13
Oct 2008 - Assam, India: A young rhino that
went on a 14-day trek across India, through
villages as well as countryside, was finally
persuaded to abandon its wanderlust by conservation
specialists and return to where its journey
began.
The five-year-old rhino,
one of the two relocated earlier this year
to Assam world heritage site Manas National
Park had strayed as far as 68 kilometres
away to Kalseni in Guwahati.
The animal had to be
tranquilised and put back to its natural
habitat before it could be harmed by curious
onlookers and poachers. It is believed it
was trying to find its way to its previous
home in Pobitora wildlife sanctuary.
"The rhino was
being tracked all the while with the help
of the signals transmitted from his radio
collar," said Sujoy Banerjee, Species
Conservation Programme Director for WWF-India.
He said the radio signals
were superimposed on a map of the area using
global positioning system to pinpoint his
exact location.
All through its journey
the rhino had many curious onlookers, eager
to catch a glimpse of it while some even
wanted to touch its sacred horn. Others
asked WWF personnel for its hair or a piece
of its skin, both of which have religious
significance in the region.
Not even its dung was
left undisturbed! Since it is considered
auspicious to keep rhino dung in the granaries,
its dung just vanished.
Officials suspect that
the animal might again go on a similar "adventure"
and move eastward towards Pobitora wildlife
sanctuary.
"There is sufficient
food for the animal in the Manas park but
still the rhino has been attempting to move
out of the area,” Banerjee said.
The return of rhinos
to Manas this year was an emotional moment
for local residents, who lost their last
rhinos a decade ago during a 20-year period
of civil disturbance that wrecked infrastructure
in the famed National Park and allowed poachers
free reign.
Officials at the park
have been asked to keep a constant vigil
on the two male rhinos to ensure they settle
down well in the region as it would take
some time to subside the "homing instinct"
in the animals, which were translocated
under the Indian Rhino Vision 2020 programme.
As part of this ambitious
project, the Assam government and conservation
groups including WWF-India are working to
translocate up to 20 rhinos to the park
over the years from their homes in both
Kaziranga National Park and Pobitora Wildlife
Sanctuary.
+ More
Bulgarians eye Black
Sea development with concern
13 Oct 2008 - Sofia,
Bulgaria: Eighty per cent of the Bulgarian
population has expressed concern at the
over-construction along its Black Sea coast.
A survey of public opinion
conducted by WWF-Bulgaria and Alpha Research
also showed that three in four Bulgarians
did not approve of the construction of new
hotels, ski routes and facilities in the
protected areas in the Bulgarian mountains.
The survey was conducted
between August 27 and September 3 2008,
with 1000 Bulgarians polled.
Questioned whether the
government was doing enough to protect and
manage the Bulgarian forests, 77.3 per cent
answered no and just 2.8 per cent yes.
Asked whether they considered
that the felling of forests near riverbeds
would decrease the risk of flooding, 45.5
per cent answered negatively and 17.1 per
cent answered yes. Flooding rivers became
a serious problem in Bulgaria after heavy
rainfalls in each of the past three years.
“This survey shows that
Bulgarian society has become more and more
intolerable towards the government's negligence
of the environment,” said Vesselina Kavrakova,
programming director at WWF-Bulgaria.
“In 2006 only 51.5 per
cent of people disapproved of the building
of new hotels, ski tracks and sports utilities
in the protected areas. Now the percentage
is 71.5. Around 77.3 per cent also think
the state is not efficient enough in preserving
Bulgaria's nature.”
The five main problems
of the country according to respondents
are the felling of forests, illegal construction,
littering with refuse, the over-construction
of mountains and the Black Sea, and the
lack of Government control.
More than the half of
the respondents did not approve the exchanges
of state forests for private lands, which
in a wide array of cases has been carried
out to the detriment of the state.
The least serious threats
to Bulgaria's environment were said to be
nuclear power stations, quarrying gravel
from riverbeds and pollution by the chemical
industry.
