Kerala Assembly passes forest, wildlife amendment Bills

 

tHE HINDU BUREAU, 

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, october 9, 2025

The Kerala Assembly on Wednesday passed the Wildlife Protection (Kerala Amendment) Bill, 2025 and the Kerala Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2025 in the absence of the Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) which boycotted the proceedings over the alleged gold theft at Sabarimala.

Forests Minister A.K. Saseendran described the Wildlife Protection (Kerala Amendment) Bill, 2025 as a milestone initiative, stating that Kerala is the first State in India to introduce such an amendment to the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Time consuming

According to him, the existing procedures under the Central Act and its associated Standard Operating Procedures are often impractical and time-consuming. The amendment aims to enable quick action in emergency situations, especially when lives are at risk.

The proposed legislation would enable the Chief Wildlife Warden to authorise immediate action, including killing animals, without unnecessary delay, at times when people suffer serious injuries in a wildlife attack, following which the District Collector or Chief Conservator of Forests reports the incident for necessary action.

The Bill also includes provision for population control and relocation of species listed in Schedule II, such as wild boars and leopards, without requiring Central government approval. Besides, the new Bill would also empower the State government to declare a species as ‘vermin’ if its population becomes unmanageable.

The Bill also proposes shifting Bonnet Macaque from Schedule I to Schedule II to permit population control of the species and, if necessary, declaring them vermin.

Mr. Saseendran highlighted that the Bill will come into effect only upon receiving Presidential assent, after being forwarded through the Governor, as it involves amendments to the Central law. The Kerala Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2025 primarily introduces provisions regarding the harvesting and sale of sandalwood trees on private land.

Read more »

Indigenous know-how to mitigate wildlife conflicts

 

THE HINDU BUREAU, 

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, January 3, 2025

Expressing concern over the disturbing trend of tribal fatalities in wildlife attacks, Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran has promised steps to study the factors leading to the alarming pattern.

He was inaugurating a State-level workshop on Gothrabheri, an initiative aimed at integrating indigenous knowledge into wildlife conflict mitigation strategies, here on Wednesday.

Mr. Saseendran said while various human-wildlife conflict mitigation projects initiated by the Forest department had begun to show results, the loss of tribal lives remained a pressing issue. He pointed out that 67 people lost their lives in wildlife-related incidents during 2024-25. Of these, 34 were due to snakebites and 19 due to elephant attacks. Alarmingly, 13 of those killed by elephants belonged to tribal communities.

Chief Wildlife Warden Pramod G. Krishnan pointed out that the trend was unusual since tribespeople were traditionally known to coexist harmoniously with wildlife. He emphasised the need to examine whether changes in animal or human behaviour or other external factors were contributing to this shift.

Scheme objective

The Gothrabheri programme has been conceptualised to collect, document, and incorporate tribal ecological knowledge into official conservation and conflict mitigation policies.

As part of the initiative, 18 regional seminars were held across Kerala, engaging as many as 1,016 tribal representatives from all 360 unnathis (tribal hamlets) in the State. Insights gathered from these interactions are being consolidated and studied for implementation.

The initiative is a collaborative effort involving the Scheduled Tribes Development department, the Kerala Forest Research Institute, and other agencies, including the State Planning Board and the Kerala Startup Mission, to convert tribal insights into actionable government programmes.

Head of Forest Force in-charge and Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (APCCF) P. Pugazhendi presided over the inaugural session.

Read more »

Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary hitches wagon to star tortoises

Ignatius Pereira,  KOLLAM
The Hindu, May 08, 2017

An ambitious project of the Kerala Forest Department at the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS) to rehabilitate Indian star tortoises (Geochelone elegans) seized from smugglers has turned into a major success. This makes the CWS the only rehabilitation centre for star tortoises in the country.
The CWS is the only place in Kerala where star tortoises are known to occur in the wild. The sanctuary is now a haven for at least 450 such tortoises seized from poachers in less than two years. The success of the programme is so overwhelming that the star tortoise has turned into an icon of the sanctuary.
It all began in August 2015 when Customs sleuths of the Nedumbassery International Airport seized an out-of-the-ordinary consignment that contained 200 star tortoises meant for an east Asian destination. In these regions, live Indian star tortoises are considered auspicious for gaining wealth. It is the reason why Indian star tortoises, which are protected under the Wildlife Act, are poached and smuggled. Seized consignments have to be handed over to the Forest Department under law but it led to the question of where to release them.
Fearing they would perish in a zoo or a forest area where they cannot adapt naturally, the CWS authorities created a special project under the Wildlife Warden of the Eravikulam National Park G. Prasad, and CWS’ Assistant Wildlife Warden P.M. Prabhu.

Species indentification

The tortoises were then kept under quarantine for 30 days at Chinnar, where they were scientifically identified as a southern Indian species, Mr. Prasad said, adding, “This was important to avoid mixing of genetically different populations since there was also a western Indian species inhabiting Gujarat and Rajasthan.” Mr. Prasad said that species identification is done through a molecular genetics process.
Rehabilitation partly adopts the ‘soft releasing’ process in which randomly selected tortoises are taken to the wild in an enclosure from which they may enter the forest at will.
The enclosures are monitored to prevent attacks by wild animals, and after the entire batch leaves, the enclosures are removed, Mr. Prasad said.
He added that during the quarantine period, the natural food preferences of star tortoises were identified and found to include a herb locally known as thazhuthama, and a particular variety of cactus found abundantly inside the CWS.

