Was the wrong tiger killed in Kumaon?

LUCKNOW: A day after Uttarakhand forest officials shot a tiger claiming it had killed six people in and around Kumaon's Corbett Reserve, doubts are being raised if the big cat felled on Thursday was a man-eater.

The Corbett authorities who had earlier claimed that the man-eater was a tigress, on Friday said the feline shot by Ramnagar forest officials was a "rare specimen with female characterstics". With deformity in both its hind claws, the pug marks of the tiger made them look like that of a tigress. "Whatever doubts have arisen, could be because of this assumption of ours," said Corbett park warden U C Tiwari on Friday adding, "it was a tiger with female characteristics."

The contention was outrightly rejected by wildlife experts. "The pug mark impressions are very distinct and are impressions of paws and not claws," said former director of Dudhwa G C Mishra. He added that this leaves little chance of a goof up. "We are yet to come across a tiger with "female characteristics," he said.

"If they have killed a wrong tiger and a man-eater is still at large, killings (of men) will take place in some 15-20 days," he warned.

Former director, Project Tiger, R L Singh said: "I agree that pug marks are misleading evidence, but I have never ever come across a tiger with any of its claws like that of a female. Though the cubs can have their claws look like that of a female, the Corbett tiger was an old one."

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Needed: Rapid rescue teams for leopards

NEW DELHI: Wildlife experts want rapid response teams set up in sensitive areas across the country to deal with human-leopard conflicts. After three leopards were killed last week, experts said the environment ministry must frame an action plan to swiftly rescue the big cats when they stray into towns and villages. The killings took place within five days in separate regions. In each case, the cat had strayed into an inhabited areas and could not find a way out.

On the afternoon of January 9, a policeman shot dead a rampaging leopard to stop it from mauling a man who had stepped out of a bar in Maharashtra's Karad city. Three days later, a male leopard strayed into Kheri Gujran village near the Aravalis in Haryana's Faridabad district and attacked a woman. An angry mob broke tranquilizer guns brought by rescue teams and beat the animal to death. There was a rerun of the scene a day later on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, Orissa, when villagers killed a leopard.

Big cat specialists say these incidents indicate India's leopards are coming under increasing stress. "It is high time the Centre formulated guidelines to deal with these situations," said Qamar Qureshi of Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India. "We need trained people to reach stranded leopards before the mob does."

Qureshi said it is possible to set up rapid response teams in all problem areas without spending a lot of money. "All you need to do is train three to five local forest officials for the job, have a veterinary care unit, a vehicle and some basic equipment. This would save lives and protect the animals," the big cat expert said.

He said despite leopard encounters being by far the most commonly occurring human-carnivore conflict in India, it has not got the attention it deserves. "Sadly, the leopard is not an iconic animal like the tiger. Its numbers are relatively high and so its killings do not make big news."

Qureshi has a point. Leopard poaching has reached alarming levels. The Wildlife Protection Society of India recorded 3,552 killings since 1994. Other reports say one leopard is killed every day in the country.

"Poaching and forced translocation of leopards are probably among the main reasons for human-leopard conflicts," said Vidya Athreya, a wildlife biologist working specifically on the problem.

Citing her own research on leopard conflicts in Maharashtra, Athreya said removals through poaching and translocation lead to other leopards occupying the 'vacated' territories. "These leopards are new to the area and are more liable to come into contact with human beings or prey on livestock." Vidya said there was a sharp fall in leopard attacks in Borivili and Jhunnar – two conflict hotspots in Maharashtra – since translocation of trapped animals to other places was stopped. "Now, the trapped leopards are released in the same area and seldom cause trouble," she said.

Shrinking habitats is the most cited cause of conflict. "Leopards are great survivors," said co-founder of Wildlife SOS Kartick Satyanarayan, whose team members were almost beaten up trying to rescue the leopard at Kheri Gujran.

"They have traditionally lived at the edge of human habitations. Now, more and more unused land where leopards usually live unseen by humans is being developed."

Athreya said the government needs to study all aspects of this complex problem if the majestic feline is to co-exist peacefully with humans – as is still the case in many parts of the country
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Jairam’s panel seeks forest reforms, his babus for status quo

The UPA will not find it easy to change the way India's forests are governed. The proof lies in the forest bureaucracy's response to the N C Saxena panel's recommendations for systematic long-term changes in the relations between foresters, tribals and the forests.

