Is India Winning the War Against Pollution? The fight for cleaner air and water intensifies as the nation grapples with the escalating impacts of climate change. From the devastating floods in Assam to the alarming rise in air pollution levels in Delhi, environmental challenges demand urgent action. This week saw crucial discussions on sustainable agriculture and renewable energy sources at the India Climate Change Conference, highlighting the government's commitment to tackling deforestation and promoting biodiversity conservation. But are these efforts enough? Experts warn of looming water scarcity and the need for stricter regulations on industrial emissions. The future of India's environment hangs in the balance, demanding collective responsibility and innovative solutions. Explore Abtak.com for in-depth analysis and the latest updates on environmental policies, climate activism, and the ongoing struggle for a sustainable India. Discover how you can contribute to a greener tomorrow.
Bhubaneswar: With tigress Zeenat finding a mate in Similipal Tiger Reserve, and Yamuna also settling in the habitat, wildlife officials hope it will go a long way in bringing about genetic diversity in the big cat population."Both Zeenat and Yamuna almost getting settled in the reserve has marked the beginning of Similipal's journey to welcome genetic variation in big cats. Zeenat was released perfectly during her estrus cycle, during which she goes through hormonal changes, leaving no scope for further dispersal," said chief wildlife warden Prem Kumar Jha.Tiger population in Similipal has been growing at 18% annually since 2014, but 50% of the population is pseudo-melanistic, wildlife officials said. National Centre for Biological Sciences scientist Uma Ramakrishnan during her research in 2021 had suggested that genetic diversity is needed to check pseudo-melanism, a trait of inbreeding, and sustain big cats in Similipal. Ramakrishnan had proposed the translocation of tigers from the central India landscape as the big cat population in Similipal had less genetic diversity. "The findings also identified that the population is isolated, and inbreeding is going on. Therefore, a genetic rescue strategy was required, which is going to become successful now," Jha added.With approval of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve was chosen to select tigresses for translocation. Tigress Yamuna was identified in TATR as T-158 (S3), and Zeenat was known as T-163 (S1).In Feb, state govt released its own tiger estimation report that pegged Similipal's big cat population at 27. Of these, 24 were caught on camera trap, and it was found there are 10 males and 14 females.Zeenat was captured on Dec 29 last year in West Bengal after she dispersed and was released back into a soft enclosure on Jan 1. "On showing signs of estrus, male T-12 was attracted near Zeenat's enclosure. Taking the opportunity, she was finally released into the wild on April 17," Jha further said.Wildlife officials said that while they have video evidence of Zeenat getting a partner, they are yet to get any evidence of Yamuna finding a mate, although she has settled in the Similipal biosphere region under Kuldhia Wildlife Sanctuary. Yamuna was released in Similipal's South division. Zeenat was first released in the north, and in south the second time.Zeenat is being monitored round-the-clock by multiple tracking teams in eight-hour shifts, with each team having four personnel. "Monitoring is being done by walkie-talkies continuously as well as through satellite-based GPS location obtained every four hours," an official said.Former PCCF (wildlife), Susanta Nanda, during whose tenure the translocation started, said the revival of Similipal landscape and tiger population is now on the right track.
Bengaluru, Jun 28 (PTI) Two people were arrested on Saturday in connection with the death of a tigress and her four cubs in the Hugyam forest range of Male Mahadeshwara Hills, police said. The big cats were found dead on Thursday, and subsequent investigation revealed they were poisoned. The breakthrough came after the carcass of a poisoned cow belonging to Maada alias Maaduraju was found. According to police, Maaduraju was reportedly enraged after his cow named 'Kenchi' was preyed upon by wild animals. To avenge the loss, he sprayed poison on the cow's carcass. His friend Nagaraju too is ...Read More >
Ramnagar: (Uttarakhand): The tiger population is rising consistently in the Corbett Tiger Reserve and the forest fringes around it. These days, many tigresses are sighted frequently with their cubs roaming in the forests. This is a big achievement for the forest department but poses a serious challenge, as well. Tigers increased in Corbett and Forest Division: There are more than 260 adult tigers in the Corbett Tiger Reserve at present. Cubs less than two years of age are not included in this count. Apart from this, according to the last All India Tiger Estimation Report, the presence of 67 ...Read More >
BENGALURU: The death of two 10-day-old tiger cubs and the disappearance of their mother for the past two days in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS), 227 km from Bengaluru, has alarmed the forest department and the conservation community. On Monday, a forest foot-patrol team found a dead cub near Kirubanakallagudda in the Holemurdatti range of CWS. The following day, another cub was found dead a few metres away. The carcasses, a male and a female, were estimated to be at least three days old. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) PC Ray said postmortem examination revealed that ...Read More >
