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The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has cleared 18 out of 25 projects in some of the most crucial wildlife zones of the country, including five key tiger reserves.

None of the proposals brought before it at its 34th meeting on June 2, chaired by Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, was rejected.

Only four proposals were deferred. A site visit was asked for in one case, and one was referred back to the state wildlife board.

The NBWL cleared six projects inside or on the fringes of five tiger habitats.

These include the diversion of one hectare of forestland for a Police Skills Community building inside the Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh, the upgrade of National Highway-116 on the fringes of the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, and a pipeline project inside Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan.

Also cleared were plans for a new Land and Custom station from Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary under Dudhwa Tiger Reserve in Uttar Pradesh, and a residential-cum-commercial complex inside the Rajaji National Park in Hardwar, Uttarakhand.

The board has also cleared the setting up of the South Asian University at Maidan Garhi Delhi, just 100 metres away from the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary, and an Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management project inside the eco-sensitive zone of Bir Motibagh Wildlife Sanctuary in Patiala.

Also given clearance are two optical fibre projects of Idea Cellular under Nagarjunasagar Wildlife Management Division in Hyderabad.

Other projects include a road widening project in Lower Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh, a road construction in 19.50 hectare forest land in Khara Conservation Reserve in Poonch, and a road in 3 hectare of forestland inside National Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh.

Clearance was given to the widening of NH-17 inside the eco-sensitive zone of Karnala Bird Sanctuary in Maharashtra, and a road project inside the Kyongnosla Alpine Sanctuary in Sikkim.

Also green-lighted were an underground crude oil pipeline inside the eco-zone of Balaram Ambaji and Jessore Sloth Bear Sanctuary in Gujarat, and the construction of a bridge across Yamuna River in Etawah inside the eco-sensitive zone of Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh.

The committee also recommended a flyover and transmission line elevation project in Hardwar.

As wildlife experts call for "extra mitigation and maintenance measures" in the wake of an increased tiger count from 1,706 in 2010 to 2,226 in 2014, the Modi Government has come under sharp criticism.

Environment and wildlife lawyer Sanjay Upadhyay said: "We are in the process of challenging this, as the Standing Committee has to be derived from the national board, which in the present case has not been done.

"The board was constituted on the Supreme Court's directions but the Standing Committee has not been formed.

"Protected areas comprise only 4.3 per cent of the country's area while core (prime) habitat is just 0.9 per cent. At least this needs to be spared. Every attempt should be made to save these last remaining wildlife areas," he said.

Upadhyay said: "There is simply no institutional mechanism to monitor compliance and mitigation and the Government is neither equipped nor skilled to check this. The NTCA is a toothless body."

Director General (Forests) S.S. Garbyal, who heads the Environment Ministry's wildlife vertical, said: "I don't remember (on what was cleared). You can talk to ADG (wildlife)."

B.S. Bonal, member-secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, said: "The committee has decided the proposals. It is on a case-to-case basis. Conditions have to be placed by NTCA when it comes before us."

Nearly 40 killed and 10,000 evacuated in Gujarat floods

A lion jumped out on the highway adjoining the Gir forests and a deer took sanctuary under a sand dune as flash flooding triggered by torrential rains killed 38 people in Gujarat.

A cell phone video of the lion roaming on the highway, shot by a tourist, has gone viral.

Over 10,000 people were evacuated from the affected region with the help of National Disaster Relief Force, sections of Indian Air Force and state disaster relief troops, who were busy rescuing distressed people in the otherwise drought-prone Saurashtra region.

According to State Relief Commissioner DN Pandey, 27 people were reported dead in Amreli, 4 in Rajkot, 3 in Bhavnagar, 2 in Surat, and one each from Bharuch and Valsad districts.

However, officials in district control rooms have put the toll at 41.

According to the data available with the state control room, around 1,500 people in Amreli, over 4,000 in Rajkot and about 100 in Bhavnagar were shifted to safer places.

As many as 60 villages in Amreli were marooned completely as the rivers in the district were in a spate of floods. The situation improved a little on Thursday with the rains almost abating across the state.

The depression in the Arabian Sea that caused the cloudburst in the Gujarat region on Wednesday had now moved northeastwards and weakened into a low pressure area over northwest Madhya Pradesh and adjoining south Uttar Pradesh.

Official sources, however, said that the affected region faced problems of power failures and severe water-logging, which made it difficult for people to negotiate their way to their homes.

The state government began distributing food packets to people in the affected areas with help of helicopters.

The Indian Air Force had deployed four choppers to aid the state government, with two on stand by.

The state has announced that it has begun the survey of the destruction to property in Saurashtra region and will be issuing financial aid to the affected within next 10 days.

Official sources said the rains have also seen nine of the total 137 reservoirs in the parched Saurashtra region achieve over 90 per cent of their storage capacity, with another 14 receiving more than 70 per cent of their storage capacity.

MeT has meanwhile forecast mild to moderate thundershowers across Saurashtra and South Gujarat over the next two days.

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Centre slammed for clearing development projects near wildlife zones

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The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has cleared 18 out of 25 projects in some of the most crucial wildlife zones of the country, including five key tiger reserves. None of the proposals brought before it at its 34th meeting on June 2, chaired by Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, was rejected.

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Development projects pose threat to tiger habitats

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Development projects pose threat to tiger habitats

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In a grim reminder of the threats that India's tigers face, a report released on July 23 lists 399 road, irrigation and railway projects that could impact tiger habitats in eight States comprising the Central India-Eastern Ghats landscape.

The report, prepared by the not-for-profit Wildlife Conservation Trust which works with the government on wildlife and forest conservation, banked on information on 1,697 linear development projects that require the diversion of 57,071 hectares of forest land.

