This is a comparison through which I want to depict the amazing play of tides in these mangroved forests of Sunderbans. It is the shot of the same place, one taken in the evening when there was low tide and the other one next day morning when it was high tide. This place is adjacent to the watchtower in Sajnekhali tourist lodge and should be almost 250-300 feet away from the river bank. Actually the water goes much more inside the islands during high tide and goes back again during low tide. And this is what happens there everyday. Half of the day the land is under saline water. And when the water recedes, the muddy soil is left behind. I wonder how wildlife is thriving in these kind of harsh conditions and that too since ages. Isn't it amazing to know that we have such kind of habitats also in our beautiful country!Sunday, June 28, 2009
The Hungry Tide's diet
This is a comparison through which I want to depict the amazing play of tides in these mangroved forests of Sunderbans. It is the shot of the same place, one taken in the evening when there was low tide and the other one next day morning when it was high tide. This place is adjacent to the watchtower in Sajnekhali tourist lodge and should be almost 250-300 feet away from the river bank. Actually the water goes much more inside the islands during high tide and goes back again during low tide. And this is what happens there everyday. Half of the day the land is under saline water. And when the water recedes, the muddy soil is left behind. I wonder how wildlife is thriving in these kind of harsh conditions and that too since ages. Isn't it amazing to know that we have such kind of habitats also in our beautiful country!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
9th Awareness Campaign in Bandipur
As we reached Kekanahalla check post around 11 in the night, we were greeted by a tusker who was happily grazing at the place where we usually park our car (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQJ3tdw5mfE). So we decided to park it opposite to the check post. Rakesh stopped the car and as soon as I got down fellow volunteers started flashing torches at us. It took me seconds to realise that I am standing right next to another elephant. Jumping back to the car we parked it right outside the check post away from the elephants. When we got down and went to the cottage the guard showed us 3 more elephants who were close to our vehicle but we didn't notice them at all. How silent they can be!!!!!
Followed by a breakfast in JLR we went to check out Bala's guest house which is in the close proximity to Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. And to our surprise his property was visited by a huge male tiger couple of nights back. We checked out the pug mark right adjacent to a small stream. Also saw the Forest Dept's tusker who was in a "musth" stage. Prakash and Vasanth enjoyed a nice horse riding session. We also saw Malabar Pied Hornbill and a Indian Giant Squirrel in the property.
Well we started with our campaign. But our agenda was different this time. We planned to study the night traffic pattern and thanks to our volunteers, we could gather much data which I am listing below:
1. Trucks carrying flowers from Ooty to Banglaore ply at night. They are plucked in the evening and have to be transported over the night to keep the freshness intact.
2. SKS has 2 buses plying every night, one plying from Kerala to Bangalore and other one Bangalore to Kerala.
3. 20 Karnataka Government Buses ply every night: 10 from Bangalore and 10 from other States.
4. 9 Kerala Government Buses ply every night: 5 from Kerala and 4 from Bangalore.
5. 8 Tamil Nadu Government Buses ply every night: 5 from TN and 3 from Bangalore.
6. Thursday and Friday nights experience heavy interstate truck movements carrying Rice, Sugar and Vegetables.
7. Vegetable Trucks on Saturday from Manjari (Kerala) ply towards Hassan travelling in the night to reach morning Sunday market.
8. Trucks squeezed with 1000 of ducks/chickens travel in the night because that causes less stress for the birds and hence less number of deaths.
9. It is tough for the concerned authorities to check these trucks in the night, many travels in the night to avoid payment of Regular Marketing Committee and they can also skip checking of documents in the night.
10. When a road kill of wildlife happens, the guards are generally informed of this by the passing by vehicles. The guard checks the animal and calls the doctor. Postmortem is done and the body is either burned or buried (in case no wood available to burn it). Finally record the road kill in Majjir (we did not get this word; assume some kind of record book). It is very difficult to track the offenders.
2. SKS has 2 buses plying every night, one plying from Kerala to Bangalore and other one Bangalore to Kerala.
3. 20 Karnataka Government Buses ply every night: 10 from Bangalore and 10 from other States.
4. 9 Kerala Government Buses ply every night: 5 from Kerala and 4 from Bangalore.