Bengaluru: Concerns have been raised following the report of another tigress' death in Karnataka on Saturday, coming close on the heels of the shocking incident involving the death of a tigress and her four cubs. According to forest officials, the latest death has been reported from the Gundre Forest Range in Bandipur, located in Chamarajanagar district. Authorities, based on preliminary investigation, have stated that the tigress, estimated to be between 4 and 5 years old, appears to have died of natural causes. However, the post-mortem report is awaited for confirmation. The carcass was d ...Read More >
Bhubaneswar: Zeenat, the three-year-old tigress from Maharashtra brought to Odisha's Similipal last year under translocation project, is believed to be pregnant after mating with a melanistic male tiger named T-12 Mahabal in May this year. If her pregnancy is confirmed, Zeenat would deliver cubs around August or September this year, said Prem Kumar Jha, Odisha's Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife). Love blossomed after Zeenat was released into the wild in April this year. She made the forests between Yamunagarh and Gudugudia in Similipal her new home. In May, she came across a r ...Read More >
Bengaluru: In an incident of concern, the unnatural death of a tigress and her three cubs, probably due to poisoning, came to light in the Male Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka's Chamarajanagar district on Thursday. Addressing media persons in Bengaluru, Forests, Ecology, and Environment Minister Eshwar Khandre announced that an investigation has been ordered into the incident and officials have been directed to submit a detailed report within three days. The probe will be conducted by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF). "Karnataka stands second in the count ...Read More >
Jaipur: The Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) in Alwar Rajasthan has come up with country's first tiger memorial dedicated to its Rajmata, tigress ST-2 who repopulated this reserve with a family of 34 tigers. "Sariska has been repopulated thanks to tigress ST-2. The STR has 48 big cats, and 34 have come from the tigress' family. It gave life back to Sariska from the brink of extinction," said forest minister of the Sanjay Sharma, unveiling the memorial which has statues of the tigress and cubs on Sunday. He announced to observe 'Sariska Tiger Day' honouring ST 2, the Rajmata and said that this sta ...Read More >
New Delhi: The national capital may soon witness a second thriving habitat for leopards, signalling a remarkable ecological revival. However, to make this possible, it is crucial to gain the trust of local communities, who remain wary of the leopard's return due to unpleasant experiences in the past.Asola Wildlife Sanctuary, nestled within the Aravali ecosystem, has long supported a sustainable population of wild leopards. Recently, these apex predators have also been spotted in the Yamuna floodplain, particularly near villages adjacent to the biodiversity park. Since 2016, leopards have been ...Read More >
New Delhi, July 9: Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, currently onboard the International Space Station as part of the Axiom Space Mission 4, has conducted experiments on sprouting seeds like green gram and fenugreek on the orbital lab, said NASA. Shukla is the first Indian to be onboard the ISS and the second astronaut from the country, after Rakesh Sharma, to be in space. While in space, Shukla is undertaking several experiments, developed under a collaboration between the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), and NASA. The experiment named ...Read More >
ITANAGAR, 12 Jul: The Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has approved a proposal to divert 310 hectares of core forest land from the Namdapha Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh for the construction of the strategic Arunachal Frontier Highway (NH-913), despite concerns about its potential environmental and wildlife impacts. The land, located in Changlang district, is part of a proposed stretch that will connect NH-215 near Kharsang to the Miao-Gandhigram-Vijaynagar road, close to the India-Myanmar border. The Arunachal Pradesh Public Works Department (PWD) had request ...Read More >
Balasore (Odisha) [India], July 18 (ANI): Forest officials in the Similipal South division of Odisha arrested seven persons for their alleged involvement in a leopard skin trafficking racket, the Office of DIG of Police, Eastern Range, Balasore, said on Friday. The accused were found to be in possession of three leopard skins, which were seized by the investigating team. The investigation revealed that the leopard skins were being kept at the homes of the accused for worship, with the belief that it would bring them wealth. The seized skins are currently undergoing forensic analysis to deter ...Read More >
Mysuru: A tragic incident has unfolded at the Malai Mahadeshwara Wildlife Sanctuary in Chamarajanagar, where a mother tiger and her four cubs were found dead under suspicious circumstances near the Hoogyam forest range. In response to the tragedy, Karnataka Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre has called for a comprehensive investigation. The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) will oversee the inquiry, and the minister has requested a detailed report to be submitted promptly. He has also emphasized that strict action will be taken if any negligence by forest staff is found. Top forest of ...Read More >
