TOI : Madhya Pradesh unsuitable for big cats: Study

TNN Jun 25, 2013, 02.49AM IST

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-06-25/flora-fauna/40184824_1_two-tigers-madhya-pradesh-palpur-kuno

AHMEDABAD: Madhya Pradesh is a major poaching ground with a strong gun culture. This was the finding of Empower Foundation, a Mumbai based NGO working on Sanjay Gandhi National Park's man-animal conflict.

The NGO in its report submitted to the forest department has stated that lions should not be translocated to Kuno as Madhya Pradesh is known to be a major poaching ground and the state has lost 453 tigers out of 710 (63% loss) in a decade. The state as per the 2011 census has only 257 tigers. The loss of tiger in Madhya Pradesh was 50 per cent of the total loss of the tigers across the world.

Jalpesh Mehta has claimed that between 2000 and 2010, about 1079 tigers have died across the globe and of these 453 were in Madhya Pradesh itself.

It was also pointed out that Sariska and Panna have recently lost all their tigers. The two sanctuaries had 28 and 25 tigers respectively and Palpur Kuno had only two tigers. Once upon a time, Kuno used to have 25 tigers.

Sheopur district has 4800 fire arm licenses for a population of six lakh and the sanctuary area was once a hub of dacoits from Chambal. As these are licensed guns, one cannot estimate the illegal fire arms present in the area. Also the state has an adjoining sensitive location - situated on the border of three states namely Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Geographically, Mehta said that the hilly terrain of Kuno-Palpur forest with very little water sources unlike Gir region will also not support translocation.

The government of Madhya Pradesh has declared Sheopur as a drought-prone area and district affected by natural calamity. These conditions are unfavourable for lion translocation.

Further, he added that tigers and bears live in Kuno-Palpur and this would lead to in-fighting and territorial wars among the wild animals, further increasing the chances of man-animal conflict.

TOI : Threat to conservation: Lion bone trade on rise

TNN Jun 25, 2013, 06.44AM IST

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-06-25/flora-fauna/40184311_1_lion-skeleton-lion-bones-lion-conservation

AHMEDABAD: The international market value of lion bones range between $ 300 and $ 500 for every kilogram. The bones are used in China for traditional Chinese medicines. Lion bones are being used as substitutes for tiger bone potions, finds Empower Foundation, a Mumbai based NGO working on Sanjay Gandhi National Park's man-animal conflict.

In 2007, eight lions were killed in Gir by poachers from MP. Investigations carried out by CID (Crime) officials had concluded with the arrest of several poachers including Sarkas Lal, leader of this poachers' gang

In that case too, CID officials had concluded that the lion bones were passed off as tiger bones and were smuggled to China for "medicinal purposes."

The report submitted to the government stated that South Africa has been supplying a considerable volume of lion bones to mainly Laos, Vietnam and China. A warning against such trade has been issued by LionAid, an organisation which is into lion conservation. LionAid has warned that such trade could well stimulate a demand that would increasingly involve poaching of lions.

The South African trade involves lion breeders, canned lion hunters and taxidermists. The value of a lion skeleton could therefore be in excess of $10,000. "In China, lion bones are soaked for a variable period in rice wine, whereas in Laos and Vietnam, the bones are made into a paste with added ingredients like herbs. The paste is then dissolved in rice wine. Such bone tonics are used to treat a variety of ailments. Bones from wild lions are considered more efficacious than those bred in captivity. In South Africa, Vietnamese and Thai nationals have been arrested at O R Tambo International Airport with illegal lion bones in their luggage, but levels of the illegal trade are considered much higher than such occasional seizures suggest.

The report stated that lion carcasses should now be treated with the same degree of suspicion. As per LionAid, in India, all carcasses of tigers are considered poaching incidents and same treatment has to be given to lion carcasses.

DNA : Shifting Gir lions will bring disaster: Experts

Tuesday, Jun 25, 2013, 10:35 IST | Place: Ahmedabad | Agency: DNA

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1852708/report-shifting-gir-lions-will-bring-disaster-experts

The issue of translocation of Asiatic Lions from Gir sanctuary to Madhya Pradesh has hit another wall — this time that of an NGO. The social organisation has opposed the move on various grounds, including the fact that most of earlier translocation attempts carried out in independent India had failed, often endangering the animals.

