Retaliatory killing of wildlife India- A bane to conservation efforts

Recent death of a tigress named Bagahinala and two of its cubs due to poison at Pench, Madhya Pradesh is a big blow to conservation and this incident has made me pen few thoughts on the issues that are being currently being debated on various media portals. It has been suggested that the persons involved may be road contractor who has moved in with migrant workers who had poisoned the water hole and i fail to understand as to why this was done since the reason given was to kill deer and boars for their meat... now the poison killing the animal can kill humans too... hence this confusion.

http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/tigress-2-cubs-found-dead-in-madhya-pradeshs-pench-tiger-reserve-1292513

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/orang-national-park-tigress-poisoned-to-death-in-nearby-village/

                     Images : Courtsey Google Images from various new media

Man- animal conflict has been the major cause for death of wildlife be it the tiger, leopard or the elephant in India next to poaching which is quite prevalent in most forests even though the official claim that the poaching is on decline. This is untrue. Man animal conflict has always been present on the fringes of the forest but then with further encroachment into the forest by the local villagers be it for grazing of their cattle / sheep in the forest(to save recurring cost of fodder), hunting of deer & wild boars for their meat consumption has greatly enhanced this conflict. This is true for most reserves and forests in India and additionally hotels /resort buildings are cropping up within the buffer zone thereby reducing the habitat.

The habitat of wildlife is shrinking each day due to the greediness of the human beings be it the government  in the name of development or just individuals who live on the fringes of the forest  encroaching into the forest land. Just today there was news on the TV about an elephant on rampage at Gudalur, Nilgiris Tamilnadu and has killed or injured few human beings. Local populations along with the local political leaders was conducting a strike in front of Forest department office and were demanding that the elephant be shot dead to prevent further incidents. Similar demands were made few months back when a tiger killed a person in the same area (Gudalur) and the tiger was shot to death to appease the locals. Also recently a tiger killed a cattle herder on the fringes of Bandipur and similar situation warranted shooting of the tiger to appease the villagers. Recently a leopard was found dead due to poisoning at Bandipur, Karnataka and tigress poisoned in Orang , Assam , tiger at Koidaikanal, Tamilnadu and these area cause of worry to the conservationist all over the country. Anonymous sources in department say the Villager living on the fringes of the forest or within the forest hold the sword of Damocles over the department, that if no action is taken they would resort to poisoning of wildlife and it may have serious consequences to all animals in the vicinity.

Reduction in habitat has issues in addition to man- animal conflict... fights among animals especially predators who are territorial and this often leads to death of the predators if not driven out to the buffer areas or out of the forest. The number of deaths due to territorial fights may not be as much as the other causes of death as written above.The year 2016 is been bad for tigers in India and as on date official record of tiger deaths is 24 as on 31^st March ..See the list here  but there are many more that we have come to know on social media network that is not included in the list. The body parts of 11 tigers have been seized which means these tigers have also been killed but not listed in earlier list of tiger deaths.See here for body parts

Conservationist have been keeping only the statistics of tiger deaths since the wild tiger population was decimated from estimated 100,000 few decades back to just 2236 numbers as per the last census taken in 2015. There have been innumerable death of leopards and elephants due to poisoning, road kills and mob frenzy that has not come to limelight but does get a passing mention in regional news papers .

How do we address this issue in longer run to conserve wildlife?? Well proper and timely compensation needs to be meted out to villagers for their loss by the forest department instead of procrastinating once the correctness of the incident is ascertained / Verified. To follow the norms set by NTCA with respect to killing of tigers if involved. Try increasing the habitat by relocating the villagers living on the fringes and buffer areas with appropriate compensations. This is not too much to ask of the department and am sure if done judiciously there may be decrease of such incidents in India.

Conservationists , NGO's and wildlife lovers are frustrated with the actions being taken by government , apex tiger body NTCA and forest officials. There has been an immense protest that had been going on for quite a few months because of T24 Ustad case of RTR and finally even the Supreme Court dismissed the petition by a nature lover for reintroducing of T24 into the wild from its captivity in zoo. Protests happening in Pench for pushing the authorities to find the culprits and also to ensure more vigilant force to avoid such deaths.

