Prime Intention of the Blog

"People without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees and wildlife is almost as helpless".

I still remember my childhood days when I used to visit Dandeli a place where even my father started his professional career and also where my most of the relatives were staying.Even though I never brought up in Dandeli no one could stop me to go there since it was just two hours journey from my native. And during every visit I used to get the scoldings from my father and relatives since I used to spend most of the time in forests than in house.So as I grown up my visit to Dandeli became very less except twice or thrice in a year since I became busy with studies but always I had in my mind that I should contribute something to these magnificent forests which inspired me a lot to fall in love with the Conservation.So it is just an attempt from my side to create awareness to save these magnificent animals and landscapes they exist in.If this blog contributes in a small way to achieve this goal I will be the most happiest person in this world.
This blog mainly focuses towards conservation activities in and around Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve.This blog doesn't provide any information regarding tourism and its related activities in and around Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve.

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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Wildlife toll due to accidents is higher than death from poaching

Conservationists and forest department officials are optimistic that the recent orders issued by Karnataka High Court will help protect not only Bandipur tiger reserve but also other national parks and sanctuaries. They want other vulnerable roads also to be closed at night.
Karnataka High Court order on Mondayputs back traffic ban on National Highway 212 and 67 which cut through the Bandipur tiger reserve from 9pm to 6am. This is the second road where a road-closure order is prevailing for night hours. Experts say that the ratio of animal deaths due to accidents are higher compared to deaths from poaching.
“The decision of the court is a welcome move as it will help protect forests from degradation by dividing it and also protect wildlife,” said Praveen Bhargav, managing trustee Wildlife First and member of National Board for Wildlife.
“However, there are some other roads which need immediate attention. The top in the list is Karwar-Londa road- National Highway 17- which cuts across Anshi and Dandeli tiger reserves. This should be also be closed at night and alternate route of travelling from Karwar to Yellapur, the western edge of Dandeli should be used to reach Haliyal and then to Londa and Khanapur,” he added.
The forest department officials had made many attempts to protect forest areas and stop vehicular movement at night but failed succumbing to pressure. Recently, under a mutual understanding Bannerghatta National Park officials sought consent from Public Works Department, not to tar and widen the existing 3.75 meters wide and 1.78 kms long Kaggalipura—Bannerghatta Road which leads to Hosur Road.According to BNP officials this road, which cuts across the national park thrice, is an elephant corridor and is used by locals to commute to around 25 villages.
Apart from light motor vehicles, buses also ply on this stretch.In the past couple of months garbage vehicles have also been seeing plying on this stretch. The forest department is contemplating on closing down the road during the night hours.
“We will soon place a proposal before the state government to issue orders to close down roads cutting across other national parks and sanctuaries, where alternate routes are available, at night’ said a senior forest department official.
Next, the lion-tailed macaque?
Another road which needs immediate attention is Mangalore- Chitradurga road- National Highway 13- which cuts across Kudremukh national park. The alternate route is from Beltangadi, Moodigere, Chickamagalur, to Tarikere and reach Bhadravathi.

“This will save commuters two of kms. This route is extremely vulnerable as Kudremukh houses a healthy population of lion-tailed macaque and tigers, which are listed under schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The lion-tailed macaque, unlike langurs, are arboreal and will be unable to cross the roads in the absence of canopies,” said Praveen Bhargav, managing trustee Wildlife First and member of National Board for Wildlife.
Alternative routeS from Gundlupet
The alternate routes for heavy duty vehicles from Gundlupet: Vehicles plying on NH-212 to Calicut will have to take Madikeri and Kannur route instead of Wynad. And the vehicles plying on NH-67 to Ooty need take Chamarajanagar, Satyamangala, Kotagiri routes instead of Sultanbateri.