These projects, proposed in central India and the Eastern Ghats, have been listed on the website of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change since July 2014.

Researchers who analysed this information found that 399 of these projects - estimated at ₹1,30,000 crores - will pass through potential tiger corridors in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.

'Win-win solution'

Irrigation projects that will cut tiger territory include the Ken-Betwa link project in Madhya Pradesh, while road development proposals include the Nakerrekal to Mallampally portion of NH-365 in Telangana. For a majority of these projects (345), agencies that implement the work on ground have denied the requirement of wildlife clearances; and since more than 80% of these projects are still in various stages of clearances, there is "an opportunity to suggest corrective measures and incorporate mitigation structures so as to achieve a win-win solution for both development and wildlife," the report adds. However, ground realities are different, said wildlife biologist Imran Siddiqui, who studies tigers in Telangana.

"Many projects listed from Andhra and Telangana are in various stages of completion," he said. "There is no body to make sure projects comply with the conditions laid down by statutory bodies."

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Development projects pose threat to tiger habitats

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In a grim reminder of the threats that India's tigers face, a report released on July 23 lists 399 road, irrigation and railway projects that could impact tiger habitats in eight States comprising the Central India-Eastern Ghats landscape.

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Poaching still remains the biggest threat to Indian tigers 

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Poaching still remains the biggest threat to Indian tigers 

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To understand the issue that plagues the royal Bengal tiger, our national animal, you only need to sample these statistics. about 100-120 years ago, the Indian tiger population was 100,000. Today, after all the humongous efforts made towards their conservation, the population stands at 2,226. In that same time frame, the human population of the world has gone from 2.5 billion to 7.5 billion. In the process, some tiger subspecies have been totally erased off the planet, while others are under the serious threat of extinction.
Thankfully, there is some good news too. Of all the tiger species that are under critical threat, the conservation efforts have turned the numbers around for the Indian Bengal tigers. In the 2011 census by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the population was estimated to be at 1,706 (i.e. 1,571-1,875). Today that number stands at 2,226 (1,945 - 2,491).

Jaydeep Das, a livelihood expert who is working in the state of Maharashtra, where the population right now stands at 190, explains, "These numbers are gathered based on all tigers that are captured on camera traps. And only adults above three years of age are counted. Since it is an estimate, the census is often released with a minimum and maximum range."

There is still a long, long way to go before we hit the optimum mark though, say conservationists, who point out that most conservation efforts continue to struggle against poaching and the human-animal conflict in India.

"In India, there is still a large threat of poaching. There are huge amounts of money riding on these tigers. In fact, some of these tigers are pre-sold even before they are born! Nomadic communities in India are often involved in poaching and sending tiger parts across borders. Until China takes strict measures to implement the ban on tiger trade, for which we need international pressure, the struggle will continue," adds Das.

Abishek Harihar, a Tiger Scientist for Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organisation, also concurs, "Poaching is one of the most critical threats facing the Indian tiger. Tigers are large carnivores that naturally occur at low densities and require vast swathes of forests to live in. Unfortunately, most protected areas with tigers in India are small and surrounded by a sea of human population. This makes intervening forests (usually non-protected, multiple-use forests) critical connecting links. Increasingly a number of infrastructure projects (roads, dams, river-linking projects) are either diminishing connectivity between habitats or exerting pressure on critical tiger habitats. To name a few, the NH-7 between Kanha and Pench and the Ken-Betwa river linking project in Panna."

He also adds that human-tiger conflict (mainly 'cos of livestock losses) is also an area of concern in India. "This conflict could seriously undermine conservation gains unless adequately and appropriately addressed. In most tiger landscapes, only a few of the affected, impoverished households are able to secure compensation for losses incurred; this must be remedied. By not supporting and working with these communities, we could alienate our most important partners in conservation."

While the experts are putting in their sweat and blood to protect these big cats from going extinct, the solution actually lies in your hands. "Increased public interest in tigers is a critical factor driving conservation of the species. Meanwhile, these large populations and several high-profile sites receive a good deal of focus from central and local governments, yet, several small populations require greater attention to ensure that they don't disappear."

What you can do to help these big cats

To mark the International Tiger Day with dialogue on the big cats, the WWF launched an online campaign #ThumbsupforTiger. Animal activist and artist Asher Jay, who designed the TX2 campaign to buoy the WWF initiative to double wild tiger population by 2022, says, "All you have to do is colour your thumbs orange, add your unique tiger stripes and upload your photo and tagging @WWF Tigers. The idea is to galvanise public to participate and create support for those on the front lines of the conservation efforts. The campaign aims to create a social awareness structure that makes tiger relevant to the international vocabulary."

You can focus on how you impact tigers by your daily buying-selling. The products you buy, the fuel you put in your car, the donations you make each year - these choices can all make a difference.

You can fund national parks and empower ranger programs to enable local success.

Individuals and organisations can also think on the lines of enabling microeconomies in communities that need sustained regional income to coexist with tigers.

You can take up the initiative to educate local farmers on land management and the impact of encroachment.

Don't buy products with palm oil - it costs habitats for tigers in other countries.

Ensure your financial portfolio does not back companies that cause adverse impact.

Illegal timber is costing tiger ranges as well, harvested to make cheap Chinese furniture, that is then pumped into global supply chain. So know where you buy your table from. Source smartly and think of what you are really paying for. Look for furniture companies certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

For those who don't believe that sending out prayers through social media works, Asher also has some simple ways you could help the tigers.

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Poaching still remains the biggest threat to Indian tigers - Times of India

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
To understand the issue that plagues the royal Bengal tiger, our national animal, you only need to sample these statistics. about 100-120 years ago, the Indian tiger population was 100,000. Today, after all the humongous efforts made towards their conservation, the population stands at 2,226.