Today we hear of so many species ‘facing extinction’ or ‘wiped out over most of their range’ that we can become slightly de-sensitized and numb to what seems at time to be a grim and inevitable play with us playing the villain. In the last twenty years three species of Indian vulture have gone from being one of the most prolifically abundant raptors to top of the IUCN Critically Endangered list. The reason behind the current Indian Vulture disaster that befell those graceful giants of the sky is the same as for the cause of the declines in so many other species; humans. But is there something...

Women collecting wood In India, a high density of people is dependant on forest products in order to cook, to heat the houses and to feed the cattle. This has been a tradition for decades if not centuries among Indian villagers. Wood is indeed a privileged energy source since it is free of cost and is, for now on, still available. But this wood collection is step by step destroying the ecosystems of the forests. The forest products collected which are bark, dead and green wood and grass all participate in the balance to keep forests in good health. The barks are protecting the trees from any aggression;...

We left Dhikuli village with Sumantha Ghosh, Paramveer Singh Hayer, Oli Gray-Read, Pascale, Eric and Sarah-Eve Longsworth and myself and headed to the mountain areas to reach the village of Devidhura. The village is situated at the trijunction of Almora, Pithoragarh & Nainital districts. A unique feature of the fair is the image of the goddess, kept in a locked brass casket. This casket is taken in a procession to a nearby mountain spring where a blindfolded priest ritually bathes the image and replaces it in the casket.The “goal” of our journey was to go to see the festival of Bagwaal....

A jeep safari is a good way to see the sights One hundred years ago, India’s tigers numbered around 40,000, yet within decades the Royal Bengal Tiger faced extinction. Although hunting was outlawed in 1970, the survival of the species was threatened by continuing loss of habitat and by poaching. Enacting the Wildlife Protection Act in 1972, India’s central government established the first nine tiger reserves, including Corbett and totalling 16,000sq km, across India. Reserves now number 27 and encompass more than twice that initial land area. Project Tiger has doubled India’s tiger population...

We step off the highway into the silent forest, following a foot track down into the valley of the Ramganga. Tiger’s pug or pawprint indicates the age and health of the animal We glimpse a lone sambar deer, more timid than the chital; the canine bark of the barking deer reaches us from a bend ahead. Porcupines and wild boar have dug up the ground in many places. Tiger scat, examined by expert eyes, reveals fur and crushed bones from its last kill: that is as close as I’ll come to a face-to-face encounter with the king of the forests. Tiger hunting has long since ceased, but the ‘king of...

If you don’t spot a tiger in India’s Corbett Tiger Reserve, at least the fish are biting. “Tiger is giving us dodge”, declares wildlife guide Hem Bahuguna, calling a halt near some tell-tale pug marks (pawprints) and scrapings. As the engine cools, then stills, we hear only the birds, the soft breeze and the distant chattering of monkeys. From time to time, another jeep materialises, stopping to exchange a few words. Otherwise, here in India, most crowded of nations, there is perfect peace. Corbett is India’s first, perhaps finest, Tiger Reserve and is buffered by surrounding tracts of...

The Mahseer, known among Kashmiri anglers as “tiger in the water”, all but vanished after Pakistan constructed a dam in the late 1960s that stopped the fish from migrating to India. Now, conservationists are breeding the Mahseer and hope to release them in rivers in Indian Kashmir. The programme is the result of a peace process between India and Pakistan that has led to a drop in violence in the region. “We have bred this fish nicely and reared it out,” Showkat Ali, joint director of Kashmir’s fisheries department, told Reuters. Ali said hundreds of Mahseer used to...

Dehradun, July 18 As a part of Vulture Study Programme, the research scholars from France have kick-started their study from today. The scholars will be here for three months. These researchers of France University are undergoing National Diploma in Environment and have created special study sites at Ringora village, to study vultures who have their nests in the region in big numbers. While dwindling number of vultures in the country have been a cause of concern, Uttarakhand has somehow recorded these vultures in good numbers. Jacob, a scholar said that studying vultures in Corbett would certainly...

The Pionner, October 5, 2009 In a major boost for environmentalists, vultures were sighted in Uttarakhand after the recent discovery of the near-extinct birds in Himachal Pradesh. Over 150 vultures of five species can be found nesting and feeding at three locations around Ramnagar in Uttarakhand — Van Gujjar village of Tumeria, Ringora and Hatidagar. The three sites fall under two categories: Regular nesting sites (Ringora and Tumeria): Vultures are consistently seen roosting and occupying nests throughout the year and these are likely to be important breeding sites; Regular feeding sites (Hatidagar):...

September 29th, 2009 RAMNAGAR – With the vulture population declining alarmingly in Uttarakhand’s Ramnagar area, which adjoins the Corbett Wildlife Sanctuary, a group of pro-wildlife activists and forest rangers are engaged in spreading public awareness about their conservation in the region. Under the banner of the Corbett Vulture Conservation Committee, the NGO activists recently used the annual Ramlilas, held during the Dussehra festival, to promote awareness about vultures. Jatayu Bhagwan, a Demi god in form of a vulture, who finds mention in they mythological epic Ramayana, was used...