5. 8 Tamil Nadu Government Buses ply every night: 5 from TN and 3 from Bangalore.
6. Thursday and Friday nights experience heavy interstate truck movements carrying Rice, Sugar and Vegetables.
7. Vegetable Trucks on Saturday from Manjari (Kerala) ply towards Hassan travelling in the night to reach morning Sunday market.
8. Trucks squeezed with 1000 of ducks/chickens travel in the night because that causes less stress for the birds and hence less number of deaths.
9. It is tough for the concerned authorities to check these trucks in the night, many travels in the night to avoid payment of Regular Marketing Committee and they can also skip checking of documents in the night.
10. When a road kill of wildlife happens, the guards are generally informed of this by the passing by vehicles. The guard checks the animal and calls the doctor. Postmortem is done and the body is either burned or buried (in case no wood available to burn it). Finally record the road kill in Majjir (we did not get this word; assume some kind of record book). It is very difficult to track the offenders.
Not bad considering one night job!!!!!
At around 2 in the night we spotted a herd of sambars very close to the last cottage. After spending some half an hour they crossed the road and vanished inside the thickets. Well I remembered this is the same place where we saw 4 tigers too!!!! Really Bandipur Rocks!!!! Some spare time in the morning gave us opportunity to do some monkey shooting :-D
Early morning was safari time for us and it was not a very eventful venture. The only first time sighting for me was Common Blue Kingfisher and few un-identified birds. Lastly we spotted a lone wild dog running across the road while on our way to JLR for breakfast.
Followed by a breakfast in JLR we went to check out Bala's guest house which is in the close proximity to Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. And to our surprise his property was visited by a huge male tiger couple of nights back. We checked out the pug mark right adjacent to a small stream. Also saw the Forest Dept's tusker who was in a "musth" stage. Prakash and Vasanth enjoyed a nice horse riding session. We also saw Malabar Pied Hornbill and a Indian Giant Squirrel in the property.
Monday, June 8, 2009
An immediate reaction to the closure of Bandipur highway - The Press Release
It was welcome news for all of us. The entire team which was a part of Wildlife Road kill Awareness Campaign and everybody else at Kenneth Anderson Nature Society were very much delighted when the breaking news "Vehicular traffic on NH-67 (Ooty-Mysore Road) and NH-212 (Mysore-Sultan Battery Road), through Bandipur National Park, will be closed between 9 pm and 6 am to help conservation and avoid accidents involving animals" was published in the media. From past 8 months under the leadership of Soumyajit Nandy (a Founder Committee Member of Kenneth Anderson Nature Society) and Rakesh Gupta (another Founder Committee Member of Kenneth Anderson Nature Society) the team was trying to create awareness among the commuters on Mysore-Ooty road passing through Bandipur Tiger Reserve about the ill-effects of wildlife roadkill due to irresponsible driving habits. The concept was developed by Center for Wildlife Studies and KANS is carrying out the campaign on ground. In that last 3 months the team were more focused on the night traffic as that was the main time when most of these accidents happen. During this period the team has encountered almost 300-450 vehicles on an average travelling both ways between 9pm and 6am. And this was the prime time when many of the nocturnal creatures were on the move, including tigers.
We at Kenneth Anderson Nature Society hope that the rule will be implemented strictly and only the prescribed vehicles should be allowed between 9pm and 6am. It has been a great initiative by the Karnataka Forest Department and successful implementation of it will help a lot for the wildlife conservation as Bandipur is considered a prime habitat of endangered Bengal Tiger. Being the flagship species and the apex predator, if we are successful in preserving the tigers, the animals down the food chain and their habitat also will get preserved to a great extent.
Shall we stop our campaign here? The answer is NO!!!!!! There will be few issues following the closure. And one of them will be increase in day traffic by many folds and that will need more and more efforts on creating awareness and educating people. And animals do move across the highway at daytime also and because of increase in traffic, chances of man-animal conflict and road kills may increase. So KANS will still carry out the campaign during the daytime and keep on trying to educate the commuters on that highway. We are looking at a long term solution of the problem and one of them is creating the awareness about the importance of wildlife among the public. We should understand that "Our very own existence depends on them"!
