India-Northeast-Rhinos Poaching

Wildlife authorities at a national park in India's northeastern state of Assam have sounded a maximum alert with poachers killing six endangered one-horned rhinos since January, including two this month, officials Monday said.

"Six rhinos poached in about 100 days, including two of the beasts killed in the past week, is a matter of grave concern. A security alert has been sounded," park warden Utpal Bora said.

The 430 square-kilometer (166 square-miles) park, 220 km east of Assam's main city of Guwahati, is now home to the single largest population of the one-horned rhinoceros.

As per latest figures, some 1,855 of the worlds estimated 2,700 such herbivorous beasts lumber around the wilds of Kaziranga -- their numbers ironically making the giant mammals a favourite target for poaching.

"We are certain that the recent cases of hunting the rhinos for their horns were done at the behest of a very organized international poaching syndicate who has pumped in lot of funds to attract shooters to kill the animals," the warden said.

"We have mobilized all the resources available and have stepped up security in the park. The local villagers have joined us in our fight against poaching," another park ranger said.

Organized poachers kill rhinos for their horns, which many believe contain aphrodisiac qualities, besides being used as medicines for curing fever, stomach ailments and other diseases in parts of South Asia.

Rhino horn is also much fancied by buyers from the Middle East who turn them into handles of ornamental daggers, while elephant ivory tusks are primarily used for making ornaments and decorative items.

Profits in the illegal rhino horn trade are staggering, rhino horn sells for up to 1.5 million rupees per kilogram in the international market.

The fresh incidents of poaching come at a time when park authorities believed the endangered one-horned rhinos were charging back from the brink of extinction.

"There was a time when poachers slaughtered about 50 rhinos annually in the early 1990s. But things have slowed down in recent years due to stepped up vigil and now all off a sudden we see a spurt in poaching again," Bora said.

Five rhinos were poached last year, while seven were killed in 2005.

According to government estimates about 500 of the beasts were killed by poachers during the past two decades.

Source: http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-16/0704167270184913.htm

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't
matter, and those who matter don't mind."

-Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070406-oldest-fish.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070406-oldest-fish.html

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http://hershal.blogspot.com

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't
matter, and those who matter don't mind."

-Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

An hymn to Morning

An Hymn To The Morning

ATTEND my lays, ye ever honour'd nine,
Assist my labours, and my strains refine;
In smoothest numbers pour the notes along,
For bright Aurora now demands my song.
Aurora hail, and all the thousand dies,
Which deck thy progress through the vaulted skies:
The morn awakes, and wide extends her rays,
On ev'ry leaf the gentle zephyr plays;
Harmonious lays the feather'd race resume,
Dart the bright eye, and shake the painted plume.
Ye shady groves, your verdant gloom display
To shield your poet from the burning day:
Calliope awake the sacred lyre,
While thy fair sisters fan the pleasing fire:
The bow'rs, the gales, the variegated skies
In all their pleasures in my bosom rise.
See in the east th' illustrious king of day!
His rising radiance drives the shades away--
But Oh! I feel his fervid beams too strong,
And scarce begun, concludes th' abortive song.

Phillis Wheatley

Trawling Industry threatens Turtle Nestings

Not so shocking & anger inviting piece of news.

Trawling, Industry Threaten India Turtle Nesting

April 04, 2007

By Simon Denyer, Reuters

DEVI, India -- The scattered carcasses of dead turtles bake on the hot sand. Scraps of the white shells of turtle eggs surround a hole where stray dogs have dug up a nest. Until a decade ago, this beach on India's east coast used to witness one of nature's most spectacular sights -- the mass nesting of tens of thousands of Olive Ridley turtles on a single night.

Not since 1995 has that happened. These days just a handful of turtles come to the beach at Devi to nest, and its status as one of three main nesting sites for the Olive Ridleys in India's coastal state of Orissa is under threat.

Orissa is one of the few remaining mass nesting sites for the Olive Ridleys in the world. But the situation on its other beaches is not much better, with turtles falling victim to government neglect and rapid industrialisation. Fewer turtles than normal arrived this year at the nearby beaches of Gahirmatha, where a marine sanctuary has failed to check illegal fishing by trawlers, and the construction of a large port nearby presents a major environmental threat.

No mass nesting has yet been seen on the southern beach of Rushikulya, and time is running out if that beach is not to witness its third "no-show" in just over a decade. At the same time more than 8,000 carcasses have been washed ashore since November, most caught and drowned in the nets of trawlers fishing too close to the shore, conservationists say. "Because of an increase in human activity in the sea and along the coast, the very survival of Orissa's sea turtles is at stake," said Biswajit Mohanty of the Society of Orissa.

Greenpeace says more than 120,000 turtles have been washed up dead on Orissa's shores in the past 12 years, most caught in the nets of trawlers which the law says should not be there. Total deaths may have been significantly higher. The trawlers also scatter the turtles as they gather in offshore waters to nest, and rampant trawling is thought to be a major reason for the demise of Devi.

But although turtles enjoy the same level of protection under Indian law as tigers, Mohanty said there was simply no enforcement or political will to protect them. A single gill net was found to contain 265 dead animals a few years ago. "Boats are seized, nets are seized, but then they are released after a couple of months," he said. "Not a single conviction has taken place."

Other factors are at work too. The forest department may unwittingly have contributed to the demise of Devi when they planted casuarina trees on the beach in a bid to protect nearby villages from cyclones. That narrowed the beach and made much of it unsuitable for nesting. Natural erosion of the beach at Rushikulya, steepening the incline, may have discouraged landings this year.

But at Devi, traditional fishermen hate the trawlers every bit as much as Mohanty. They say their catch has fallen sharply since trawlers came and is worth perhaps half what it was five years ago, while more expensive fish like pomfret and hilsa have all but vanished. They eagerly show Reuters how easily their flimsy nets rip, showing they present no danger to the turtles, unlike the multi-fibre nets of the industrial boats. "We want the turtles to remain, because wherever there are turtles there are fish," said 32-year-old Jagabondhu Behra.

This is evidence, Greenpeace says, that it is not a question of pitting people against turtles. Some areas like Gahirmatha need to be protected to allow fish stocks room to recover, but in other areas a balance can be struck. In 2004 the Supreme Court recommended that trawlers be kept at least 20 km (12 miles) away from nesting beaches, but traditional fishermen be allowed closer to shore.

The rules, which strike a balance between conservation and livelihood concerns, are supported by Greenpeace but ignored by trawlermen. "There is no reason to subscribe to the defeatist attitude that the problem cannot be tackled unless either turtles or fishermen are sacrificed," said Sanjiv Gopal of Greenpeace.

Challenged on the subject, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said he was unaware that laws meant to protect turtles were not being enforced. The response failed to impress campaigners who say they have been petitioning him on the subject for years. Yet there is another and potentially even more serious threat to the Olive Ridleys' future in Orissa.

The state, one of India's poorest, is rushing to industrialise and exploit its vast mineral wealth. Plans are advanced to open seven new ports, including what could become the biggest on the east coast at Dhamra, just 12 km (7 miles) from the Gahirmatha sanctuary. Oil exploration has also begun off the coast, before studies have been completed of the effects on turtle migration. This year just 140,000 turtles nested at Gahirmatha, Mohanty said, compared to 230,000 the year before. "We are very convinced turtles will eventually abandon the nesting beach," he said. "They are never going to adapt to that level of disruption."

Source: Reuters
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