Nature News Vol. 6, Issue No.4 (April 2017)

BIRDS

The Hindu 27 April 2017
A shrinking home for endemic birds: 17 Western Ghats species have smaller ranges than what experts at IUCN estimated. Birds endemic to the biodiversity Western Ghats appear to be in greater danger than they were thought to be, because the range of places they live in may have been overestimated.  Read more

CLIMATE CHANGE

The Pioneer 12 April 2017 
Diversifying India’s energy mix: The ongoing process to make bilateral as well as multi-lateral green energy cooperation one of the strategic vectors of India's foreign policy connotes the assuring world-view of a responsive and responsible global power, writes Sreemati Ganguli. Apart from geopolitical rivalries and geo-economic calculations around energy as a commodity Read more

The Hindu 18 April 2017
The great climate churn: In recent months, unprecedented rates of glacier melts have been reported both in the Antarctic and the Arctic. A massive crack in Antarctica’s fourth-biggest ice shelf has surged forward by at least 10 kilometers since early January, said Nature magazine in a recent article. Glaciers cover the terrain in both these regions Read more

The Hindu 25 April 2017
The climate fight is global: Farmers from Tamil Nadu were gathered in Delhi recently, carrying skulls, apparently belonging to those among them who had committed suicide. They were seeking government assistance following the worst drought in the State in recent times. Concurrently, there are several droughts in many other parts of the world  Read more

HUMAN-ANIMAL CONFLICT

The Hindu 18 April 2017 
Understanding crowd dynamics: Anyone scanning the headlines for the past month would conclude that India is in the throes of irrevocable human-wildlife conflict. In this time period, a tiger was crushed by a JCB machine near Corbett while a mob screamed on, a leopard was burnt in Sariska by a crowd which also stoned forest department personnel, and a 33-member herd of elephants  Read more

WETLANDS, RIVERS & WATER 

The Hindustan Times 6 April 2017 
East Kolkata Wetlands: The wonder, threats and battle to preserve it: On March 22, World Water Day, when the chief of a global wetland convention cited the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW) as a model for sustainable use of water, a real estate agent in the city offered to sell plots in its protected area. Ganesh Dasgupta of land dealing firm Sai Gardens Read more

The Times of India 13 April 2017 
Stricter penalty for polluting Ganga on cards Stricter penalty for polluting Ganga on cards Stricter penalty for polluting Ganga on cards: Days after the Uttarakhand high court granted the status of living entity to Ganga, a committee of experts submitted on Wednesday its draft model law to the government suggesting strict penalty, including jail term, to those polluting the river and its tributaries like Yamuna and obstructing their flow.   Read more

WILDLIFE & ENDANGERED SPECIES 

The Hindu 19 April 2017 
Buzz over photograph of Indian wolf in Sundarbans: A picture of purportedly an Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) captured by a naturalist has taken wildlife enthusiasts and forest department officials in West Bengal by surprise. While the State forest department was yet to verify the veracity of the claim, the photograph has sparked speculation whether the Indian wolf, categorised as endangered Read more

The Hindu 21 April 2017 
Nod for uranium exploration proposal in Amrabad tiger reserve: A proposal for uranium exploration in the Amrabad Tiger Reserve has been cleared by the Telangana State Board for Wildlife on Tuesday, paving the way for mining of the subterranean element used in nuclear reactors and in production of nuclear weapons.  Read more

The Times of India 24 April 2017 
Conservationists go wild over Gujarat Tourism ad on endangered ass: During the Uttar Pradesh elections in March, former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had kicked up a political storm after he referred to Gujarat Tourism advertisements on the endangered Asiatic wild ass as Gujarat ke Gadhey to bray down his opponents. Now, conservationists are wild over a latest tourism ad on these endangered animals. Now, conservationists are wild over a latest tourism ad on these Read more

The Hindustan Times 25 April 2017
Parliamentary panel seeks lifting of ban on shahtoosh trade in Jammu and Kashmir: A parliamentary panel has recommended lifting of a ban on the trade in shahtoosh shawls, woven from the fur of an endangered Tibetan antelope, to provide livelihood opportunities to many in conflict-ridden Jammu and Kashmir. Read more

The Hindu 26 April 2017
On tribal’s and tigers:   The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) recently ordered that there would be no tribal rights under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA) in critical tiger habitats. This direction is not only bad in law, but is also symptomatic of defective conservation  Read more

The Pioneer 27 April 2017 
11 tiger deaths reported in Karnataka in 4 months: Karnataka which has the highest number of tigers in the wild has seen terrible 11 tiger deaths in just four months for various reasons. According to Karnataka Forest Department statistics and source from the Tiger net, the official directory for tigers and other wildlife mortality Read more