I only hope that our future generations are able to enjoy wildlife in their natural habitat and not in their school books and zoo. This is possible only if effective actions are taken immediately by all concerned after putting their egos into the closet.

Miraculous Saviors -Lions

Image Courtesy - Google Images of Heronews online 

Rural Ethiopia traditional marriages are carried out by abducting girls of ages 12-13 years and raping them to lay a claim on them. Virginity is valued intensely and the intended bridegroom by raping the girl ensures that nobody would come forward to marry the girl and thereby claim her as his wife. These traditions have been curtailed by the government and the legal age for marriage is set at 18 but then old traditions still happens in isolation.

Recently a girl aged 12 years was abducted by a group of men and was thrashed severely as she refused to marry one of them. A pride of 3 lions nearby drove away the abductors and stood guarding the girl for half a day against further torment by the abductors. When the girl’s family member and police arrived at the scene the lions retreated back into the forest allowing the rescue party to take the girl to the hospital. This incident is pretty strange and people there consider this as some sort of a miracle since the lions generally attack people.

Wildlife expert in rural Ethiopia feels that the girl survived the lions as she was crying because of the beating and her cries sounded like whimpering of lion cub.  Well this indeed is a strange incident but true and not a story of fiction.

Breast Cancer Survivor

My wife is cancer survivor and the fight against the dreaded disease needed the moral support, love and positive feelings from all members of the family and friends and as I recollect each person gave just that to my wife. I know that writing about cancer is nothing new but then I wanted to pen this on my blog as most of my blogs are personal in nature. Here is my recount of the entire episode

The earth just opened up beneath my legs of 30^th July 2015 when I got the report of my wife’s biopsy on my mail confirming metastatic carcinoma in left breast. For a moment everything came to a standstill and I was wondering as to how I am going to convey this message to my wife …… suddenly shrill ringing of my mobile jolts me out of my thoughts and it is my wife call from India to inform me that she has also seen the report online and was inconsolable.  It had been just three months since I had taken up a new assignment in Middle East and with this news I had planned to resign the next day and head back to Chennai so that I could be around the family during this difficult period and also while the treatment is being done. My company’s management was particularly very nice and they said that I could just go back and take care of my wife without having to resign from services… My CEO stated that I could travel for few days every couple of months just to oversee the division and the running projects. Quite thankful to them for this gesture as I did not have additional stress of looking out for a job once the treatment gets over.

Initial finding of metastatic cancer was a bit scary metastatic means that the cancer cells have started spreading to other parts of body….. in other words as per the definition it means 4^th stage of cancer. This finding was a shock to both me and my wife since a biopsy was conducted on the same lump just few months back while my wife underwent treatment for her knee in a reputed hospital. In fact had my wife not had any pains she would not have bothered to undergo a mammogram on her own in July 2015 and during this procedure the doctor in a leading diagnostic center again gave a clean chit on the mammogram but wanted us to take a FNAC (Fine Needle Aspiration) for getting a biopsy of the tissue and my wife undertook the same… and the report of this FNAC was the one that was sent by mail to me. The diagnostic center then corrected the mammogram report given couple of days back to indicate metastatic carcinoma. My wife was fuming and wanted to complain to the consumer court for a immense lapse by the diagnostic enter but then unfortunately they had collect back the first report back from my wife and we had no proof of wrong diagnosis. Well if my wife had not got herself tested it would have been even worse for the cancer cells would have attacked the vital organs and the survival chances would have been greatly reduced.

 My siblings (both my sisters) took my wife to cancer specialist for consultation on the same day the report was received as I was not around and the doctors explained the situation to my wife, daughters and my sisters and even counseled my wife as she was worried for her life. The PET scan conducted by the doctors to check on the spread of cancer downgraded the threat to stage 2B since the cancer had spread only to the left axilla and had not affected any vital organs. A huge sigh of relief amongst us since the doctors stated that the present condition is curable and the treatment would consist of Chemotherapy, Surgery and finally Radiation therapy.

