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Wild life and Biodiversity conservation
Project Tiger
India’s Project Tiger is acclaimed as one of the most ambitious programmes of wildlife conservation and management in the world. Started in 1978, with 9 tiger reserves, covering an area of 16,339 sq.km., with a population of 268 tigers, at present there are 27 tiger reserves covering an area of 37761 sq.km., with a population of 1498 tigers (in 2008). The main objective of Project Tiger is to ensure a viable population of tiger in India for scientific, economic, aesthetic, cultural and ecological values and to preserve for all time, areas of biological importance as a natural heritage for the benefit, education and enjoyment of the people. Other objectives include wildlife management, protection measures and site specific eco development to reduce the dependency of local communities on tiger reserve resources.
Tiger Reserves are constituted on a 'core-buffer' strategy, with the core area kept free of biotic disturbances and forestry operations, where collection of minor forest produce, grazing, human disturbances are disallowed. However, the buffer zone is managed as a ‘multiple use area’ with twin objectives of providing habitat supplement to the spill over population of wild animals from the core conservation unit, and to provide site specific eco developmental inputs to surrounding villages for relieving their impact on the core.
National parks and Animal sanctuaries.
An animal sanctuary is a facility where animals are brought to live and be protected for the rest of their lives. Unlike animal shelters, sanctuaries do not seek to place animals with individuals or groups, instead maintaining each animal until his or her natural death. The resident species are given preference and every action is scrutinized for any trace of human benefit at the expense of non-human residents. Sanctuaries act on behalf of the animals, and the caregivers work under the idea that all animals in the sanctuary, human and non-human, are of equal importance. A sanctuary is not open to the public like in a zoo; ie they are escorted access to restricted parts of the facility but do not to allow any activity that would place the animals in a stressful situation. However, one of the most important missions of sanctuaries, beyond caring for the animals, is educating the public. The ultimate goal of a sanctuary is to change the way that humans think of, and treat, non-human animals. India has over 441 animal sanctuaries, referred to as Wildlife Sanctuaries (IUCN Category IV Protected Area).
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and its World Commission on Protected Areas, has defined National Parks as its category II type of protected areas.
A national park is deemed to be a place 1. with one or several ecosystems not materially altered by human exploitation and occupation, where plant and animal species, geo-morphological sites and habitats are of special scientific, educative and recreational interest or which contain a natural landscape of great beauty; 2. The highest competent authority of the country has taken steps to prevent or eliminate exploitation or occupation in the whole area and to effectively enforce the respect of ecological, geo-morphological, or aesthetic features which have led to its establishment; and 3. Visitors are allowed to enter, under special conditions, for inspirational, educative, cultural, and recreational purposes. For a national park to be declared so, it should have
1. A minimum size of 1,000 hectares within zones in which protection of nature takes precedence;
2. Statutory legal protection;
3. a budget and staff sufficient to provide sufficient effective protection
prohibition of exploitation of natural resources (including the development of dams) qualified by such activities as sport, fishing, the need for management, facilities, etc.
|Virgin forests |
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|Virgin forests are ecosystems that have stabilised and well buffered to incorporate changes without drastic changes in the habitat |
|conditions. So once a stable species has established itself there is little need for further variation. The stability continues unless |
|external interference or calamities cause sudden changes. |
|Tranquilisers and wild life management |
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|Tranquilisers are chemicals that are injected or ingested into the body to sedate, control, anaesthetise, immobilise or pacify ferocious |
|behaviour. Their actions are temporary and are reversible either by injecting an antidote or naturally over time. They are used for |
|capturing the animals without killing them for study, medical examination and treatment, marking and tagging, transferring them to new |
|locations etc. They are applied by darting using air guns, direct injections if the animals are small and can be handled or administered |
|orally by doping food material. |
|Alpha diversity Beta diversity and Gamma diversity |
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|Alpha diversity denotes the diversity of organisms within the community sharing and being influenced by the same habitat conditions. |
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|Beta diversity denotes the rate of replacement of species along any gradient of the community; it represents a comparison between similar |
|communities. |
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|Gamma diversity refers to the diversity of the communities over the total landscape or large heterogenous areas under consideration. |
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| Causes of depletion and extinction of species |
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|Depletion may be caused by diseases, poaching or killing by humans, increase in predation, decrease in food sources, dwindling and changing |
|habitat, diseases, reduced fertility, migration to new locations, natural and man-made calamities, etc. |
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|Extinction may be caused by sudden change in biotic conditions, natural calamities, uncontrolled hunting and predation, extinction of a food|
|source, mass deaths due to sudden onset of diseases from which recovery is impossible, failure to produce variants, poor genetic diversity, |
|genetic load, adverse mutations, failure to adapt to changing conditions, etc. |
|Anthrax |
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|Anthrax is an infectious disease caused by the aerobic bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Most forms of the disease are lethal, and it affects |
|both humans and other animals. It produces dormant endospores which are able to survive in harsh conditions for decades or even centuries. |