The panel was meant to review implementation of the Forest Rights Act. It made several recommendations as to why the act was being held up and why the way forests are governed needed to be changed.

The panel's logic was driven in parallel with the Congress leadership's concerns in central India where it feels tribal alienation is feeding Left-wing violence. It has asked the government to find ways of giving more control, rights and benefits to those who originally own the forests and live in proximity to them.

The National Advisory Council and ministries of home, panchayati raj, tribal affairs, environment and rural development are all brainstorming on how to go about it.

But for environment minister Jairam Ramesh , it has been tough convincing his own forest officials of the merit of having a more democratic forest regime.

The director general of forests – the highest forest official in the country – has suggested it will not be wise to
hand control back to villages over forests they have traditionally used. Even if that is done, the villages must sign a contract with the forest department over how they use it and how they are controlled. The asymmetry of power is too blatant for this to be a fair agreement. Otherwise, why would the government think Naxalism feeds on the anger people feel against the forest department besides other government agencies?

The environment ministry is also trying to maintain its grip on these forests by finding such roundabout ways to continue with the Joint Forest Management regime – another contract scheme where foresters control how community lands are managed instead of letting the gram sabhas do so. The logic proffered is gram sabhas are too political and partisan and incapable of managing them. There is a hidden suggestion in this logic that democracy works only for the literate, rich city dwellers.

For a forest bureaucracy with a better record of 'saving' forests from tribals than from powerful industrial lobbies, this may be a bit rich. While UPA at the centre and state governments work to withdraw lakhs of petty cases foisted on tribals by foresters – for acts like walking in the forests and getting firewood – it may be worthwhile to consider another long-term scenario, where the forester is not the khaki-clad, gun-wielding lord of the jungle
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Australia faces worse storms: Climate experts

SYDNEY: Australia will face storms of increasing intensity as a result of climate change, a respected think-tank said Friday as the nation reeled from the devastation wrought by Cyclone Yasi.

Yasi, a maximum-category five storm reportedly large enough to cover most of the United States and with winds stronger than Hurricane Katrina, hit Queensland on Thursday, packing winds of up to 290 kilometres (180 miles) per hour.

Researchers at the prestigious Climate Institute in Sydney said that warmer temperatures were expected to produce more intense torrential downpours like Yasi, particularly in the country's tropical north.

"For Queensland, this is likely to spell storms and floods of increasing ferocity over a greater part of the state," the Climate Institute said in a press release.

"Sadly, Australia must prepare for more of these types of catastrophic events and even greater extremes as climate change drives more frequent and more intense wild weather," said John Connor, the institute's head.

The biggest storm to hit Australia in a century wrought huge damage to small coastal communities, cutting some of them off completely. But while two men were reported missing, there were no confirmed deaths caused directly by Yasi.

Queensland is still recovering from a record deluge and floods that destroyed tens of thousands of homes and killed more than 30 people last month.

The Climate Institute is calling for urgent measures to arrest global warming as north Queensland recovers from the twin disasters.

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We expect leadership from India: UN climate chief

NEW DELHI: India played an "exceedingly helpful role" in the last climate summit and "we expect the same this year and beyond", UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said here Saturday.

"India represented its own interests and stood firm with other developing countries, and then was incredibly helpful in showing that it's mostly in the interest of developing countries to move forward" to combat global warming, said Figueres, executive secretary to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Speaking to a small group of reporters on the sidelines of the Feb 3-5 Delhi Sustainable Development Summit organised by The Energy and Resources Institute, Figueres praised India for having "brought forward new concepts to bridge the North-South divide".

The climate changes are already affecting farm output, making droughts, floods and storms more frequent and more intense, and also raising the sea level.

The UNFCCC head from Costa Rica gave examples.

"India's concept that all countries need equitable access to sustainable development was a very good contribution," she said. "So was the idea of international consultation and analysis (of actions by developing countries and aid by the developed nations). Minister (Jairam) Ramesh was incredibly helpful in putting down a 10-point concept note on this."

Ramesh has been criticized by some NGOs and former members of the Indian negotiating team for moving away from the country's earlier position that instead of asking the developing countries to do anything, industrialized countries must do much more to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases they release into the atmosphere.

With rich countries led by the US opposing this view, global climate negotiations have been stuck for many years.

