29 Feb 2008

Corbett (Uttarakhand): A unique partnership between Kumaoni villagers and the Forest Department at the Jim Corbett National Park has helped protect many rare wildlife species and scripted one of the world’s best conservation stories.

Here, the villagers work as gilis — it means forest guards in the local Kumaoni language. They guide the tourists to scenic spots, help them choose the right place for angling and keep a watchful eye on illegal activities in the park.

This modest endeavour by the Forest Department has created employment opportunities for the local villagers. The active participation of locals has helped the park management monitor the vast areas of the park that straddle the Shivalik foothills in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand.

The 1,300-sq-km park has about 130 tigers, 500-plus Asiatic wild elephants and around 120 leopards besides sambar and the charismatic spotted deer. The park also has a large variety of small-bodied mammals, avian species and precious flora.

At a time when the country’s wildlife is hit by a growing man-animal conflict, poaching and livestock pressures, the Corbett National Park — located about 290 km from Delhi — is a success story that many wildlife managers would love to replicate.

“This collaborative programme has brought together the locals, the government, the tourism sector and other stakeholders closer to the conservation process. It was a formidable task, but we managed to do that,” said Ajay Ghale, corporate chief naturalist of Leisure Hotels, which offers vacation trips to Corbett for its customers.

The park boasts of a substantial tiger population even as other tiger reserves have failed miserably on this count.

Until a few years ago, the Ramganga river, the lifeline of the park’s flora and fauna, had been subjected to unrestrained fishing and pollution. It threatened the aquatic life and land-based species.

Rampant dynamite blasts and the use of poison for killing rare golden and black mahseers, a species of fish that was already endangered by the construction of dams and pollution in rivers, led to a drastic decline in their numbers in the Ramganga.

But now, with collective efforts, the fish has bounced back from the verge of extinction. Some predators also prey on these fish.

The village committees and resort owners jointly protect the 25-km stretch of the Ramganga river in Corbett.

“Though angling is allowed in the river, it is only for catch and release. The forest department issues permits for that. And each angler is charged Rs 550,” said Ghale.

“Also, wild animals come to the river banks to quench their thirst and that offers an ideal place for tourists to spot rare animals,” said Ghale, who educates vacationers about the wildlife here.

“Staying at the Corbett Hideaway (one of the resorts owned by the group here) offers a unique experience of the wilderness,” he added.

Some of the factors that contributed to the better management of the park include the active anti-poaching patrol in the park, which involves four administrative divisions — Durga Devi, Dikala, Bijrani and Jhirna zones.

Though the presence of around 70-80 villages in the buffer area of the park has been a threat to the sensitive ecosystem, “the eco-development programme of the forest department has turned it into an advantageous situation”, said Sanjay Chhimwal, programme officer (Wildlife) of the NGO Corbett Foundation.

The effective management of tourists in the park has helped generate a steady flow of income, which is used for eco-developmental projects.

“Prompt compensation for crop loss and cattle lifting by wild animals has also helped keep the man-animal conflict under control. The amount of compensation usually ranges from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 on a case to case basis,” said Chhimwal.

In 1956, the park was named Jim Corbett National Park in memory of naturalist Jim Corbett. It is also India’s oldest national park.

News Source: http://sify.com

Dehradun, 28 Feb 2008

Soldiers and defence personnel were instrumental in the victory of Lt-General TPS Rawat of BJP in Pauri Lok Sabha by-election. Lt-General Rawat defeated Congress candidate Mr Satpal Maharaj in a tough contest with a margin of 4,506 votes.
As forecasted by the BJP, victory came to the party in the Lok Sabha by-election of Pauri but not as presumed by the party leaders. The Congress candidate placed a stiff challenge to the BJP, which managed this win only with the help of the postal ballots which mostly consists of the defence personnels.

The Congress candidate superceded his BJP counterpart in the districts of Dehradun, Chamoli and Rudraprayag which comprises of respectively five, four and two Assembly seats out of a total 19 which fall in the Pauri Lok Sabha constituency. Eight are, however, covered by Pauri district. Mr Satpal Maharaj had a lead of 6,948 votes over Gen. Rawat in the three districts of Chamoli, Dehradun and Rudraprayag. In Pauri the two were close to the same support level with the Congress candidate trailing behind BJP with a little over 100 votes. But it was the postal ballot which elevated the BJP candidate’s support. Out of approximately 10,000 postal ballots received, most went to the General.

Postal ballot mostly comprise of the votes of soldiers and defence personnels posted across the country.

