbs and shrubs for jhum cultivation reduces oxygen generation and burning of them pumps harmful carbon-monoxide, nitrous oxides and many other gases into the air.

Arunachal Pradesh, with over 50,000 sq km of moderate to very dense forests, is equivalent to 550 million cubic metres of growing stock or living assets (equivalent to 2000 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide) that serves as one of the major "carbon sinks" or "lungs" of the globe, Purkayastha said.

Purkayastha endorsed the Centre's policy to abolish jhum cultivation and replace it by horticultural crops, saying it was a viable alternative for boosting the local economy while protecting the environment.

The state government's attachment of top priority to agriculture, horticulture and allied sectors, would add to the national food productivity and help achieve 6.5 per cent annual growth by the end of 12th Five Year Plan set by the Agriculture Ministry, he said.

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Wildlife bill gives tiger lion's share of protection

AHMEDABAD: There are more than 1,800 tigers in the country today. In contrast, there are just 411 Asiatic lions, all of them in Gujarat. Yet the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Bill-2013 that was introduced in the RajyaSabha on August 5 includes special provisions for conservation of tiger but little for the king of the jungle. The Asiatic lions have been dumped in the list of 'other wildlife,' without mention of any specific measures for their conservation.

This has left lion experts miffed, as they feel that lions also need to be protected. Since amendments to the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 is being introduced to curb the growing trade in animal parts in the international market, sidelining lion conservation may expose the animal to poachers. The amendment bill was introduced in view of the rise in wildlife crime and after taking into consideration the recommendations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The bill proposes more stringent laws but the Centre has once again neglected to consider lions on a par with tigers in the country. Officials said that in 2007, when there was stringent checking at tiger reserves, the poachers turned towards Gujarat and killed eight lions. It was established during investigation that the lion bones were sold as tiger bones in the international market.

The bill mentions the Gujarat lions in the list of wildlife but it does not include provisions for lion conservation, as it does for the tiger. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed both the Asiatic lion and the Indian tiger in the same category -- endangered species. While Gujarat is the only home of the lion - this limits the spread of its gene pool - the tiger is found in 17 states of the country.

Section 51 (6) of the said bill states: "Where the offense relates to hunting in a tiger reserve or altering the boundaries of a tiger reserve, such offence shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years and also with fine which shall not be less than five lakh rupees but which may extend to thirty lakh rupees."

Section 51 (5), which deals with sanctuaries for other animals, including lions, states: "Where the offense relates to hunting in a Sanctuary or a National Park or altering the boundaries of a Sanctuary or a National Park, such offense shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend to seven years and also with fine which shall not be less than five lakh rupees but which may extend to twenty-five lakh rupees."

Additional chief conservator of forests and lion expert H S Singh says, "The priority of the Centre is the tiger. Lions are never given equal weightage. There is need for the same provisions for lions and tigers. The Centre has not done much for the conservation of lions; even the funds granted are not adequate. The global success of lion conservation cannot be attributed in the slightest to the Centre."

Dr Divya Bhanusingh Chavda, an expert and member of the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife, says, "I have not gone through the provisions of the new bill. But why just lions and tigers? All wildlife in the endangered and critically endangered category should be given equal provisions."

What is Pantheraleopersica?

The amendment bill does not mention all the species by their common names; instead, it uses their zoological names. In the entire bill, the Asiatic lion is referred to as Panthera leo persica. Officials said that the bill does mention tigers as tigers but when it comes to other species, it mentions them by their scientific names. Wildlife activists say that local policemen handling wildlife crime cases are unlikely to look up a dictionary to establish whether a protected animal had been harmed. In such cases, the accused would go scot-free simply because the police did not know the zoological names of the animals concerned.

Tiger, the 'national animal'

In 1972, the Centre had replaced the lion with the tiger as the national animal. The main reasons were the tiger could be found in as many as 16 states in the country and, hence, there was a need for its strict protection. The lion, on the other hand, was found only in one state. In March 2012, the Centre had said: "The Bengal tiger continues to be our national animal. There is no proposal under consideration with the government to replace it with the Asiatic lion."

