In 1919, Scotish Botanist William Roxburgh, who is considered as the father of Indian botany, discovered a very rare palm tree endemic to the Bengal region of India. The palm tree grows around 40 feet tall and the most interesting fact is that is seeds only once in it’s lifetime. It flowers only at around the age of 80 and after seeding it dies. Roxburgh idetified this species as very rare as very few instances of this tree was found in wild. It was also found that the flower structure is extraordinarilly large when it flowers. The palm tree was scientifically named as “Corypha Taliera“. Locally it is known as Tali Palm in the bengal region.

The Talipalm is solitary in nature, gorws moderately but becomes massive in size. It gorws till 80 years without producing a flower. At the end of it’s life, the flowers grow at the top of this tree and the leaves below it slowly dries out. Finally the trunk with millions of golf-ball sized seeds lives on for sometime. The seeds rains down for months producing thousands of saplings. With further studies it revealed this palm tree is really extra-ordinary. It currently hold two records in world’s botanical world. It holds the record of the largest flower structure in the world along with another palm species “Corypha umbraculifera”. The other record is of the largest palmate leaf which is 6 m. (20 ft.) wide.

The Largest Flower Structure in the world on the top of the Last Tali Palm in Wild

Due to the Tali Palm’s (Corypha taliera) rare nature, it was not known the local people of Bengal much. In 1979, a Tali Palm tree , located in a village in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, India, had begun flowering. The locals fearing that it was a ‘ghost palm tree’ due to its horn-like flowers. Botanist Shamal Kumar Basu came to know about its existence and tried to motivate local people but failed. Local fearful people chopped it down before the flower could set seed. It was the last known wild specimen of the Palm tree reported in last 30 years. Fortunately, there are some specimens of the tree preserved in the Howrah botanic garden in India.

Shamal Kumar Basu visited Bangladesh in 2001, when he saw the Tali Palm tree in the Dhaka University campus. This tree was identified as of the genus “Corypha” in 1950 by Professor Md. Salar Khan from the Department of Botany,Dhaka University. At that time he failed identify the exact species of the plant but realized it to be a rare species. There were construction going on the University campus, so Khan appealed to the higher autority to take special steps to preserve this tree and not to cut down. Since then the tree was preserved well in the Vice-Chancellor residential quarter. When Botanists visited the campus, he immediately identified it as “Corypha Taliera”. This Tali Palm in the campus became legend as it was the only naturally grown Tali Palm tree known in the world.

The last naturally Grown Tali Palm(Corypha taliera) In Dhaka

In 2010 January, the Tali Palm in the Dhaka University finally flowered and dried out naturally. Some of the seeds were preserved and let others plant naturally. Thousands of tali palm sapling grew naturally under the mother tree and around 500 grown artificially. The effort by various organizations to save this rarest Plam tree brought fruits. Now the saplings are planted in various locations and maintained properly. Some of the seeds from the mother tree were also put on research to find any medicinal value of it. The primary results are exciting as it can be used for the treatment of can be used in curing diseases like typhoid and diarrhoea. It also may be used as anti-ageing but needs to be confirmed yet.

The “IUCN Red List” has listed “Corypha Taliera” as “Extinct from Wild”. But the botanists in Bangladesh and in India are doing good to preserve the saplings. Currently there a number of grown Tali Palm in the Howrah Botanical Garden of India and we will have to wait till these tress become around 80 years old to flower.

<h4 class=”shadow-bringer shadow”>Bar-headed Goose</h4>The birds are the most expert migratory animal on earth and they can overcome any obstacles on their way even it is the highest obstacle on earth, the Everest. Yes, it is very true for one migratory bird, Bar-headed Goose. This Asian goose is now considered as the highest flying bird in the world.

The Pretty Bar Headed Goose - Photo Wikipedia

A recent GPS survey reveals that the bar-headed Goose starts migrating from their breeding home at central Asia (Mongolia) and covers  more than 5000 km in two months to reach the low lands in India. These low lands are grazing grounds for the birds in winter as the grass on the high altitude dry up. The total migration takes around two months, as they take frequent stop.