We at Kenneth Anderson Nature Society hope that the rule will be implemented strictly and only the prescribed vehicles should be allowed between 9pm and 6am. It has been a great initiative by the Karnataka Forest Department and successful implementation of it will help a lot for the wildlife conservation as Bandipur is considered a prime habitat of endangered Bengal Tiger. Being the flagship species and the apex predator, if we are successful in preserving the tigers, the animals down the food chain and their habitat also will get preserved to a great extent.
Shall we stop our campaign here? The answer is NO!!!!!! There will be few issues following the closure. And one of them will be increase in day traffic by many folds and that will need more and more efforts on creating awareness and educating people. And animals do move across the highway at daytime also and because of increase in traffic, chances of man-animal conflict and road kills may increase. So KANS will still carry out the campaign during the daytime and keep on trying to educate the commuters on that highway. We are looking at a long term solution of the problem and one of them is creating the awareness about the importance of wildlife among the public. We should understand that "Our very own existence depends on them"!
No more traffic through Bandipur at night
There is some more good news for all wildlife conservationists and lovers. As a gift on the World Envoirnment Day, Chamrajanagar district commissioner Manoj Kumar Meena issued a circular that specifies Vehicular traffic on NH-67 (Ooty-Mysore Road) and NH-212 (Mysore-Sultan Battery Road), through Bandipur National Park, will be closed between 9 pm and 6 am to help conservation and avoid accidents involving animals. Only two government buses will be permitted to pass through the critical tiger reserve during those hours. Authorities have made allowance for ambulances and fire engines to pass through at all times.
I guess its a welcome news for all of us and gives us a feeling that Wildlife Conservation is still not a lost cause. But again if we look into the matter minutely, there are few more issues going to crop up now. Definitely a protest by few sectors has already started and it has spread across the state border. Also there will be an increase in traffic during the day time by many fold. Now how do we tackle these problems?
May be we need to think of a long term solution. A different government in power might lift this ban on night traffic through this pristine forest full of wildlife. One solution many conservationists think of is an elevated highway through the forests in India. Given the economic conditions of a growing country like India, this may not be a feasible solution at this point of time but in longer run it will provide a concrete help. Also there has been one elevated highway of 9kms stretch coming up in Bangalore to connect the Electronic city. Country capital Delhi also has much longer elevated expressway connecting Gurgaon.
Also in my opinion the roads inside the forests should not be taken up for up gradation. This will force the vehicles to ply on a slower speed avoiding many wildlife roadkill incidents. This may sound like depriving human beings of some of the basic necessities but aren't the poor wildlife is deprived of many(we have encroached upon their habitat like anything)? So we do need to compromise at some point and work towards bringing back the equilibrium in the nature.
Anyways lets hope this rule(strictly followed) will give us some breathing space at this point of time and we can now gear up for tackling this issue on a larger and longer term basis.
I guess its a welcome news for all of us and gives us a feeling that Wildlife Conservation is still not a lost cause. But again if we look into the matter minutely, there are few more issues going to crop up now. Definitely a protest by few sectors has already started and it has spread across the state border. Also there will be an increase in traffic during the day time by many fold. Now how do we tackle these problems?
May be we need to think of a long term solution. A different government in power might lift this ban on night traffic through this pristine forest full of wildlife. One solution many conservationists think of is an elevated highway through the forests in India. Given the economic conditions of a growing country like India, this may not be a feasible solution at this point of time but in longer run it will provide a concrete help. Also there has been one elevated highway of 9kms stretch coming up in Bangalore to connect the Electronic city. Country capital Delhi also has much longer elevated expressway connecting Gurgaon.
Also in my opinion the roads inside the forests should not be taken up for up gradation. This will force the vehicles to ply on a slower speed avoiding many wildlife roadkill incidents. This may sound like depriving human beings of some of the basic necessities but aren't the poor wildlife is deprived of many(we have encroached upon their habitat like anything)? So we do need to compromise at some point and work towards bringing back the equilibrium in the nature.
Anyways lets hope this rule(strictly followed) will give us some breathing space at this point of time and we can now gear up for tackling this issue on a larger and longer term basis.
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