New Delhi, Jun 29 (PTI) The Congress on Sunday attacked the Centre and Rajasthan governments over the reported plan to redraw the boundaries of the Sariska Tiger Reserve for the reactivation of over 50 mining operations, saying the move would be "ecologically devastating". The opposition party also said that with the Rajasthan and Union environment ministers both being from Alwar, this "double engine" cannot be supporting such a move. Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared on X a media report which claimed that a plan to redraw the boundaries of Rajasthan's ...Read More >
MADURAI: Likening the custodial murder of Ajith Kumar in Tiruppuvanam to an 'organised crime by police where the state kills its own citizens,' Madras high court lambasted the Tamil Nadu police and said the action against the perpetrators should be more stringent than in normal murder cases.A division bench of Justice S M Subramaniam and Justice A D Maria Clete pointed to 44 external injuries on the person of Ajith Kumar and said no part of the body was spared by the delinquent cops. "Even an ordinary murderer would not have inflicted such kind of injuries," the bench said on Tuesday.The natur ...Read More >
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the state police on Tuesday said it has arrested two accused wanted in several bomb blasts and communal murder cases after being on the run for over 25 years. The key accused among the two is Abubacker Siddique of Nagore. He is allegedly involved in the attempt to plant a pipe-bomb during the rath yatra of former home minister LK Advani in Madurai in 2011, among others. Other cases he is allegedly involved include the bomb blast at Hindu Munnani office in 1995 in Chennai, an explosion in Nagore the same year, and coordinated planting of bo ...Read More >
Bhubaneswar: A heartening chapter is unfolding deep within the emerald wilderness of Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha, where a Royal Bengal tigress named Zeenat, originally from Maharashtra, is believed to be carrying a new generation of cubs -- a milestone that could reshape the future of the region's famed tiger population. Brought to Similipal in 2023 as part of a bold genetic diversification project, Zeenat was tasked with an extraordinary mission: to infuse new bloodlines into a population long shadowed by the risks of inbreeding, particularly among Similipal's rare melanistic (black-co ...Read More >
Pilibhit: Fear returned to Pilibhit's Nauria region on Thursday morning as tigers believed to have earlier killed two farmers launched a fresh series of attacks, leaving one woman dead and two villagers -- including a teenage boy and another woman -- seriously injured in separate incidents within two hours. In Mandaria village, 50-year-old Trishna Devi was killed after being attacked by a tiger around 7 AM while she was working in her field. Her mauled body was recovered from the field shortly after the attack. Just 15 minutes earlier, the same or another tiger had attacked Nilesh, a 15-year- ...Read More >
PILIBHIT: Authorities at Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR) have initiated action against a man identified as Arbaz Ansari of Pilibhit city for allegedly flying a drone over the Mala Forest Range, the core area of the reserve, and posting a 30-second video on social media.Officials said the clip, uploaded from an account named Pilibhit Zone, was shot by flying the drone from the Pilibhit-Madhotanda road that cuts through the core forest. The Mala range has one of the highest tiger densities in PTR, and authorities said "such filming could endanger wildlife safety".Divisional forest officer (DFO) Man ...Read More >
Berhampur: Residents of Baghasala in Gajapati district are living in fear after forest officials found pug marks of a suspected Royal Bengal Tiger on the outskirts of the village in Paralakhemundi forest division on Tuesday. The villagers apparently sighted a big cat early in the morning and reported it to forest officials. A forest department team went to the village and collected the animal's pug marks. "After preliminary analysis, the pug marks have been identified as that of a tiger," said S Anand, divisional forest officer (DFO), Paralakhemundi. Camera traps will be installed in the are ...Read More >
Viral video shows AI cameras spotting a herd of elephants. (Photo: X/susantananda3) Elephants in Odisha's forests often face the threat of train collisions on railway tracks, as highlighted by multiple reports over the years. To prevent such accidents, authorities installed four AI cameras in the Rourkela Forest Division. A post on X (formerly Twitter) by Susanta Nanda, a retired Indian Forest Service officer, stated that the use of AI cameras effectively averted another potential accident. In t ...Read More >
Bengaluru, Jun 27 (PTI) The discovery of a seemingly stale carcass of a cow in Hugyam forest range in Mahadeshwara Hills on Friday strengthens the doubt that the death of a tigress and her four cubs could be due to poisoning, officials said. These five tigers were found dead in this forest on Thursday. It is suspected that the miscreants had poisoned the cow, and after eating it, the tigress and its cubs might have died. "Either the bovine was poisoned before being left in the forest, or the owner of the cattle, after spotting the dead cow, would have spread poison on its body, which the ti ...Read More >