The most interesting and puzzling thing about their migration is that they cross the highest mountain range on Earth, the Himalayan, in a single flight within eight hours. They choose the toughest and highest route of the Himalayan crossing the Everest to reach their destination. The GPS study records that the geese fly over 6,500 meter (22000 feet) in the Himalayan range. But there are reports of the birds flying over the mount Everest at around 30000 feet.

Bar Headed Goose - Anser Indicus @BBC photo

Another very contrasting fact about the Bar-headed bird is that unlike other high flying birds that reach high altitude by soaring and gliding up, the Bar-headed goose reaches the extra-ordinary height by smartly flapping their wings. This is the reason why these geese don’t depend on the tail-wind on the Himalayan range, in fact they deny the winds and starts climbing up high altitude when the wind blows out. The bird’s body is specially made to meet this exceptional capability.  More red-blood cells and more capillaries than normal birds deliver their muscles more oxygen than others.

Though their flying and migration nature is confirmed, yet it is still not known clearly why these birds take such a hard route. There are lower passes available in the Himalayan range, that could have given them easy passage.  A hypothesis suggests that the geese choose to fly over rather than around the Himalaya is that the birds have been doing so for millions of years—long before the mountains reached their current heights.

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.

In April 2010, the rangers of Cat Tien National park could not save the female Rhino that fell prey to poachers. After this killing, there were no sighting of any Rhino in the park, nor any footmarks, dung. The analysis of all the dung samples collected during 2009-2010 revealed that it was of the same Rhino that was killed in April, 2010.

The rarest Rhino in the world got rarer, according to the annual report by International Rhino Foundation (IRF).  The report declares Javan Rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus) to be extinct in Vietnam and officially Indonesia is only country where it now exists in wild.

The Javan Rhino, also known as lesser One-horned Rhino, is ‘Critically endangered’ in IUCN Red list and not more than 44 individuals are surviving in wild as per the IRF 2010 report. All 44 individuals are found only in the Ujang Kulon National Park of Indonesia. The report says, “Sadly this year, we believe that the last Javan Rhino was poached in Vietnam’s Cat Loc Reserve. In Ujung Kulon, best survey estimates, backed up with camera-trap data, suggest that no more than 44 animals remain in the park. Of these, we suspect that there are only four or five females with breeding potential. ”

Javan Rhino Poached to Extinction in Vietnam - Photo Reuters

Indonesia is the last hope for the Javan Rhino, the rarest large mammal in the world. The utmost priority should be given to the protection of the existing population in Ujung Kulon and also expanding the current population to a second habitat for giving more chances of survival to the species.

Poaching is the greatest threat for the Javan Rhino. The Rhino horn brings extraordinary value in the black market which appeals the poachers easily. In China the horn believed to be cure of many ailments including heart disease, cancer, etc. This baseless believe has been killing Rhinos all over the world. The last  Javan Rhinoceros of Vietnam was killed by poachers only in April 2010.  It was shot at leg and horn hacked off in the Cat Tien National Park.

This One-Horn Rhino species was widely found in the south-east Asia region just a century back. During Vietnam war, due to easy availability of powerful weapons, Rhinos were killed in large number for their horns in Vietnam. In post war time, the species was believed to be extinct from Vietnam. But 1988, a hunter killed a Javan Rhino in the Cat Tien region of Vietnam. This gave a ray of hope and proved that the species was not extinct in the region.  This leads to a survey of the Cat Tien National Park in 1989 that found at least 15 Java Rhino specimens along the  Dong Nai River. Despite this discovery, the protection measures in the Cat Tien region was not proper and the population kept on declining majorly due to poaching. In 2000, experts pointed out that the Javan Rhino population in Vietnam might not ever recover. The population stood at just around 3-8, mostly consisting of female without any adult male capable of breeding.