The NGO’s analysis of the arguments, on which the translocation of lions was finally allowed, shows that several factors relating to shifting the big cat were either not considered or ignored while allowing the translocation.

The NGO, Empower Foundation’s analysis titled — ‘Failure of the proposed lion translocation to Kuno Palpur, Madhya Pradesh’ —  also found that the government has not strongly positioned the fact that the lion habitat in Gujarat goes much beyond Gir.

Jalpesh Mehta and his team who carried out the analysis said the argument regarding an epidemic killing the entire populace of lion does not hold true as the lions are not concentrated in Gir alone, but have dispersed far and wide.

“If an epidemic can kill all the lions, the same thing can happen to all the tigers in the MP-Rajasthan-Maharashtra belt and Karnataka-Kerala-Tamil Nadu belt as the distance in these areas is more or less similar between Gir and other areas where lions are found,” said Mehta.

The NGO  also talks of the stress suffered by animals during capture and transfer to new locations apart from citing several cases of failed translocations particularly those concerning carnivores.  

The NGO argues that there is no history of any major successful translocation in India. The study mentions 10 cases of failed translocations of elephants, gaurs, leopards, rhinos, African and Asiatic Lions (from Gir to Chandraprabha Wildlife Sanctuary in UP in 1956), which show only 16% success rate in a study of 119 cases of translocated animals. In the rest of the cases, the animals returned causing major conflicts, dying or being killed by locals due to severe man-animal conflicts.

DNA : Lion translocation : NGO sites 10 failures in the past !

Ahmedabad: The issue of translocation of Asiatic Lions from Gir sanctuary to Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno-Palpur has hit another wall — this time that of an NGO. The social organisation opposes the move on various grounds, including the fact that most of earlier translocation attempts carried out in Independent India ended in failures, often endangering the animal itself.

 

The NGO’s analysis of the arguments, on which the translocation of lions was finally allowed, shows that several factors relating to shifting the big cat was either not considered or ignored while allowing for the translocation.

 

NGO, Empower Foundation’s analysis titled, ‘Failure of the proposed lion translocation to Kuno Palpur, Madhya Pradesh’ also found that the government has not rightly and strongly positioned the fact that the lion habitat in Gujarat goes much beyond Gir.

 

The analysis argues that there is no history of any major successful translocation in India. The study mentions 10 case of failed translocations covering elephants, gaurs, leopards, rhinos, African and Asiatic Lions (from Gir to Chandraprabha Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh in 1956), which show only 16% success rate in a study of 119 cases of translocated animals. In the rest of the cases, the animals returned causing major conflicts, dying or being killed by locals due to severe man-animal conflicts. Mehta said that even in case of captured leopards, they were released in areas similar to their earlier homes, but it was observed that the animals found their way to their original habitat.

 

Jalpesh Mehta and his team who carried out the analysis opine that the argument regarding an epidemic killing the entire populace of lion does not hold true as the lions are not concentrated in Gir alone, but have dispersed far and wide.“If an epidemic can kill all the lions, the same thing can happen to all the tigers in the MP-Rajasthan-Maharashtra belt and Karnataka-Kerala-Tamil Nadu belt as the distance in these areas is more or less similar to that between Gir and other areas where the lions are spread,” said Mehta.

 

The analysis also talks of the stress suffered by animals during capture and transfer to new locations apart from citing various cases of failed translocations particularly those concerning carnivores. It also mentions other problems associated with releasing an animal into a new location including predation, starvation and movement away from the actual release site. 

 

“There was some success in translocation of rhinos in Assam. But then the one-horned rhinos are herbivores,” Mehta explained.

 

Apart from the above points the analysis has also made references to MP’s high incidence of poaching and Kuno-Palpur’s drought-prone status. 

 

The NGO has already sent a copy of the analysis to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and the state forest department too.