The conflicts between human and big cats in India have been discussed and highlighted many times here. Despite many programs and money purred into this matter, the conflicts are getting in fact deeper with the ‘National Big Cat’ and the king of the jungle entering the scene. Yes, now its tiger that is directly confronting the human settlements in India creating panic in both wildlife lovers and common public.

The tigress that fell victim to AK-47 bulllets

During the last week of November, an adult tigress strayed out of the Kaziranga National Park of North-East India which is home to around 90 tigers.  The tigress created panic among the habitats living near by Kohora range of the National Park. The tigress not killed cattle of the villagers creating fear among all.

On 5th December, the tigress killed a pig of one villager and started eating in near by bush. It was witnessed by the villagers and informed the forest authority. The authority kept the tigress under notice and prepared to tranquilize the full grown tigress. While the villagers informed the police and also tried the flee it with crackers. The noise made the tigress nervous and cross the highway towards the other side of the jungle. In the mean time a team of Assam police also arrived at the location. The crowd created panic in the tigress too, and it started roaring. After sometime the tigress again came out and this time attacked one journalist and also one police personal armed with AK-47. He fired at the tigress on self defense. Injured with bullets, the tigress became weak and took a back step. But then another police personal fired at the tigress with his AK-47 and rained it with bullets. The tigress had no choice this time but to surrender to death.

Another sad incident! The death of the Royal bengal Tigress brought back peace into the locality among the panicking villagers. But the story shouldn’t have ended with 14 bullets inside a beautiful animal, in fact the National animal of India. The animal could have been saved with proper planning and with a little more effort. The bullets of an AK-47 should not be a solution or answer to the panic among the villagers.

This clearly proves how inadequate are the process in place to stop the human-animal conflict in the region. Its a now a grave matter, because after so much hype and money flown into the tiger projects, there are not sufficient actions are in place.

Hope as the “King of the Jungle” is involved now, the conflicts will get more attention. Unfortunately the poor villagers around the forests have suffered so much loss and more than that so many beautiful and precious animals have already lost their lives due to the negligence of a few authorities.

A good news for the Dolphin lovers as Bangladesh is going to set up a protected area specifically for the river dolphins in the region. The Bangladesh forestry department took the decision of setting up a Dolphin Sanctuary after a study that found three areas in the Sundarbans mangrove forest are home to large populations of Irrawaddy and Ganges river dolphins.

Irrawaddy Dolphins

The areas identified for the Dolphin sanctuary are the river channels at Dhangmari, Chandpai and Dudhmukhi in the eastern Sundarbans. The channels and adjoining areas are home to hundreds of endangered Irrawady and Ganges river dolphins. Thousands of fishermen make their living in that region by catching fish and shrimps. Although dolphins are not targeted directly, they often become entangled in the fishing nets and die by the dozen every year. It is decided to ban ban fishing in these channel areas.

The river channels at Sundarbans in both India and Bangladesh are considered as key hotspots for dolphins. It is home to at least 6000 Irrawaddy dolphins. It is also home to rare Gangetic river dolphins. In these delta areas the flat-faced dolphins are known to converge. Bangladesh has the highest concentration of them.

The Dolphin Sanctuary will be one of the pioneer in Asia to protect Dolphins. It will be interesting to see what measure will the government take to improve the socio-economic standards of the region as by declaration of protected area, the fishermen will be affected.

Indus river blind dolphins which are popularly known as Bhulan or Indus Susu, are one of the rarest mammal species in earth. They are also the only the only species in the world to have eyes without lenses! Instead, they have sound imaging skills called echolocation, which is a very sophisticated sonar system that helps them swim through the muddy rivers. This is the reason why they called blind Dolphins.

But this marvellous species in endangered and only few hundreds (less then one thousand) left in the Indus river.

River Dolphin

The protection of Bhulan’s is in a threat recently when the news of the deaths of such six rare dolphins within the last month comes up. According the the Pakistan wildlife sources, it happened mainly due to low water level and contaminated water.

Authorities are carrying out investigations to determine the real cause behind the killing of blind dolphin. They said that water levels are very low in the Indus River now due to which a small amount of poisonous chemicals can kill a large number of fish.

Initially, fishermen of the area have been alleged as using poisonous chemicals to catch fish, which contaminated the river water.

Khalid Khan, a fisher man of 28, accused the toxic waste released as the reason of the killing of fish in the Indus River.

“Poisonous release of factories from southern Punjab is the real culprit as a large amount of poisonous waste from the factories pollutes the rivers, which are tributaries of the Indus River,” Khan said.

Ranthambore National Park of India has a great 2011 start with the news of 9 tiger cub births.