In April 2010, the rangers of Cat Tien National park could not save the female Rhino that fell prey to poachers. After this killing, there were no sighting of any Rhino in the park, nor any footmarks, dung. The analysis of all the dung samples collected during 2009-2010 revealed that it was of the same Rhino that was killed in April, 2010. This is how the story of Javan Rhino ends in Vietnam. The Rhinos in Cat Tien region was a subspecies of Javan Rhino, Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus , now extinct. Despite of various protection efforts by various organization this rare species also became the victim of human activities. Very unfortunately the Vietnamese Rhino joined the long list of similar animals that vanished from the beautiful nature.

One of the very scary fact about the Javan Rhino is that captive breeding has not been successful for the animal in zoos till now. There is no captive population in existence to support the wild population. So, now all eyes will be concentrated on the Indonesian Javan Rhino.

“Nature evolves” and “Technology advances”. When we say nature, we mean our whole planet, various organisms living in it, the sky, stars and so on. But if we look closely, Nature is nothing but an advanced technology, and each of those mentioned above are nature’s product. Nature runs on an extremely advanced technology that is out of human reach and understanding till now.

The product life cycle of nature such huge, ranging millions of years, that human can’t imagine to ever develop that technology. Human used the natural technology, tried to learn from it and developed their own technology. As normal human nature, they always intend to create techniques to achieve something in a fast and faster rate. So our technology is very attractive and produces products instantly. We use nature’s technology to tame nature itself.

Blend of pure nature with human technology - Irrigation used by some tribe

We have defeated nature and tamed it to some extend to fulfill our needs and luxury with our technology. So is our technology more advanced than nature’s? The simple answer is NO.

Recently we have realized how human technology is destroying the nature.Our technology is polluting the nature, in turn which is harmful to the human race. This realization is only partly true, because we may think we are destroying nature, but in reality, the nature’s technology is too robust. We may change the environment in the planet, but nature will still be evolving in its own way. Nature is highly adaptible it will take its own path. May be our whole human race and technology will be taken to an end by nature while changing the path.

We have imaginations of settling down in outer space in a different environment after a complete destroy of earth. But actually are we advancing that fast? Are we not producing destructive technologies in a much faster rate than such advancement? We will only realize our mistake in a natural way if we bring ourselves closer to the nature but not to the human technology.

Almost half a century back, in 1954, in the remotes and dense jungles of Angola, Jose (Joseph) Fenykovi first saw the track of largest animal ever recorded in human history. It was an unbelievably big elephant track by the muddy shore of a lake.

Joseph Fenykovi, Hungarian-born resident of Spain, was an engineer and big game hunter. Every Year, Fenykovi and his wife would abandon Europe and take off for their 1,000-acre ranch in Angola to start their big-game sport spanning for three months.

It was Fenykovi’s sixth expedition to Africa when he first discovered the huge elephant track. When he measured the track, it came out to be 3 feet, a foot bigger than the largest elephant trophy recorded till date. At that moment he knew I knew that he was looking at the spoor of probably the biggest animal living on the surface of the earth. But due to lack of inventory and other resources he left that expendition without chasing that big monster.

On Novemeber 1955, Jose Fenykovi returned to Angola with all inventory to chase the never before-hunt game. On November 9, Fenykovi reached the same lake where he had seen the footprints last year. On 12th of November, they found a real big track around three feet in diameter. Thery were lucky to trace the elephant exactly a year later at the same place.

Finding the track of the biggest living land animal in the planet, Fenykovi didn’t delay chasing the same. Within hours his team chased the Elephant along with another large bull.

In Fenykovi’s word, “They were quite calm, lolling under some tall trees, slowly moving their huge ears in a fanlike motion. The smaller was an enormous beast, but my elephant was beyond my imagination. A real monster.”

In no time the hunters charged both the bulls. Six bullets from .416 Rigby was not enough to submit the largest elephant. Both the elephants ran away in moments from the view of the hunters.

Jose Fenykovi after killing the Largest Elephant

Fenykovi penned down these last moments of falling his elephant like this: “Before the echo of our shots died away, pandemonium started in the jungle. The crash and cracking of broken trees and branches sounded like an artillery battle. We did not stop to listen, but turned and ran as hard as we could for open country. Deep in a jungle was no place to be with two injured elephants you could not see and with a variable wind that could give our position away at any moment.