|It infects wild and domesticated herbivorous mammals that ingest or inhale the spores while grazing. Carnivores living in the same |
|environment may become infected by consuming infected animals. Diseased animals can spread anthrax to humans, either by direct contact |
|(e.g., inoculation of infected blood to broken skin) or by consumption of a diseased animal's flesh. Domesticated cattle moving into forest|
|areas are sources of infection in wild life. |
|Incursion of domesticated animals and conservation |
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|Domesticated animals like cattle compete for grass lands, forage and grazing areas. They also carry in pathogenic and infectious diseases. |
|Ecosystem diversity |
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|Ecosystem diversity denotes the number of niches, trophic levels and various ecological processes that sustain energy flow, food webs and |
|the recycling of nutrients. The different levels of ecosystem diversity are: 1. Alpha diversity denotes the diversity of organisms within |
|the community sharing and being influenced by the same habitat conditions, 2. Beta diversity denotes the rate of replacement of species |
|along any gradient of the community and 3. Gamma diversity refers to the diversity of the communities over the total landscape under |
|consideration. |
|Buffer zone |
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|It is the fringe area between a protected forest area or natural land uninhabited by humans into which no permanent human habitation is |
|permitted, but local people are allowed limited usage in terms of grazing, and collection of sustainable forest produce. Wild animals too are|
|allowed to infiltrate into such locations but may be controlled. |
|Radio collars |
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|These are miniature battery powered electronic gadgets fitted in a collar used to tag wild animals to keep track of their movements, foraging |
|behaviour, migration etc. The device has a radiofrequency identifier with a transmitter that sends digitised radio pulses which are picked up|
|by a local transceiver, amplified and transmitted to yet another receiving station either directly or via satellites. The data from each |
|receiving point is plotted and archived for analysis and interpretation. |
|Genetic diversity and adaptation |
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|If a species has a high genetic diversity, it can adapt to a wider variety of ecological conditions by switching on or off genes that |
|it already carries and which maybe particularly helpful in adapting to the changed condition. |
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|Pesticides and wild life |
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|Pesticides, especially organochlorides have a tendency to bioaccumulate and biomagnify as we go up the food web. This has a negative |
|effect on the fauna. In addition to this, pesticides also get carried in by the wind and water which directly affects beneficial |
|insect pollinators and small animals. |
| Namibian rhino |
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|Rhinos are poached simply for the horns on the erroneous belief that it has medicinal properties and aphrodisiacal qualities. A rhino|
|without a horn has no value for poachers. Thus this simple procedure by the authorities has helped in better survival rates. |
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|Objectives of national parks |
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|Objective: preservation of flora and fauna, protecting endangered species, providing suitable habitats for endemic as well as |
|protected sps. |
|Biodiversity hot spots |
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|They are locations where a significant number of endemic species are present and which are not seen elsewhere in the world. The |
|Western Ghats and the North East Himalayan region. |
|Manmade injuries to forests |
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|Pollution, poaching, uncontrolled exploitation of produce, clearance of forest areas, encroachment, shooting for pleasure, laying down|
|roads, building dams, resorts, causing fire, using forest areas for plantation, introduction of exotic competitors, grazing by |
|domesticated animals |
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|World forestry day |
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|March 21st. |
|Wild-life management |
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|It is defined as the art and science of manipulating populations and habitats for the animals ultimately for human benefit. |
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|BNHS - Bombay natural history society. |
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|CITES - Convention on international trade on endangered species. |
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|IUCN - International union for the conservation of nature |
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|WWF - World wild life fund. |
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| Indicator species |
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|A unique species that is specific to a particular habitat whose number and health statistics can be used as a gauge or measure of the general |
|well being of the ecosystem. |
|First tiger reserve in India |
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|Corbett national park. |
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|Wildlife corridors |
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|They are specific narrow locations or band of land which are used as a common pathway by foraging or migrating animals to move from one |
|feeding or resting location to another. |
|Predator |
|An animal that depends on prey/food which is killed instantaneously before being eaten. |
|Carrying capacity |
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|It is the population of a particular species in an ecosystem that can live and survive without competition among themselves for food and |
|habitat. It is a balance between birth and death. |
Gir forest
It is one of the largest intact and continuous tracts of forest land in the world reserved primarily for the conservation of its diversified native fauna, with a focus on Asiatic lions. It covers an area of 1412 sq kms with a core sanctum sanctorum of 140 sq kms. The object set is to establish a stable ecosystem under which lion and other animals could move freely, assured of their natural food and protected from poaching poisoning, and spread of infections diseases, together with the socio-economic up liftment of the local people.