Ranthambore, which is one of the largest National Park of India, is widely known for its Tigers. The Sanctuary was one of the initial reserved area to come under Indian Governments ‘Project Tiger’ in 1973. In 80s the park saw increase of tiger population slowly reaching 44 in 1989. But this critically endangered species saw a decline of population in 90s and later. The main reason for the population decline is attributed to poaching and habitat loss. In 2005 the official survey reveals only 24 tiger in the park. With tremendous efforts from wildlife activists and forest department, the population again soared to around 34 in 2008. According to the census conducted in the core division in 2009, revealed there were 14 males, 16 females and 10 cubs.

Tigress with Cubs at Ranthambore

But 2010 brought no good news for Tigers in Ranthambore with around 10 tiger lives lost. Due to tiger population growth and habitat shrinking, there were fierce competition among the tigers for food and territory. Apart from deaths due to fights, a few of them found staryed away from the National park. Adding worse to the scenario, in March 2010, two tiger cubs were poisoned by local villagers!

Though 2010 was not a very good year, 2011 brings really joy to the Ranthambore National park with news of nearly 9 or more new born cubs.

A trap camera caught three cubs recently in the Indala region of the park. Though the news of the birth of the cubs at the Indala region came sometime back, forest officials could not confirm it as pictures were not available. According to Rajpal Singh, member of the state wildlife board, the Indala tigress was the same one that gave birth to three cubs in 2006. Unfortunately, none of those survived.

Since last September, five cubs have been caught on camera while forest guards spotted two more tigress which are said to be lactating, park sources said.

However, sources said that there are four more cubs have been spotted in separate areas in the park. These four cubs are in two separate areas of the park. But there is no official confirmation on them as of now.

We hope this time the cubs will grow up with good health and authorities will take proper measure for this increasing population.

Alka, an elephant at the Orang National Park brings joy to wildlife animal lovers, as she created a history by giving birth to twins in the sanctuary on 15th December. Alka has engaged at the National Park to ferry thousands of tourists inside the wildlife sanctury for several years. Orang is situated in Assam, North-East India. The National Park, aka Rajib Gandhi National Park, is located on the north bank of the river Brahmaputra and around 150 km west of the capital city of the state Assam. It is home to rich flora and fauna, including the Great Indian One-Horned Rhinoceros, Pigmy hog, Elephants, Wild buffalo and Tigers.

Alka with her one day old little twins

The twin elephant calves, both female, were seen enjoying the warmth of their mother as Alka’s mahout Trailokya Bishya, who passed a sleepless night to protect the twins from the tigers, watched over them.

“I was on ambush duty in a camp a little away. Around 3 a.m. I heard Alka yelling in labour pain. At crack of dawn, when I reached her I was overjoyed to see that she had already given birth,” Mr. Baishya told. He lit a fire, preparing to guard the mother and the twins. Mr. Baishya was vigilant against possible tiger attacks. The 80-sq. km. park has an estimated 16 Royal Bengal Tigers.

Twins are extremely rare in the domesticated world of elephants. It is rare because a large-bodied animal would have to invest significantly higher effort to obtain nutritious food for twin foetuses. It is more likely to occur in wild elephants who have access to both wild food as well as cultivated crops which are more nutritious.

India has recorded Elephant twins birth more than a decade ago in Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary in Tamil Nadu. 2010 turns out to be an exceptional year for Elephants as this is the second report of Elephant twins in the same year. Early this year, Phang Thong Khun, an elephant from Thailand gave birth to male twins.

“This illustrates how much we have to learn about even the large, common inhabitants of deep pelagic communities,” said Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

“When the image came onto the screen, everyone said, Oh my gosh, what’s that?” recalled marine zoologist Laurence Madin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

“This is an intermediate species between the benthic ancestors — things living in the mud on the seafloor — and other species that live in the water column but never go to the floor,”  said Karen Osborn, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. ”I was really excited,” Osborn added,  “It was so tantalizing because the animal was so different from anything previously described, with the fantastic headgear. I would estimate that when exploring the deep water column, more than half the animals we see are undescribed or new to science.”

“Squidworm

These are some of the examples of excitements among the scientists after the discovery of a new species under ocean water named as Squidworm. This species is neither a squid nor a worm. It is an especially exciting discovery because the species could represent a missing link, or transitional species.

Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the University of California, Santa Cruz have recently discovered the squidworm at around 3000 meters under ocean water, just above the ocean floor. The scientists used a remotely operated submersible robot to find squid. The species is named asTeuthidodrilus samae, or “squid worm of the Sama”—the Sama being a culture with ties to Philippine islands not far from the discovery site.

The Squidworm grows up to 9.4 centimeters (3.7 inches) in length. Swimming upright, it navigates by moving two body-length rows of thin, paddle-shaped protrusions that cascade like dominoes. It has ten tentacles as long or longer than its body stick out of its head, along with six pairs of curved nuchal organs that allow the squidworm to taste and smell underwater.