The road through Bandipur tiger reserve is the second road where a road-closure order is prevailing for night hours. The first decision was taken for Mysore-Mananthawadi road—National Highway 17D— which cuts across Nagarhole tiger reserve. After a two-year long struggle orders were issued on July 11, 2007 to close the road during night hours.
An edited version of this article can be read from the link below:

INDIA’S TIGER RESERVES AND THREATS BY LAKSHMY RAMAN

Lakshmy Raman who is the Executive Editor of Sanctuary Asia has listed out the threats for all the tiger reserves across India.And the sad part is,our DATR has got the highest number of threats compared to all other tiger reserves in the country.Please find the comments below:
Anshi-Dandeli, Karnataka: Fragmentation is a serious issue here. Six large and small dams,four hydel-power generation units and three major diversion tunnels, along with highways are within the reserves. Construction of the Aghanashini dam and one mini-hydel project have been planned. Large-scale extraction of non-timber forest produce and grazing also cause serious disturbances. The area is yet to recover from the timber extractions done in the past for paper and pulpwood industries that were set up here in the 1960s and mining activities that were carried till the late 90s. Poaching for commercial trade seems to be scaling, recently 43 otter, 23 leopard and one tiger pelts were confiscated from this area. Unlike in southern Karnataka, there is hardly any tradition of carrying out serious anti-poaching activities here,with very few cases being detected as a result. A proposal to add over 300 sq. km. of fine forests, if implemented, will greatly enhance this reserves’ value. There is still no concept of conservation management in the reserve and the forest department needs to understand the importance of patrolling and anti-poaching activities.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Elephant Census brings cheers in Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve

The South Indian elephant census 2012 which was conducted from May 22-24 in Bandipur,Nagarhole,Bhadra,BRT,Kollegal,Dandeli,Mudumalai,Wayanad and other areas,was a happy moment for the volunteers and department staff.Since Bandipur,Nagarhole forest patches which have more than 4000 jumbos,sighting of elephants is not a surprise.But in the North Karnataka forests where the elephant population is very low, has brought some cheers to the volunteers and department staff since they had a direct sighting of 31 elephants in Dandeli Wildlife Division and Haliyal division(territorial).Sightings in Belgaum,Yellapur divisions are yet to be known.Surprisingly this time volunteers' number was very high and was especially from Bellary,Dharwad,Hubli,Belgaum etc.Dandeli's well known NGO Green Umbrella Eco Club has also helped forest staff in conducting the census.


These are some of the snaps of Elephant Census in Dandeli Wildlife and Haliyal Divisions:











Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Counting the Leopards in Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve-A big challenge for Wildlife Researchers?

This information was pending with me since longtime but had forgotten.Suddenly I remembered and thought to share it.
I have always struggled to find information available on Melanistic leopards so called Black Panthers which forms 60% of the leopard population in DATR.And as far as i know there has not been any specific research work carried out to know the fascinating facts of Melanism.And also it has been a challenging work for the Karnataka Forest Department and Center for Wildlife Studies(NGO known for wildlife research mainly in western ghats) to estimate the leopard population in DATR.
Hence i want to bring out some of the facts of Melanism and challenges faced by Wildlife Researchers to estimate the Leopard population in Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve.

COUNTING THE SPOTS

Is there a reliable estimate of the population of leopards in India? The answer is a resounding NO. It is definitely not available at the national level but it is beginning to be available for a few sites. Akin to the stripe pattern for tigers which are unique for individuals, the rosette coat pattern is also individually unique in leopards. With the increasing use of camera traps and robust statistical techniques, research teams including ours at the Wildlife Conservation Society-India Program are beginning to get a handle on the leopard population at a few sites. Camera trapping data is throwing up an interesting challenge for us from the Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve. Several of our camera trap pictures of leopards from this site are of melanistic leopards which prevents us from identifying the individual as the rosette pattern is no longer distinctly visible.

