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| October 16, 2012 |
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| October 02, 2012 |
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| October 02, 2012 |
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| Caught In The Fire |
| August 25, 2012 |
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Jungle business book: unleash rhino on tiger
February 07, 2011
Jorhat: Kaziranga may have enough room for the magnificent tiger and the majestic rhino but not for a third species called humans who thrive on tourism.
So the two-legged species jumped onto four-wheeled beasts and rolled through a section of the national park in Assam today, demanding that Project Tiger be withdrawn to protect the rhinos.
As many as 22 local organisations took part in the rally in an unusual show of strength that brought to the fore not the familiar man-animal conflict but economic pulls and pressures that reflect the law of the survival of the more lucrative.
The clamour also raises questions on how to handle the paradox of one species reaching a safe zone while another is still at a critical stage.
That is at the root of the problem in Kaziranga: rhinos are comparatively above the danger mark but tigers still need conservation efforts in the country.
The rise in the rhino population has whetted the appetite of the tourism trade to step up activities but the restrictions that accompany Project Tiger are stifling business opportunities.
Most of the organisations that took part in the rally are related to the hospitality industry in one way or the other — some run safaris and hotels while others live on the edge of the park.
Kaziranga was declared a tiger reserve in 2006 and since then there has been pressure from the Centre to impose restrictions on the flow of tourists to the national park. The park authorities have decided to declare 430sqkm as core area where the flow of tourists would be restricted. Construction of new hotels has already been banned and rumours are rife that people living on the fringes of the park would be relocated.
The tiger was given top priority in the conservation list at Kaziranga as the population of rhinos had reached a safe zone. The last count pegged the number of rhinos in the park at 2,200. The protesters, led by the Kaziranga Jeep Safari Association, sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh through a subdivisional officer, stating that the national park would lose its “glamour” if tigers were accorded more importance than the rhinos.
The protesters also asked NGOs involved with Kaziranga to drop all projects at the national park and leave immediately.
The president of the Kaziranga Jeep association, Punen Gogoi, said the implementation of Project Tiger would threaten not only the one-horned rhino’s home but also the people involved in various activities related to the park.
“We have learnt that a large number of villagers on the fringe of the park would also be evicted in line with the guidelines of Project Tiger. We simply cannot let that happen. Over the years, the villagers near the park have made a huge contribution towards the conservation of rhinos, we cannot allow them to be evicted because of tigers. After all, the rhino is more important for Kaziranga than the tiger,” Gogoi said.
He said it would not only be the villagers who would be affected but also unemployed youths involved in the Jeep safari and hotel business in and around the park.
“The tiger project has only brought bad news for us; further construction of hotels has already been banned. Now there will be restrictions on Jeeps entering the park. We don’t want any such project in the Kaziranga that would harm the local people. There is too much at stake just for the tiger. We don’t want tigers in rhino land,” Gogoi said.
Park director Surajeet Dutta said it was lack of awareness that led to such a protest. “Project Tiger would only make the Kaziranga more popular,” he said.
Seventy Royal Bengal tigers were found during a census carried out by the camera-trapping method in half the area of the national park recently. “We are expecting about 120 tigers in the Kaziranga tiger reserve,” the director said.
In a separate census conducted by an NGO a couple of years back, Kaziranga was found to have the highest density of tigers in the world.
Wildlife scientists said the protests appear misguided because tiger conservation would also help in protecting the rhino and there was a need to control the flow of tourists — not just in the Kaziranga but other wildlife spots overrun by visitors.
“Too many people in the bedrooms of wildlife are not going to help wildlife at all,” said Rathin Barman, a conservation officer with the Wildlife Trust of India at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation in the Kaziranga.
“The tiger is the top carnivore in the wildlife — when we protect the tiger, we also protect a variety of other species, including the rhino. But if we concentrate on the rhino alone, we will not be addressing issues related to other species,” Barman said.
“Our wildlife conservation zones are some of the last (unscathed) fragments of nature we have left,” said Ulhas Karanth, director of the Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bangalore, and an expert on tigers. “People have a lot of disposable income but we can’t just go on and on letting people unrestricted access into areas that have already been overrun by tourists,” Karanth said.