Karnataka: With a steady increase in the tiger population at the Male Mahadeshwara Hills (MM Hills) Wildlife Sanctuary, Karnataka's Forest, Ecology and Environment Minister Eshwar B Khandre has directed officials to begin the process of declaring the region a tiger reserve. He emphasized the need to first collect public opinion from the local communities before proceeding with formal proposals. Chairing a high-level meeting with senior forest officials, including the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden, at Vikasa Soudha today, Minister Khandre instructed the depar ...Read More >
Bengaluru: Exploring scientific solutions to reduce human-elephant conflict across Karnataka, the forest department Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for landscape-level conservation of Asian elephants. Renowned ecologist and elephant expert from IISc, Prof Raman Sukumar, and Karnataka chief wildlife warden Prabhash Chandra Ray signed the commencement of the Rs 4.7-crore project, fully funded by the forest department.Admitting an increa ...Read More >
NEW DELHI: A lone Indian grey wolf was recently spotted along the Yamuna floodplain near Palla, where the river enters Delhi, in a rare wildlife sighting in the city's northern fringes.Last week, on Thursday morning, the sighting was made by Hemant Garg, a 41-year-old businessman and wildlife enthusiast who frequently tracks nocturnal wildlife across Delhi-NCR.Garg said he noticed the animal around 7.45 am, walking along the riverbank with a distinct gait and having dark grey fur that didn't match a typical dog's."It had a dull, dark grey coat and walked with a certain grace, unlike a stray do ...Read More >
SAMBALPUR: Debrigarh wildlife sanctuary has reported a significant rise in the population of Indian Bison (gaur) with their number increasing to 788 from 659 in just six months. According to the latest census conducted by the Hirakud Wildlife division, the sanctuary is now home to 788 gaurs including 315 juveniles and 128 newborns, indicating the robust breeding and healthy herd dynamics of this Schedule I species. The census was carried out from May 11 to 13 through a three-day direct counting exercise involving 73 units and 147 personnel. It used 122 camera traps and 130 permanent inspecti ...Read More >
Bengaluru: Following the poisoning of five tigers at MM Hills Wildlife Sanctuary, forest minister Eshwar Khandre on Tuesday ordered an audit of tiger mortality in various tiger reserves (national parks) and wildlife sanctuaries of Karnataka. Delving into the activities of the wildlife wing, shortly after sending errant forest officials of MM Hills sanctuary on compulsory leave, the minister sought within 10 days a complete review of tiger deaths over the past five and a half years.As per the All-India Tiger Estimation report of 2022, Karnataka stood second in the country in tiger population, w ...Read More >
Bengaluru: Forest minister Eshwar Khandre's decision to initiate a departmental inquiry into the recent unnatural death of a leopard in the MM Hills wildlife sanctuary has triggered hopes among conservationists and wildlife enthusiasts about uncovering the truth behind such incidents.In the most recent case, the carcass of the big cat was found mutilated last month.Recollecting similar incidents in the past few years, the activists suspect an organised nexus of poachers could be behind such wildlife crime.A few days before the June 26 death of five tigers in the Hoogyam forest range of MM Hill ...Read More >
Bengaluru: Based on the preliminary report submitted by the committee formed to probe into the death of five tigers, including a mother and four cubs, the forest minister has recommended suspension of the three senior forest officers. After confirming dereliction of duty by the senior officers through the report, Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre has recommended suspension of the IFS officer and DCF of MM Hills Wildlife Sanctuary Chakrapani Y, Assistant Conservator of Forests Gajanana Hegde and Range Forest Officer Madesh. In the first place, it was confirmed that the officials had not disburse ...Read More >
Nizamabad: Residents along the Nizamabad and Rajanna Sircilla district border are on edge after repeated sightings of a tiger, identified by its pugmarks as "S12." The forest department has stepped up efforts to track the animal's movements, deploying additional camera traps deep inside the reserve forests. On Thursday, a calf was found dead in Pakala village of Sirikonda mandal, prompting fears of another tiger attack. However, following an onsite inspection, district forest officer B. Nikitha and divisional forest officers Bhavani Shanker and Ramakrishna confirmed the kill was made by a leo ...Read More >
Bahraich (UP), Sep 15 (PTI) A 28-year-old man was killed in an alleged tiger attack near a canal in the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary here, officials said on Monday. Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Suraj said that incident took place on Sunday evening when Indal Nishad, a resident of Harkhapur village in the Dharmapur range of the forest, went near the canal to relieve himself. Villages reported that a tiger emerged from the forest and attacked him, the DFO said. Hearing Nishad's cries for help, locals rushed to the spot but the tiger dragged him into a nearby sugarcane field, the officer ...Read More >