When we got 50 yards outside the thicket, we turned and waited for the chase. The wind by now was at our backs, carrying our scent straight to the great beasts. But the attack did not come. Inside the jungle the crash and tear of trees continued. We started to run around the thicket, which was fortunately small- about a mile and a half in circumference—keeping a good 50 or 60 yards from the edge of the forest.

This way we reached the place where we had left our jeep. I saw, to my astonishment, not 10 feet from the jeep the bloody tracks of the big elephant. He had passed the jeep only a few seconds before.

A little way from the jeep we found the tracks of the smaller beast who had taken off in the opposite direction from his larger companion. Fortunately for us, the two monsters had separated and now the job was not quite so dangerous. We had only one elephant at a time to worry about and he (the big one) had six .416 bullets and one from the .375 in his vitals.

We followed his trail through low bushes for a good three miles. Two or three times we got close enough to see him, but not in time for another shot. Finally the bloody trail entered another wooded thicket. Now we could not miss it even if we were blind. It was 4:30 p.m. Mario and I stopped with the jeep at the edge of the jungle. Francisco and Kukuya lunged into the thicket like a couple of bloodhounds on the scent. They had orders to locate the beast and call us. Mario and I both thought that with seven heavy-caliber bullets in him, losing blood and winded from a hard six-mile run in terrific heat, our elephant could not last much longer.

We waited for 20 minutes, and there was no word from Francisco and Kukuya. Mario asked me if he could go in to look for them. I hesitated. I thought we should both go. I like to finish off my trophies myself. But I was at the end of my endurance, after having been on the go since 5 a.m. Mario, who is 20 years younger than I am, argued that if we did not finish him off quickly it would soon be too dark to follow him, and then we might lose him altogether. I told Mario to go ahead. He disappeared like a cat into the jungle. Taking up a stand by the jeep facing the trees, I prepared to defend myself if the elephant should charge.

I waited a little over half an hour, growing ever more impatient but knowing it would be folly for me to go into the jungle alone. This was probably the hardest part of the whole thing – the waiting. All of a sudden I heard a shot from the .416, followed by another, and then two more: altogether four shots in rapid-fire succession. Afterward there was complete silence.

It did not surprise me that Mario had used four shots to finish off the beast. A fallen elephant can be one of the most dangerous animals in the world. There are many cases recorded in the history of big-game hunting when an elephant, knocked down and apparently dead, has suddenly got to his feet, or even without rising has killed the unwary hunter with a convulsive sweep of his trunk.

I awaited the arrival of one of the trackers with news. Instead, after about five minutes, I heard two more shots from the .416 and three from the smaller rifle. That surprised me, and I began to worry over having let Mario go in alone. I could hardly believe that the elephant, with six bullets of 400 grains each from the .416 and one 300-grain bullet from the .375 in him, had needed six more from the big gun and three from the smaller one to finish him off.

Finally, Kukuya burst out of the jungle running and, as he got within earshot, he gave voice to the brief but electrifying announcement:

Fallen!

There the enormous elephant lay on his side, amidst the carnage of blood, broken trees and trampled brush that had marked his last struggles. When I let my eyes roam over his vast expanse I could hardly believe that any animal could be so big, and I understood why it had taken so many heavy-caliber bullets to finish him off.I must confess the shock we got when I put the tape across my elephant’s foot and found that it measured, instead of the three feet of the spoor we had been following all day, only a little over two feet. The measurement was still a world record, but it was a foot short of the track size I had first noted a year before beside the lake. When we began to examine the body, we soon understood why: Besides the 16 bullets from our own rifles, we found a strange slug embedded in the left front leg. It was not a modern bullet, but a piece of iron shot, the kind used in old muzzle-loading flintlock rifles. It had crippled him in the left front leg, so that the step he took with that foot was shorter than normal. As the animal ran, the left hind foot partially superimposed its print over the front one, making it look much bigger than it actually was. ”

Fenykovi’s record of the Elephant which broke the previous record of Lawrence G. Thaw was like this:

Height From ground to withers, 13 feet 2 inches. (Thaw’s elephant: 12 feet 2 inches.)