The world is now looking at a scenario where the Kyoto Protocol -- the only global deal that obliges rich countries to reduce emissions -- may be lamed after 2012 because many industrialized nations are refusing to commit to such reductions after that.

Figueres said that while the world had to "resolve what we are going to do with the Kyoto Protocol, I hope India takes leadership in ensuring enhanced (emission reduction) commitments" from developed countries.

As for the developing countries including India, tFigueres said "they are doing it in their own interest because their first responsibility is poverty eradication, and they can use the international mechanisms from the Cancun agreement for their national programmes." Cancun, in Mexico, hosted the last climate summit.

On the agreement itself, the UN climate chief described it as "very important for the community of nations, but a very small step for the planet. It's the largest and most far-reaching effort ever for emission reductions and probably the most comprehensive package to support developing countries" to move towards a greener economy.

As examples of what the Cancun Agreement had achieved, Figueres referred to the setting up of the Green Climate Fund, under which rich countries are supposed to provide $100 billion from 2020 to combat global warming.

She also referred to the setting up of a mechanism to share green technologies, a process India has coordinated for years.

But she agreed that the emission reduction commitments from all countries would only go 60 percent of the way to restrict global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius, a key goal of the agreement.

"We expect industrialized countries to take on deeper (emission) cuts," she said.

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Now, generate green power from your balcony!

WASHINGTON: Apart from that perfect view, your balcony can be used for something more valuable-a personal generator that converts wind and sun to power from a balcony.

Industrial designer Jonathan Globerson's Greenerator design could be a way to preserve the view while reducing reliance on coal, reports Discovery News.

Looking a little like a cross between a double helix and a barber shop pole, the Greenerator design calls for a wind turbine, a half-dome shaped compartment for the generator, a controller, ultracapacitor, inverter and a solar panel attached to a balcony edge with a rail clamp and floor screws.

Globerson's design calls for magnetic levitation to reduce the wind turbine friction, as well as flexible thin-film solar cells that would require less material than traditional solar panels.

According to his design specs, the Greenerator wouldn't be powering your whole apartment, but it could reduce the annual cost of electricity by 6 percent.

The Greenerator alone could power a refrigerator or a 32" flat panel TV, which strikes me as being fairly impressive for such a seemingly small generator.

So far, a 1:4 scale prototype of the Greenerator is up and running: According to Globerson's site, "the prototype turbine works, although from watching the video I think the design will need streamlining to reduce vibration and noise. Plus, I'd want anything metallic that's attached to my balcony to go through extensive safety testing-not just for humans, but also for wildlife."

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US water has large amounts of likely carcinogen: Study

WASHINGTON: A US environmental group has found that drinking water in 35 American cities contains hexavalent chromium, a probable carcinogen, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The study by the Environmental Working Group -- the first nationwide analysis measuring the presence of the chemical in US water systems -- is to be made public on Monday, the daily reported.

The group found hexavalent chromium in the tap water of 31 out of 35 cities sampled. Of those, 25 had levels that exceeded the goal proposed in California, which has been trying aggressively to reduce the chemical in its water supply.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency is considering whether to set a limit for hexavalent chromium in tap water. The agency is reviewing the chemical after the National Institutes of Health, deemed it a "probable carcinogen" in 2008.

Hexavalent chromium has long been known to cause lung cancer when inhaled, and scientists recently found evidence that it causes cancer in laboratory animals when ingested. It has been linked in animals to liver and kidney damage as well as leukemia, stomach cancer and other cancers.

A widely used industrial chemical until the early 1990s, hexavalent chromium still used in some industries, such as in chrome plating and the manufacturing of plastics and dyes. The chemical can also leach into groundwater from natural ores.

The chemical compound was first made famous in the hit 2000 Hollywood movie " Erin Brockovich" about the eponymous environmental crusader who also commented on the EWG's alarming finding.

"This chemical has been so widely used by so many industries across the US that this doesn't surprise me," said Brockovich, known for her fight on behalf of the residents of Hinkley, California against Pacific Gas & Electric.

In that case, PG&E was accused of leaking hexavalent chromium into the town's groundwater for more than 30 years, and ultimately was made to pay 333 million dollars in damages to more than 600 inhabitants of the town, which it was required to clean up.

"Our municipal water supplies are in danger all over the US," Brockovich told The Post. "This is a chemical that should be regulated.
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