Melanistic leopards are often mistakenly referred to as black panthers. Melanistic leopards are normal leopards with excessive pigmentation, technically referred to as melanism. Both melanistic and normal coloured leopards belong to the same species and the leopard population in the Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve actually comprises a mix of both melanistic as well as normally coloured leopards. Melanism is most probably an adaptation by the leopard to low-light environments like rainforests. A darker coat colour provides the animal with much better camouflage in rainforests which in turn could well enable it to be a more efficient predator.

It is about time that key populations of leopards are monitored across India. We now have excellent field techniques as well as advanced methods to analyse the data to get accurate estimates of leopard populations. Regular monitoring of leopard populations using the most advanced methods will enable us to not only track these populations but also to safeguard them.

The above article was published in Sanctuary Asia Magazine and can be read from the link below:

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Dr.Sunil Panwar -Amazing Personality behind Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve's Success Story

It was a very sad moment for everyone in Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve when we heard the news that Dandeli Wildlife Division's DCF Dr.Sunil Panwar has been transferred.Of course it is a sad moment since i never saw such a down to earth personality who nabbed many poachers,smugglers and in the same time maintained a very good relationship with staff and local people.
It will really hurt me forever if I did not mention his achievements which really helped like anything to save our DATR Wildlife.But before listing his achievements i would like to give a brief introduction about Dr Sunil Panwar .

Dr.Sunil Panwar is an IFS Officer of 2005 batch of Karnataka cadre and began his professional career in Karnataka Forest Department as Assistant Conservator of Forests at Metikuppe Wildlife Sub Division,Antharasanthe in Nagarhole Tiger Reserve and even there he nabbed many smugglers and poachers including a notorious tiger poacher Venkata just before his posting to Dandeli Wildlife Division as DCF.He then has been posted to Dandeli Wildlife Division in June 2009 as Deputy Conservator of Forests.

A start of New Era in Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve:

1.Supported and encouraged front line staff in each and every moment which gave a moral support to them to work efficiently.
2.Played a vital role in declaring Dandeli forests as a Hornbill Reserve which helped in protecting the endangered Hornbill species.
3.Increased the anti poaching activities especially foot patrolling to ensure protection for wildlife.
4.Played a major role in declaring buffer area for Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve to reduce dependency on core areas.
5.Played a major role in adding additional area to Dandeli Wildlife Division which safeguarded interstate wildlife corridor.
6.Trained front-line staff on using GPS sets,camera traps and other latest science which is crucial in wildlife research and conservation.
7.Supported staff to present research papers at state and national level.
8.Nabbed many poachers and smugglers which has resulted in reducing the poaching incidents to a great extent.
9.Educated villagers and children about the importance of Wildlife Conservation in an efficient manner.
10.Shown the importance of  NGO's and local people's participation in Wildlife Conservation.
11.Shown a new way of tourism to resorts and home-stays.
12.Because of his extraordinary effort ,DATR's Tiger Conservation Foundation's operation manual has been widely appreciated by Dr.Rajesh Gopal,Member Secretary of NTCA and got published in STRIPES magazine.
13.DATR got huge applauds in Global Tiger Recovery program for educating villagers on wildlife conservation.
14.Listed in Very Good Category of MOEF's Management,Effectiveness and Evaluation program.
15.Because of his constant motivation and support, talents like C R Naik got recognized at the state level by receiving prestigious Jumbo Wildlife Awards 2011.
16.Conducted a Wildlife Forensic Workshop with the help of Traffic India and WCCB for officials from different departments. 
17.Because of his effort Mumbai based NGO Wildlife Conservation Trust has donated Rapid Rescue Unit to Dandeli Wildlife Division which is essential in wild animals' rescue operations.

It is very happy to know that Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve which was lagging in terms of protection and management could able to achieve such great achievements within a short period and is mainly because of Dr.Sunil Panwar.Eventhough he is working at some other place we all will remember his work always and need his suggestions at each and every moment.
On behalf of everyone I heart-fully wish all the best to Dr.Sunil Panwar for his future posting as DCF at Bidar and I am sure that even there he will gain very good name and fame.