Length From trunk tip to tail tip in straight line, 27 feet 6 inches; whole skin from trunk tip to tail tip, 33 feet 2 inches.

Length of feet Front, 2 feet; rear, 2 feet 1 inches. (Thaw’s elephant: one foot 9 inches, which foot not specified.)

Circumference of feet Front, 5 feet 7 inches; rear 5 feet 2 inches.

Circumference of body At widest point, 19 feet 8 inches.

Fenykovi's kill still preserved in the National History Museum

On March 6, 1959, Joseph J. Fenykovi gifted the elephant parts to the National Museum of Natural History. it is still in the display and is the land animal ever hunted.

At that time, Fenykovi probably never realized that within few years this animal will become endangered. None would like to kill such a gigantic gift of nature in today’s date. Its so precious to keep such wonders alive!

Are you ready to send  a powerful message on the strength of individual action to tackle climate change?

The Earth Hour is an awareness program organized by WWF every year on the last Saturday of March. It was first started in in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. A year later in 2008, it became a world-wide event with participation of more than 50 million people.

In 2009, global landmarks that switched off in support included the Sphinx and Pyramids at Giza, Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Qutub Minar and Red Fort in India.

Earth Hour 2010 takes place on Saturday 27 March at 8.30 pm- 9:30 pm local time and is a global call to action to every individual, every business and every community throughout the world. It is a call to stand up, to take responsibility, to get involved and lead the way towards a sustainable future. Iconic buildings and landmarks from India to Australia to America will stand in darkness. People across the world from all walks of life will turn off their lights and join together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common – our planet.

The Earth Hour ‘60′ logo represents the 60 minutes of Earth Hour where we focus on the impact we are having on our planet and take positive action to address the environmental issues we face.

Are you ready for this event?

A real bad news for the wildlife fans. T5, popularly known as Kachida Female will no more be roaming in the wilderness of Ranthambore National Park, India. The injured Tigress was found dead yesterday by forest department. To add more grief to it, her death has orphaned just two three months old cubs.

Kachida Tigress’ two cubs were among the eight cubs located in last few months in the Ranthambore National park, which brought an air of joy to the park. But this beautiful tigress’ death has calmed down all the enthusiasm in the park.
State Tourism minister, Bina Kak, first disocvered a wound in the tigress while taking photgraphs. This act of the minister made all the wildlife conservationists happy. The tigress was tranquilised and hundreds of maggots infesting her wound were cleared. It was believed that this treatment would cure the Tigress. But the hope  didn’t come true.

The carcass of the tigress, aged around seven, was found in the Kachida area on Wednesday morning, though the death seemingly took place some 18 hours earlier.

“I am feeling very sad. They never told me about it being unwell or anything like that. I had told the officials to keep a round-the-clock watch on the tigress and its cubs. But now it appears that they kept misleading me about sighting it even when they had no trace of it,” said a visibly shocked Ms. Kak, who had extended her stay in Sawai Madhopur to oversee the treatment of the animal.

The death can be termed as Natural Death, but was proper care taken to the Tigress? Was it too late when the wound was discovered? That is the question from everyone, it should have been discovered by the authorities much before the minister who just a tourist.

The next important task lying in front of the authorities is to find the cubs and give proper care. We hope authorities will fail to find them soon, as they in danger due big males in the area.

We have collected some photos of the Tigress on her demise, in her memory.

Tigress T5 - Kachida Female Relaxing - courtesy nishith ajitsaria @ Flickr

Kachida Tigress in the Bush - Phot Courtesy Rahul.Mehrotra

The Tigress Resting - Photo Courtesy Sarvesh Kumar Sharma @indianaturewatch.net

In the Wildneness of Ranthambore - Photo Courtesy Nishith ajitsaria @ Flickr

Kachida Tigress - Photo Courtesy thehindu.com

The Treatment that never helped - Photo Courtesy @ndtv.com

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.