Alarming destruction of tiger, elephant habitats: expert

E.M. ManojKALPETTA,  
The Hindu, February 2, 2016

The significance of conserving Asiatic elephants and tigers were stressed at an international veterinary workshop on Asian elephants and tigers that began at Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU) headquarters at Pookode in the district on Monday.

The four-day workshop, being organised by the Centre for Wildlife Studies under KVASU in association with the Department of Forests and Wildlife, aims at veterinary interventions such as general elephant and tiger health, diagnosis, medical and surgical management, measures to mitigate human-wildlife conflict and so on.

Delivering a speech on global population status and conservation programme of Asian elephants and tigers, Meenakshi Nagendran, scientist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, said the key to conservation in India involved setting aside personal differences, engaging stakeholders, equipping the Forest Department staff, protecting the animals which strayed and, most importantly, collaboration between veterinarians and biologists.

Dr. Meenakshi said that over the past 100 years, destruction of tiger and elephant habitat had been 90 per cent and 95 per cent respectively. However, India appeared to have a stronghold in terms of tigers.

Ajay Desai, an elephant ecologist, said elephants had a strongly bonded social group and a defined home range and seasonal range. Speaking on ‘human wildlife conflict — a perspective on Asian elephants and tigers,’ he said: “They have a social dominance, hierarchies which control and regulate space. Therefore an elephant family without a home range is doomed.”

Need of research

Research should be conducted in each conflict situation and mitigation measures should be taken accordingly, Mr. Desai said, adding that bad management by forest personnel in one area could affect the other areas.

The role of a veterinarian involved preventing zoonotic diseases, ensuring wildlife health, post-mortem investigation, tranquillisation and capture of animals when necessary and supporting mitigation strategies and research programmes, he added 

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Giving wings to bird conservation

K. Santhosh
THRISSUR,  
The Hindu, July 16, 2014 

Bird conservation should not be the concern of forest officials, environmentalists and ornithological societies alone. It should draw the attention and participation of the common man.

A workshop on ‘Bird Monitoring in Kerala — a citizen science initiative’, held at the Centre for Wildlife Studies of Kerala Agricultural University’s College of Forestry recently, called for prioritising bird conservation outside the protected area network, which included sanctuaries, national parks and reserved forests.

Experts who spoke at the workshop said people should take an active interest in bird monitoring, public advocacy and protecting birds of concern.

The workshop planned activities such as survey of heronries, the breeding places of water birds and pelagic birds to understand the birds of the oceans and the open sea.

The heronry survey will be carried out during monsoon when heronries are active. The pelagic bird survey will be the first of its kind in the country. It will be carried out every alternate month in the nine coastal regions of Kerala.

“A Common Bird Monitoring programme (CBMP), conducted as part of this initiative, recorded 61,222 birds of 280 species.

In all, 319 birdwatchers participated in it and submitted 1,122 checklists.

This is the first time that such a comprehensive and State-wide exercise has been carried out,” said P.O. Nameer, coordinator of the workshop.

An additional CBMP, involving students and the general public, is likely to be conducted between September 11 and 14.

A few nature-lovers have been involved in a bird monitoring programme conducted since January 2014 with the support of the Social Forestry wing of the Forest Department. The primary objective of the initiative has been documentation of bird diversity outside reserved forests and protected areas. The activities included Common Bird Monitoring, Wetland Bird Monitoring, and Pelagic or Oceanic Bird Monitoring.

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