Jungle business book: unleash rhino on tiger
- Rattled by tourism curbs, Kaziranga outfits demand withdrawal of project meant to save big cat
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110208/jsp/frontpage/story_13551610.jsp
7 February 2011
- Rattled by tourism curbs, Kaziranga outfits demand withdrawal of project meant to save big cat
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110208/jsp/frontpage/story_13551610.jsp
7 February 2011
Jorhat: Kaziranga may have enough room for the magnificent tiger and the majestic rhino but not for a third species called humans who thrive on tourism.
So the two-legged species jumped onto four-wheeled beasts and rolled through a section of the national park in Assam today, demanding that Project Tiger be withdrawn to protect the rhinos.
As many as 22 local organisations took part in the rally in an unusual show of strength that brought to the fore not the familiar man-animal conflict but economic pulls and pressures that reflect the law of the survival of the more lucrative.
The clamour also raises questions on how to handle the paradox of one species reaching a safe zone while another is still at a critical stage.
That is at the root of the problem in Kaziranga: rhinos are comparatively above the danger mark but tigers still need conservation efforts in the country.
The rise in the rhino population has whetted the appetite of the tourism trade to step up activities but the restrictions that accompany Project Tiger are stifling business opportunities.
Most of the organisations that took part in the rally are related to the hospitality industry in one way or the other — some run safaris and hotels while others live on the edge of the park.
Kaziranga was declared a tiger reserve in 2006 and since then there has been pressure from the Centre to impose restrictions on the flow of tourists to the national park. The park authorities have decided to declare 430sqkm as core area where the flow of tourists would be restricted. Construction of new hotels has already been banned and rumours are rife that people living on the fringes of the park would be relocated.
The tiger was given top priority in the conservation list at Kaziranga as the population of rhinos had reached a safe zone. The last count pegged the number of rhinos in the park at 2,200. The protesters, led by the Kaziranga Jeep Safari Association, sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh through a subdivisional officer, stating that the national park would lose its “glamour” if tigers were accorded more importance than the rhinos.
The protesters also asked NGOs involved with Kaziranga to drop all projects at the national park and leave immediately.
The president of the Kaziranga Jeep association, Punen Gogoi, said the implementation of Project Tiger would threaten not only the one-horned rhino’s home but also the people involved in various activities related to the park.
“We have learnt that a large number of villagers on the fringe of the park would also be evicted in line with the guidelines of Project Tiger. We simply cannot let that happen. Over the years, the villagers near the park have made a huge contribution towards the conservation of rhinos, we cannot allow them to be evicted because of tigers. After all, the rhino is more important for Kaziranga than the tiger,” Gogoi said.
He said it would not only be the villagers who would be affected but also unemployed youths involved in the Jeep safari and hotel business in and around the park.
“The tiger project has only brought bad news for us; further construction of hotels has already been banned. Now there will be restrictions on Jeeps entering the park. We don’t want any such project in the Kaziranga that would harm the local people. There is too much at stake just for the tiger. We don’t want tigers in rhino land,” Gogoi said.
Park director Surajeet Dutta said it was lack of awareness that led to such a protest. “Project Tiger would only make the Kaziranga more popular,” he said.
Seventy Royal Bengal tigers were found during a census carried out by the camera-trapping method in half the area of the national park recently. “We are expecting about 120 tigers in the Kaziranga tiger reserve,” the director said.
In a separate census conducted by an NGO a couple of years back, Kaziranga was found to have the highest density of tigers in the world.
Wildlife scientists said the protests appear misguided because tiger conservation would also help in protecting the rhino and there was a need to control the flow of tourists — not just in the Kaziranga but other wildlife spots overrun by visitors.
“Too many people in the bedrooms of wildlife are not going to help wildlife at all,” said Rathin Barman, a conservation officer with the Wildlife Trust of India at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation in the Kaziranga.
“The tiger is the top carnivore in the wildlife — when we protect the tiger, we also protect a variety of other species, including the rhino. But if we concentrate on the rhino alone, we will not be addressing issues related to other species,” Barman said.
“Our wildlife conservation zones are some of the last (unscathed) fragments of nature we have left,” said Ulhas Karanth, director of the Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bangalore, and an expert on tigers. “People have a lot of disposable income but we can’t just go on and on letting people unrestricted access into areas that have already been overrun by tourists,” Karanth said.