However, not satisfied with the polling process, the Congress candidate Mr Maharaj has demanded a CBI inquiry, raising questions over the postal ballots. Suspecting some bungling in the collection and counting of postal ballots, Mr Maharaj has also charged the BJP, for blatant misuse of government machinery. Congress president Mr Yashpal Arya has said the mandate of the people was clearly in favour of the Congress though the BJP finally designed victory for itself somehow.

News Source: http://www.thestatesman.net

Lucknow, 28 Feb 28 2008

A large herd of elephants from Uttarakhand has wandered into neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, coincidentally ruled by the Bahujan Samaj Party, whose election symbol is the elephant.

“To be precise, 101 elephants have wandered away from Uttarakhand into Uttar Pradesh,” Uttarakhand chief wildlife conservator C.K. Chandola told IANS over telephone from Dehradun.

Uttar Pradesh chief wildlife conservator D.N.S. Suman said: “Our elephant count has gone up by 219 from a census in 2005 and the latest one now.”

“As against 161 elephants assessed by the Wildlife Institute of India in 2005, today we have 380 elephants in the state.”

Uttrakhand, which boasted of 1,600 elephants in 2005, now has a count of 1,499, according to the official census.

The majority of elephants had crossed over from the Haridwar forest division in the vicinity of the Rajaji National Park on the Garhwal Himalaya foothills.

There is little that wildlife officials can do about the migration of elephants. “After all, animals in general and elephants in particular do not know geographical boundaries. They keep marching in herds according to their food needs,” Chandola said.

He, however, said it was rare for such large-scale migration to take place over a relatively short span of time.

News Source: http://www.khabrein.info

Dehradun, 22 Feb 2008

Accusing the Congress of not producing a single unit of power during its five year rule, Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri today said it was due to his government that the first unit of 304 MW Maneri Bhali phase II hydel project was operationalised.

“We are now producing 76 MW of power from Maneri Bhali project,” Khanduri told reporters.

His remarks come amid criticism by Congress leaders that the state was reeling under severe power crisis under the BJP rule.

Despite the wrong DPR of the project prepared during the previous government’s tenure, Khanduri said his administration saw to it that the power plant was operationalised in a record 10 months time.

“The previous DPR did not mention all those areas which were submerging due to the project and one of the four turbines was defective,” he said.

Khanduri said he was not sure whether the Congress government could have commissioned the project for the next several years.

Khanduri’s comments came as electioneering to the Feb 24 Pauri Lok Sabha by-election came to an end this evening. BJP candidate T P S Rawat is locking horns with Congress’ Satpal Maharaj in a straight contest from Pauri.

He also described the allegations of Congress party as baseless that his government was not doing anything for the jobless. He said his government has provided 29,756 jobs in large scale industries and 12,307 in the state’s small scale industries.

News Source: http://www.saharasamay.com

20 Feb 2008

BS reported that Uttarakhand can now hope to get rid of its acute power crisis as 304 MW Maneri Bhali phase II hydel project in Uttarkashi district is starting production. After months of dithering, Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited has finally managed to produce 56 MW of power from the project. Significantly, this is the first time that UJVNL has started producing power in the state since its inception in 2001.

Comprising four units of 76 MW each, the project is having a 16 kilometer long diversion tunnel for which a barrage has also been built. The civil work of the project has been carried out by the Uttarakhand irrigation department. For the construction of the project, UJVNL took a loan of INR 1,200 crore from the Power Finance Commission.

UJVNL officials said that due to less flow in the Bhagirathi river, they are operating only one turbine with 76 MW. They added that “As the water level in the river increases, we will be able to generate more power.”

Maneri Bhali project was scheduled to be commissioned on November 9th 2007 coinciding with the Uttarakhand formation day. But due to some technical and rehabilitation problems, the commissioning date was postponed for an indefinite period.

News Source: http://steelguru.com

15 Feb 2008

The construction of a road in Rishikesh in Uttarakhand skirting the boundary of the Rajaji National Park was challenged in the Supreme Court Friday on the ground that it posed danger to the wildlife there. The apex court Friday issued notice to the Uttarakhand government on a plea of dvocate A.K. Sahu, who said he discovered the road building activity in the prohibited zone during his recent visit to Rishikesh.

A special three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, also asked the Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC), constituted by the apex court to assist it in matters elated to ecology, to visit the area and apprise the court of the dangers posed by the road to the sanctuary.

The bench, which also included Justices Arijit Pasayat and S.H. Kapadia, asked the CEC to file its report to the court within two weeks.

Sahu told the bench that the road was being built on the edge of the sanctuary, despite an earlier court order prohibiting construction of any road within a distance of one kilometre from the edge of the sanctuary.

This road, besides destroying the sanctity of the river Ganga which flows there, would also eat into the area of the wildlife sanctuary and prevent migratory birds from coming to the place in winter, the petition said.

News Source: http://www.thaindian.com