The Cardamom Mountains rain forests are one of the largest, isolated and still mostly unexplored forests in southeast  Asia. This mountain range has been carefully keeping species and lives unkonown to outside world due to lack of proper research. But there are recent efforts in this direction by researchers and sceintists to discover this hidden treasure of nature. One such successful mission is reported yesterday by Fauna and Flora International (FFI). The organization has discovered a new unique species which is a carnivorous pitcher plant. It is named as “Nepenthes holdenii“.

Nepenthes Holdenii

In 2008, British photographer and biologist, Jeremy Holden,contacted the first author to study an apparently undiagnosed Nepenthes that he observed on an isolated peak from the Cardamom Mountains in Cambodia. This taxon was first observed during field surveys conducted for Fauna & Flora International (FFI) in the Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary in February 2006. Populations were seen in four different locations around a single mountain system, all in dry, steep terrain characterised by open areas of tall grasses and pine trees at 600-750 meters above sea level. In August 2009, French botanist F.S. Mey visited Cambodia together with J. Holden in order to study and collect the unidentified Nepenthes. During this expedition, a second population of the taxon was found on a neighbouring peak. Studies of the two populations in situ emonstrated that the taxon possesses a unique combination of features that distinguish it from all other known Nepenthes taxa. Comparison of wild plants and herbarium material confirmed that this is an undescribed taxon. It appears to belong to a group of closely  related Indochinese species that share similar ecological habitats. This new species is named as ‘Nepenthes holdenii’. The description of the new taxon Nepenthes holdenii brings the number of Cambodian Nepenthes species to five.

The large red and green pitchers that characterize ‘Nepenthes holdenii’ are actually modified leaves designed to capture and digest insects. The pitchers can reach up to 30 centimeters long. The carnivorous strategy allows the plants to gain additional nutrients and flourish in otherwise impoverished soils. A further unusual adaptation seen in this new species is its ability to cope with fire and extended periods of drought. Cambodia’s dry season causes forests to desiccate and forest fires are common. Nepenthes holdenii exploits the clearings caused by these regular blazes by producing a large underground tuber which sends up a new pitcher- bearing vine after the fires have passed.

This discovery has once more proved a need of deeper research into the Cardamom Mountains to find the treasure of biodiversity.

New research backed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reveals European bats to be a major conservation success. Bats are the only true flying mammal in the Earth and there are more than 1,1oo known bat species across the planet. They play very crucial role  in insect control and pollination.

With a majority of bat species in Europe stabilising or increasing in number, European bats are well on the way to achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goal 7 on Environmental Sustainability, which aims for a significant reduction in the rate of species loss by 2010.

European Bat

This bucks the trend in global conservation targets, which are currently being discussed in Nagoya. World governments agreed eight years ago at a UN summit in Johannesburg to reduce the rate of species loss by 2010 but in the majority of cases, the pledge has not been met. This is mainly due to a lack of conservation action in the field, which is essential in protecting vulnerable species.

Among the 26 bat species in western and central Europe, increasing or stable population trends have been reported for at least 14 species, while only two species have shown a decline. (Reliable data is not yet available for the remaining species).

The credit of this success largely goes to legislation and treaties that promotes specific conservation measures. These include the UNEP-administered Agreement on the Conservation of Populations of European Bats (EUROBATS), the Berne Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Council of Europe) and the European Union’s Flora Fauna Habitat Directive.

The Tiger, King of the Jungle, may be the Mascot of the CommonWealth Games currently on play in Delhi, India, but there is real sad news from real Tiger world in the country. Bannerghatta National Park of Bangalore is artifficial home to tens of tigers. But recently most of the big cats in the park were infected with unknown bacteria causing Typhoid like disease. Last month, there were reports of four tiger deaths. Out of these four, two claimed by old age, but rest two were untimely and caused by the infection. The infection spread across as many as 16 tigers. Unfortunately despite doctors all efforts, one more four year tiger, Minchu, died on 5th of October bringing more sorrow to the park.

“The four-year-old tiger Minchu died this morning due to kidney failure though it was recovering from the typhoid causing bacteria. It seems to have succumbed to toxic remnants in the kidney,” said zoo assistant director B.C. Chittiappa. Minchu was kept in isolation to prevent its infection from spreading to other 41 tigers, including 15 of them under treatment for the dreaded bacteria in the zoo. The rest of infected tigers are showing recovery, are still kept in strict observation and isolation.

Tiger is not only the national animal of the country India but also it has attracted attention recently for massive campaigns going on to save the species. It is very unfortunate to lose so many lives during such a short span when their total number in the country stands at just above 1000. We wish quick recovery of rest of the rare big cats in the Park.