IGNWS Animal Census 2007
January 23, 2007 at 10:02 pm | Posted in Animal Census, Bengal Tiger, Elephant, Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary, Leopard, Lion Tailed Macaque, Nilgiritragus hylocrius, Ponnvandu, Tahr, Topslip, Trek | 3 CommentsThis year’s survey was announced rather suddenly today. Under the aegis of the Ponnvandu Foundation we have been asked to provide volunteers. Lion Tailed Macaques (LTM – Macaca silenus) will be surveyed on Thursday the 25th of January, Nilgiri Tahr (Nilgiritragus hylocrius) on the 29th, carnivores from the 2nd to the 9th of february and elephants in Feb’s 3rd week.
Anyone who wants to participate can contact me with their details ASAP!!!
The Tahr and the LTM are very highly endangered species and one has to trek to really deep forest to get a chance to see them.
Great trekking and a ‘few in a lifetime’ chance to see two of the world’s most endangered species and to contribute to their conservation – could anyone ask for more?
PREMEDITATED OCEAN RAPE
January 13, 2007 at 11:51 am | Posted in biodiversity, bioinversity, biosphere, corral harvesting, dugong, ecosystem, endangered species, Gulf of Mannar, mangrove, niche, ocean, Ptychodera, sethusamudram, tsunami | 5 Comments
There is a combined flora and fauna of more than 3,600 species represented here within an area of 10,500 sq km. Many of these species are endemic to this particular area of shallow ocean and include a number of critically endangered species (see the Red List). Just one example on the island of Kurusadai, less than a kilometre from the Indian mainland, is the world’s one and only outpost of a subspecies of Ptychodera – a hemichordate (‘acornworm’) found nowhere else! New species and subspecies are constantly being ‘discovered’ in this area while simultaneously a number of previously common endemics seem to have completely disappeared.

The fact is that organised overfishing and almost no protection for the fragile reserve has already resulted in massive destruction of corral and mangrove, the two most precious ecosystems, which together account for 90% of the area’s biodiversity. Unrestrained blasting and harvesting of corral to feed hungry cement plants, overfishing mainly due to the extensive use of trawlers by multnationals (for export) and specific destruction such as the targeting of sea cucumbers, ornamental fish, crustaceans (prawns, lobsters, crabs), turtles and sharks (both for soup!), have all taken a heavy toll on this unique and irreplaceable “biosphere”.
Perhaps most shocking is the studied silence of the U.N. and almost all organisations involved in promoting conservation / biodiversity. Our government claims to have extensively studied the project’s environmental impact but in the face of their winking at the daily destruction one wonders what it is that they have been claiming to conserve!
After carefully studying the issues I urge you to
PLEASE JOIN TOGETHER TO OPPOSE THE RAPE OF THE GULF OF MANNAR and of any of our oceans in whichever corner of this globe you may happen to be…
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