Both my daughters were very brave compared to me and my wife, they used to say “Don’t worry appa we will defeat the disease “. Their positivity brushed on to my wife who now put up a brave face as she also started believing that she can be cured. This in turn was a great help going forward with the chemotherapy treatment which was started on 5^th Aug 2015. Both my sisters were along with me and my wife for all trips to the hospital whether it was to meet the doctors or go for the treatment and this indeed was a great moral support & mental relief to me and my wife.

The treatment was 8 sittings of chemotherapy with a gap of 21 days between each sitting. Within days of the first Chemo, my wife’s hair started falling and in matter of 3-4 days she became almost bald and it is quite tough for all of us to console my wife for having lost her hair. Her cousin, to pacify my wife arranged for a wig but she hardly wore it as it was pretty uncomfortable. Entire cycle of chemo was completed in about 6 months’ time and after that even the mastectomy surgery has been completed. Radiation therapy is pending and is expected to take place from the coming week for 5 weeks.

Positive thoughts, feelings  and moral support is a must in addition to the treatment cycle for the cancer patient to defeat or curtail the disease and I have been fortunate that we had abundance of positive vibes and moral support of family and friends all through the difficult times.  

My advice to all women readers and friends who are aged 40+ to undertake a mammogram to ensure all is well and to keep repeating the tests each year for an early detection of breast cancer can save lots of pains and worries.

Kabini Diaries -02

Nagarhole forest is known for its Leopards but then there are other predators and scavengers also residing here. Here is an image of Jackal pair on the banks of Kabini backwaters

Your feedback will be appreciated.

Are we Civilized ... is it a fact or an illusion

Image taken from Google Image

Recently a dentist at Delhi had an argument with a motorcycle rider for having driven rashly and had brushed his 8 year old son. The rider and the pillion fled the scene only to return back with their friends and family members from nearby settlement, a mob of over 10 persons armed with hockey sticks and iron rods. They dragged the dentist out of his house and beat him mercilessly to death and also beat up family member who tried to intervene. This is not an isolated incident and similar instances of rage is being seen all over India past few years  and even few other countries and it makes me wonder as to why so much pent up rage prevails in people these days. May be it is the frustrations in their personal lives and this is being vented out in form of violence. Do they repent their actions after such incidents?? Not everyone do I suppose and the reason I believe is that they are under the impression that there would be minimal if not no actions against them by the law. Why is this?? Well in some cases political parties in the opposition support these persons and they ensure that fancy and high priced lawyers are engaged to prove the guilty persons as innocent, some of them are powerful themselves because of their wealth and connections. Generally it the persons without any money or backing are the ones those are convicted in the event they partake in such activities.

Average middle class Indians have to be very tolerant in this country …. Tolerance or intolerance is not related to just religion as one might think due to the recent furor on the social media and other forms of media. What I meant is that  an average Indian would have to apologies and move away even though he is not at fault for any minor accidents on roads or arguments with strangers and so forth. Not moving away and trying to think that law is on his side and arguing may lead to his beating by the other party like the case of the dentist.

This not how a civilized society lives… but then this is how it is these days.Take care friends !!!

Kabini Diaries -01

There have been previous posts about wildlife at Kabini under Random clicks or specifically about Kabini forest . I am starting a fresh series called Kabini Diaries to showcase the wild life there and these post may have write up but generally would be photographs

Here is couple of pictures of the old male leopard known as the Torn Ear

Sitting beside the safari path smelling and scent marking

Walking behind the Vehicle

#ThatDay - When our entire lives shook !!!

The shocking mail I got on my personal email id opened up the ground beneath my feet…. the biopsy report of sample taken from my wife… metastatic carcinoma confirmed!!!!

This is an one liner written for Indispire #110 on Indian Bloggers