Taking into consideration of the fact that the local population (maldharis) depends on forest produce and as pastures for cattle, and its potential as a tourist and recreational area, the project has been planned as a comprehensive one as follows: To conserve the Gir habitat in to encourage wildlife of every kind and specifically lions; to exclude all forms of exotic life, to establish a sustainable population of the endemic herbivores which form the prey for the lions or otherwise, to minimise, reverse and halt human interference, to provide an educational and recreation area for tourists, to provide a centre for training and education, to protect it from overgrazing and lopping, to improve the lot of the local people, wean them away from their dependence on the forest area and phase their settlement outside the sanctuary allotting land for cultivation as well as grazing, to make it a model for other such sanctuaries
|Merits and Demerits of captive breeding |
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|Merits: production in larger numbers; ensuring survival of sps, preventing the extinction of a particular sps, preventing the loss of gene |
|pools, sustenance of are natural food web and prey-predator relationships, |
|Demerits: problems due to inbreeding, domestication and induction of undesirable habits that attract them to populated areas, inability to |
|return back to natural hostile environment, lack of expertise in hunting and foraging, lack of fear of humans and hence becoming easy prey to |
|poaching, |
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| Wild life protection act of India |
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|Was promulgated in 1972, deals with conservation of wild life, their protection, regulation and control of trade in wild animals and their |
|products in India. According to the act, ‘states shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safe guard the forests and |
|wildlife of the country’. It further states that ‘it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural |
|environments including forests lakes rivers and wildlife and to have compassion for all living creatures”. The main objectives are 1. To |
|provide uniform legislation for protection of wildlife throughout the country, 2. To prevent hunting of and trading in wildlife or any product|
|thereof, and 3. To set parameters for the establishment and maintenance of protected areas such as parks and sanctuaries. |
|Red data book |
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|The Red Data Book is a document published by each country and forms a statement that documents rare and endangered species of animals,|
|plants and fungi as well as some local sub-species that exist within the territory of the state or country. It provides information |
|for studies and monitoring programmes on rare and endangered species their habitats and their habits. It categorises wild animals |
|included in it on the basis of their status at the time of publication, which is updated by frequent revised editions. They are |
|categorised as Extinct, Extinct in the wild, Critically endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Near threatened, Least concerned, Data |
|deficient and Not evaluated. |
|Species diversity |
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|Species denotes a group of similar individuals that can asexually or sexually breed among themselves and produce fertile offspring. |
|They are distinct units of diversity each playing a specific role in an ecosystem. The number of sps per unit area is taken as the |
|measure of species diversity. They would have evolved by speciation resulting from adaptation to particular conditions existing in a |
|particular ecosystem. Loss of sps may have consequences that affect the ecosystem as a whole. The number and diversity of the |
|species increases with area. |
|Predator-Prey relationship |
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|Predation is part of the energy flow pattern in a food web. Predators do not increase out of proportion to their food supply. They |
|keep the population of the prey in control, while the numbers of the prey decide the sustainable levels of the predator, so that a |
|natural balance is maintained. Populations of primary consumers are dependent upon the amount of producers on which they feed, and |
|hence it can be suggested that the predator population of an ecosystem is indirectly dependent on the primary producers. |
|Nilgiri tahr. |
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|It is endemic to the Nilgiri Hills and the southern portion of the Western Ghats in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in |
|southern India. They inhabit the open montane grassland habitat of the South Western Ghats rain forests ecoregion, at elevations from |
|1,200 to 2,600 metres (3,900 to 8,500 ft), where the forests open into grasslands interspersed with pockets of stunted forests, known |
|as sholas. These grassland habitats are surrounded by dense forests at the lower elevations. Their range extends over 400 kilometres |
|from north to south, and Eravikulam National Park is home to the largest population. The other significant concentration is in the |
|Nilgiri Hills, with smaller populations in the Anamalai Hills, Periyar National Park, Palni Hills and other pockets in the Western |
|Ghats south of Eravikulam, almost to India's southern tip. Their ability and habit of browsing at the praecipes of rocks give them a |
|unique character. |
|Safari parks |
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|Safari parks enable the animals to be exhibited in their natural environment, in a wider area, where humans can travel into and |
|observe them in their natural behaviour in their natural habitat without disturbing them. In zoos animals are confined and |
|constrained in tiny enclosures wherein their natural habits and behaviour are curtailed making them listless and unfit for study. The|
|constrained environments make observations inaccurate and undependable. |
|Uses of Satellites and Telemetry in conservation |
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|Tracking the movement (incursion migration and localised movements) of animals through actual visual photography, radio-telemetric |
|tracking, they help in taking census, tracking marked animals (which occur naturally or those which are introduced) to study the |
|success of conservation strategies, analysing the health of the ecosystem, understanding water resources and coverage by plants, |
|understanding problems created by natural and manmade calamities, effect of pollution, spread of the ecosystem (deserts, forests, |
|grass land etc) |
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|Buffer zone. |
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|It is the fringe area between a protected forest area or natural land uninhabited by humans into which no permanent human habitation |
|is permitted, but local people are allowed limited usage in terms of grazing, and collection of sustainable forest produce. Wild |
|animals too are allowed to infiltrate into such locations but may be controlled. |
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