Wildlife Conservation

Indian wildlife:-

  The wildlife of India is a mix of species of diverse origins. The region's rich and diverse wildlife is preserved in numerous national parks and wildlife sanctuaries across the country. Since India is home to a number of rare and threatened animal species, wildlife management in the country is essential to preserve these species. According to one study, India is home to about 60-70% of the world's biodiversity. India, lying within the Indomalaya ecozone, is home to about 7.6% of all mammalian, 12.6% of avian, 6.2% of reptilian, and 6.0% of flowering plant species.

Many ecoregions, such as the shola forests, also exhibit extremely high rates of endemism; overall, 33% of Indian plant species are endemic. India's forest cover ranges from the tropical rainforest of the Andaman Islands, Western Ghats, and Northeast India to the coniferous forest of the Himalaya. Between these extremes lie the sal-dominated moist deciduous forest of eastern India; teak-dominated dry deciduous forest of central and southern India; and the babul-dominated thorn forest of the central Deccan and western Gangetic plain. Important Indian trees include the medicinal neem, widely used in rural Indian herbal remedies. The pipal fig tree, shown on the seals of Mohenjo-daro, shaded the Gautama Buddha as he sought enlightenment.

 
In recent decades, human encroachment has posed a threat to India's wildlife; in response, the system of national parks and protected areas, first established in 1935, was substantially expanded. In 1972, India enacted the Wildlife Protection Act and Project Tiger to safeguard crucial habitat; further federal protections were promulgated in the 1980s. Along with over 500 wildlife sanctuaries, India now hosts 14 biosphere reserves, four of which are part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves; 25 wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention. The varied and rich wildlife of India has had a profound impact on the region's popular culture. Common name for wilderness in India is Jungle which was adopted by the British colonialists to the English language. The word has been also made famous in The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. India's wildlife has been the subject of numerous other tales and fables such as the Panchatantra and the Jataka tales.
The gradual emergence of the human beings as the most dominant species among all other species of animals and the attempt of the human beings to set themselves apart from other species is the main underlying cause of the contemporary environmental disaster. The main reason behind a threat to the wildlife and the ecosystem is the constantly growing deforestation, poaching and negligence towards animals and nature. The Indian Government has started nature projects like, Project Tiger, Nature Camps, Jungle Lodges, etc. to encourage wildlife awareness among the common people. Besides preserving the natural heritage, these projects also promote eco-tourism.

Project Elephant

Project Elephant (PE) is a wildlife conservation project initiated in India in February 1992 with the aim to provide financial and technical support to major elephant bearing States in the country for protection of elephants, their habitats and corridors.
Though this centrally sponsored scheme began with a thrust on elephant conservation in the various elephant populous bio-geographical regions of the country, it expanded its view to adopt a more comprehensive approach to the subsidiary issues of human-elephant conflict and welfare of domesticated elephants.
The Project demarcated 13 States to implement its efforts to maintaining a viable Elephant population in their natural habitat. The states being:

• Andhra pradesh
• Arunachal Pradesh
• Assam
• Jharkhand
• Karnataka
• Kerala
• Meghalaya
• Nagaland
• Orissa
• Tamil Nadu
• Uttranchal
• Uttar Pradesh
• West Bengal

For a better understanding of the main activities of the Project, they are listed below:

• Ecologically restoring the existing natural habitats and migratory routes of elephants
• Developing of scientific methods for conservation of elephant habitats and viable population of Wild Asiatic elephants in India and ensuring their continuance through planned management.
• Promoting measures for mitigating man-elephant conflict in crucial habitats and as far as possible negating the undue pressures of human and domestic stock activities in crucial elephant habitats
• Ensuring strictest adherence to "No poaching" acts formulated for Wild elephants and minimizing cases of unnatural deaths of elephants due to human or other interference.
• Research on Elephant management related issues.
• Conducting Public education and awareness programmes.
• Providing for veterinary care of the wild elephants.
• Undertaking Eco-development as a major step to fortify their efforts at wildlife conservation.

 

Project Rhinoceros

 Genetic census of Greater One-horned Rhino in Gorumara National Park, West Bengal, India

Effective management and long term conservation of Greater One-horned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) may in future take benefits of a multidisciplinary approach, including the use of molecular tools in genetic monitoring of natural populations. For the first time in the history of Greater One-horned Rhino census, advanced genetic tools have been used in Gorumara National Park of West Bengal, India. As part of a project undertaken by Aaranyak with financial support from Asian Rhino Project, Australia, dung DNA analysis based techniques have been used to determine minimum number of rhinos present in Gorumara and to understand the contemporary extent of genetic diversity in the population.
Gorumara National Park is one of the two rhino bearing protected areas in the state of West Bengal in India. Gorumara is situated in Northern West Bengal and is a part of the Eastern Himalayan submontane Terai belt and falls into the Indomalayan ecozone. The Park with 79.99 km lies in the floodplains of Mukti and Raidak rivers. The major river in the Park is Jaldhaka, a tributary to the Brahmaputra. Gorumara has a known small population size of rhinos (42, according to the census conducted by the Forest Department in the year 2012), with a reported skewed sex ratio with higher number of males that the females. Moreover, According to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India, in the year 2009, Gorumara is one of the best managed National Parks in the country.
 

Strengthening conservation measures of Greater one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) in Orang National Park, Assam, India.

ARP is proud to support another  Aaranyak project in Assam. Though the Greater One horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) is considered as vulnerable by IUCN it is still in high risk for its survival in Assam because of severe threats from poachers, wildlife trafficking, fragmentation and degradation of its habitat in past couple of decades.  Assam is one of the last strongholds of the GOHR with a total population of2201 as estimated by the Assam Forest Department in the year 2009. Orang National Park, with an area of 78.8 sq. km. is an important rhino bearing area having 64 wild rhinos as estimated by Assam Forest Department in 2009. The rhino population in Orang National Park is fluctuating from 35 rhinos in the year 1972 to 97 rhinos in the year 1991 and which is again reduced to 64 rhinos in the 2009. This fluctuation of rhino population in Orang National Park is mainly due to the severe intesity of poaching in comparison to other rhino bearing areas of Assam. From 1983 to 2009, 122 rhinos were poached in Orang National Park. During the period from 2006 to 2009 approximately 30 rhinos were poached in the park. The major factors attributable to the increased  poaching are lack of awareness among the local stakeholders about the need to conserve rhinos, unscientific monitoring system of rhino and lack of socio-economic database of the fringe villages of the park.