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National tiger census to kick off in December

NAGPUR: In 2006, 1,114 tigers roamed the country's forests. In 2010, that number rose to 1,706. Come 2014, will Waghpurians and other tiger lovers across the country have a reason to rejoice? Or will deforestation and poaching have cast their ugly shadow over the big cats' population?

We'll have to wait until December next year for a definite answer. But the mammoth exercise to arrive at that crucial figure - the all India tiger estimation 2013-14 - will kick off around December this year.

With the last census showing presence of about 360 tigers in the Central India landscape that includes high-profile reserves such as Bandhavgarh, Kanha, Pench and Tadoba-Andhari, conservationists from the region will keenly await the final tally.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) on Wednesday announced the schedule to count tigers, co-predators, prey and their habitat in protected and non-protected areas of the country's states. The census will be carried out using the refined methodology of double sampling. This year two more states - Goa and Nagaland - have been included.

In Maharashtra, the number was 103 in 2006 and 169 in 2010. "We have pictures of 155 distinct tigers in and around protected areas in the state. As several tiger-bearing areas were left out in Phase IV, we expect the number to be around 200," said state's principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) SWH Naqvi.

The refined methodology was first used in 2006. Though the increase from 1,114 to 1,706 in 2010 was significant, it still fell way short of the figure of over 4,000 tigers estimated a decade ago. The exercise was conducted over around 7,000 sq km area. During the Phase IV estimation in 2012, the state claims to have nearly 200 tigers in its protected areas (PAs). However, the increase in state tiger numbers may be due to assessment for the first time in newly declared Sahyadri Tiger Reserve (STR) in Western Maharashtra.

However, wildlife experts say that in view of rampant poaching in the region, the actual number is hard to estimate. "The state's exact tiger census programme will be announced only after training field staff in September. We expect it to start by December or January 2014," said Naqvi.

The estimation, a collaborative initiative of NTCA and Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, is conducted every four years and was last held in 2010 in 17 tiger bearing states. Experts from outside the government system and NGOs will also be involved.

The 2013-14 exercise will be conducted in three phases with Phase I involving collection of ground data using an eight-day protocol. Phase II will include use of remote sensed data to generate landscape and related indices, while Phase III will involve use of camera traps and distance sampling for computing densities of tigers.

"The important new feature in the estimation would be use of Phase IV tiger reserve level monitoring data," an NTCA official told TOI. During Phase III estimation, expert teams from WII will visit states to monitor the process and collect data. Under the ongoing centrally sponsored scheme (CSS), 100% assistance will be provided for conducting the eight-day field protocol towards primary data collection, besides organizing orientation and training workshops.

The regional workshops for forest officials will begin from September 4 to October 1, 2013. The first workshop will be held from September 4-6 in Dudhwa for Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and UP; in Kanha from September 11-13 for MP, Maharashtra, Jharkhand & Chhattisgarh; in Periyar from September 18-20 for AP, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu; in Kaziranga from September 25-27 for Assam, Arunachal, Mizoram, Buxa; and in Sundarbans from September 30 to October 1 for West Bengal.

TENTATIVE DATES

Sept 4-Oct 1: Training of forest officials to be completed

November 2013: Training of field staff to be completed

December 2013-Feb 2014: Collection of ground data

Dec 2013 to June 2014: Camera trap and distance sampling

May to Nov 2014: Data analysis

December 2014: Release of final report

GIB census in state on Aug 25

PCCF (wildlife) SWH Naqvi has said annual exercise to monitor Great Indian Bustard (GIB) will be held on August 25. Naqvi said the exercise will be done in GIB pockets in Nagpur, Chandrapur, Nashik and Pune circles. The grassland bird is sighted when tall grass comes up owing to good rains. In Nagpur division, Kuhi, Bhiwapur and Umred forest ranges will be surveyed. A survey will also be conducted in Warora and Bhadravati tehsils, where eight GIBs are recorded. In Maharashtra, the number of GIBs is estimated to be around 25-35. The number seems to have dropped in Nannaj bustard sanctuary where earlier 35 were recorded.

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