Read more »

Project to conserve vultures in Wayanad

E.M. Manoj, KALPETTA
The Hindu,  March 14, 2016

The Forest and Wildlife Department has launched a comprehensive project to conserve the existing vulture population in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, a major habitat of different species of vultures in South India.

The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest has earmarked Rs.50 lakh for the project and it has sanctioned Rs.30 lakh this fiscal, Promod G. Krishnan, Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), told The Hindu .

Awareness programmes planned

“We are planning awareness programmes, continuous monitoring of the birds, year-round protection to the nests, and will also ensure availability of food for the scavenger bird,” he said

“We have already identified the habitats of two species, including the white-rumped and red-headed vultures, in three forest ranges,” P. Dhaneshkumar, warden of the sanctuary said.

The sanctuary has procured 51 infrared cameras for watching the movements of the birds, he said.

“As many as 25 tribal watchers have been selected for monitoring the birds and they will be provided special training,” he said.

Special programmes

Awareness programmes will be organised for villagers and students on the significance of conserving the scavenger bird.

Special awareness programmes will be organised for veterinarians and medical shopkeepers on the misuse of drug diclofenac, responsible for the dramatic fall in vulture population in the country.

The department has started preparing pamphlets, posters and documentaries for the purpose. “We are also planning to leave the carcasses of wild animals for the birds instead of cremating or burning them, with the support of villagers and vulture watchers,” Mr. Dhaneshkumar added.

Read more »

Bid to fix radio collars on jumbos

• E.M. MANOJ KALPETTA, 
• The Hindu, February 20, 2016
• 
  The Forest and Wildlife Department has launched an operation to attach radio collar on rogue elephants in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) to keep them off human settlements.
  “We are planning to attach radio collar telemeter on rouge elephants after tranquillising them, for which the department had identified two jumbos, a tusker and a makhana (male elephant without tusks), in Sulthan Bathery and Tholpetty ranges,” P. Dhaneshkumar, warden in charge of WWS, toldThe Hindu .
  “Radio collaring will help constant monitoring of the marauding elephants and local people could be warned about their entry into farms and habitats. The radio signals sent by the device would also be used for studying the movement pattern and behaviour of elephants in general,” he said.
  The World Wildlife Fund has supplied three radio collars, each costing around Rs.3 lakh, free of cost to the department after importing them from South Africa.
  A team of wildlife experts, including C.S. Jayakumar, Forest Veterinary Surgeon; Arun Zachariah, Assistant Professor, Centre for Wildlife Studies, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, and Jijimon, Assistant Forest Veterinary Officer, had tracked a wild tusker on Friday in the Ponkuzhy section of the WWS to fix the radio collar telemeter on it. But their attempt failed as the jumbo hid among bushes along with its herd. Though the team had applied two tranquilliser darts on it, it was deflected, Mr. Dhaneshkumar said adding that the operation would continue on Saturday.
  Earlier, in 2011, a wild elephant had been successfully fixed with a radio collar telemeter in the sanctuary.
• 
  

Read more »

Survey reveals butterfly diversity of Wayanad

T. Nandakumar Thiruvananthapuram,  
The Hindu, January 12, 2016

A three-day butterfly survey organised by the Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB) and the Forest and Wildlife Department in North Wayanad has revealed 178 species, including at least four rare species. The survey which covered portions of the North Wayanad forest division, Wayanad wildlife sanctuary and South Wayanad forest division was conducted to document the butterfly diversity of the region and understand their role as indicators of the state of the environment.

As many as 43 species of skippers, 44 species of blues, 15 species of swallow tails, 19 white and yellows and 57 species of brush-footed butterflies were recorded. The Sahyadri Banded Tail was first recorded from the region. Rare species like the Danaid egg fly, Crimson Rose and Malabar Banded Swallow Tail were sighted from Mattilayam, Periya and Kuruva island. As many as 180 people, including 40 students, from various biodiversity clubs in Wayanad district, 19 experts, six officials from KSBB and nine Forest staff participated in the survey. The expert team included Muhammed Jaffer Palot, senior scientist, Zoological Survey of India; Balakrishnan Valappil; Chandrasekharan Koyilandi; and Pavithran Vadakara.

The participants were split into 15 groups to cover different transect each day. Each group consisted of one or more experts, forest watchers and staff from KSBB. A datasheet and detailed species checklist were prepared for each transect. The photographs of all the butterflies have been filed.

K.P. Laladhas, member secretary, KSBB, said the survey was part of a study to assess the migration pattern of butterflies and use it as a tool to formulate conservation strategies.

Climate change issues

“Apart from understanding the biological behaviour of the species, the study will also help to assess how climate change influences mass migration. The findings of the survey will be linked to other data like climate parameters to draw inferences”, he said.

“In many countries, butterflies are recognised as environmental indicators for their sensitive response to habitat and climate changes,” says Oommen V. Oommen, chairman, KSBB. He said periodic surveys would be conducted to keep the data up to date.

Read more »