May

11

Sunderbans tiger death; husband and wife held

• Posted 11th May 2019

Two prime accused in the unnatural death of a tiger in a buffer forest of the Sunderbans on April 8th were arrested on Wednesday. The accused had been avoiding the police net for a month. Foresters claimed that it was a breakthrough in the investigation. A senior forester and four of his colleagues had been severely beaten up by some villagers during the probe.  The adult tiger was killed after being trapped in a wire snare, made of galvanised iron, in the forests of Ajmalmari I. Source ...

May

08

Tigers may not survive climate change

• Posted 8th May 2019

Climate change and rising sea levels eventually may wipe out one of the world’s last and largest tiger strongholds, scientists warned in a new study.  The cats are among nearly 500,000 land species whose survival is in question because of threats to their natural habitats, according to a report by the UN published on Monday.  

May

05

Tiger reserve seeks to ban traffic on roads during nighttime

• Posted 5th May 2019

Koka (100sqkm) was notified as a sanctuary in 2013 owing to its scientific and ecological importance and has presence of rich wildlife, including resident tigers. It is now part of Navegaon-Nagzira.  “Despite alternative routes available, outsiders take to these forest routes, mostly to pave way for illegally trafficking of sand from Wainganga river, wildlife sightings during night, and as short-cuts. Heavy traffic has led to wild animals’ deaths in road hits,” says a re ...

Apr

28

Drive to replenish waterbodies for wildlife at Philibhit

• Posted 28th April 2019

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Apr

20

Yet another tiger hit and killed by a speeding train

• Posted 20th April 2019

A speeding train ran over a tigress killing it in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh late on Tuesday night. The incident came to light early on Wednesday morning.  This is the second such instance of a tiger being killed by a speeding train in Andhra Pradesh. In 2014, a tiger was found dead on the railway track near Gajulapalli village, just outside the GBM sanctuary. A leopard was also killed by a speeding train near Chelima village in Nandyal forest division last November.  Please ...

Apr

03

Ranthambhore March/April 2019

• Posted 3rd April 2019

I have visited Ranthambhore many times over the past few years and was curious to see how the tiger population was fairing since my last visit. On this occasion I was able to visit most of the tourist zones within the park where I was able to see a number of different tigers and other indigenous wildlife. The highlight for me was to see a tigress known as Arrowhead (T.84) who has recently given birth to 2 cubs. On 2 separate occasions I was fortunate to see the interaction between the mot ...

Mar

18

Malaysia vows greater efforts to save the tiger

• Posted 18th March 2019

 Speaking at the launch of the Save Our Malayan Tiger campaign, as part of events to mark the International World Wildlife Day, Minister of Water, Land and Natural Resources Xavier Jeyakumar said his ministry, through its wildlife enforcement agency, would work with the Malaysian armed forces and Home Ministry to increase its presence in the areas where poachers operated.   The ministry said that the Malayan tiger, a subspecies of the big cat lives in Southern Thailand and  ...

Mar

12

A success story of tiger relocation

• Posted 12th March 2019

A decade ago Panna tiger reserve became a huge success story with the relocation of tigers from other parts of India after loosing all its tigers.  Panna National Park was the second tiger reserve in India after Sariska to loose all its native tigers. Though tigers were repopulated in Sarsika before Panna, the latter has three times the number of the tigers in the former.  It was ten years back on March 3, 2009, that T1 tigress from Bandhavgarh was brought to Panna National Park that ...

Mar

11

Mull-March 2019

• Posted 11th March 2019

 I recently spent a week on the Island of Mull in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. The purpose of my visit was to photograph Otters (Lutra lutra) and other wildlife. Although the weather can be very changeable at this time of year, I was still able to spend many hours photographing these busy little musteilids as they worked their way up and down the shoreline in seach of small fish and crustaceans. It was fascinating to watch them bringing their larger catches on to the shore and then tuckin ...

Feb

24

36 Asiatic Lions to be reintroduced to the wild

• Posted 24th February 2019

The Gujarat forest department will take up the country’s biggest and most challenging effort to reintroduce big cats from captivity to the wild now that 36 Asiatic lions suspected to be infected with canine distemper virus (CDV) have been declared fit to return to their natural habitat, according to officials familiar with the development.  The 36 lions suspected to be infected with CDV were moved to the two care centres last October following deaths of over 25 lions over a month. I ...

Feb

17

Tiger walked over 300km in search of a home range.

• Posted 17th February 2019

A comparison of stripes from photographs taken during its journey prove its from MP say wildlife officials. 'This is our tiger. We have matched the images' said Ujjain chief conservator of forests, B S Annigiri. 'We were tracking it till it was out of our jurisdiction. Now it has reached Gujarat they will take care of it.  After all, animals have no borders' he added. Wildlife officers and environmentalists in MP are stunned at how the big cat crossed densely populated reg ...

Feb

17

Tigers in peril

• Posted 17th February 2019

The Royal Bengal Tiger is not only at the top of the food chain in the wild but constitutes a vital link in maintaining nature’s rich diversity and ecosystems. Will it become extinct?  A recent PTI report cites researchers as saying that rising sea levels, caused by climate change, could destroy the world’s biggest mangrove forest — Sunderbans — spanning more than 10,000 square kilometres in India and Bangladesh, in the next 50 years. It quotes Sharif Mukul, an ass ...

Feb

08

A fascinating and encouraging story on tigers living at high altitudes in India

• Posted 8th February 2019

>Recent media coverage has reported the presence of a tiger population in the Idu Mishmi’s ancestral homeland of Dibang Valley. These tigers are unique as they reach impressive altitudes of 3,600m and feed on a unique prey assemblage composed of Mishmi takin, serow and Gongshan muntjac.  >But what makes these tigers truly unique isn’t just that they are such formidable mountaineers but the very reason for their existence in Dibang Valley – the Idu Mishmi people themselve ...

Feb

06

Tiger hit by vehicle on Paoni Deolapar highway

• Posted 6th February 2019

The Paoni Deolapar highway that scrapes by the Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra has pulled the plug on many wild animals ever since it was constructed, with three tigers killed in the last one year on the highway, and one seriously injured on Saturday. Wildlife lovers have blamed the high median barriers on the road for this since they pose a hurdle to the animals crossing the road and hence want the height of the road dividers to be reduced.   Conservation photographer Sarosh Lodhi fro ...

Feb

05

India receives top marks for tiger conservation

• Posted 5th February 2019

The Global Tiger Forum (GTF), an international intergovernmental body, has assigned a score of 0.78 on the basis of population and habitat viability analysis, ahead of 0.71 earned by both Bhutan and Russia, 0.70 by Nepal and 0.61 by Bangladesh.  The GTF’s secretary general Rajesh Gopal presented the scores at the third stocktaking conference called to discuss the status of tiger recovery efforts in 13 tiger countries that had pledged in a 2010 conference to double their collective t ...