BAIJI, The goddess of Yangtze is EXTINCT!

Yes, I am going to share sad news today, Baiji, the rare river dolphin of the Yangtze is functionally extinct as reported by the National geographic. According to National Geographic news, Pfluger, a Swiss economist-turned-naturalist who financed the expedition, said in a telephone interview from Wuhan, China, that baiji is functionally extinct.

"If there are any baiji left in the river, they won't have any chance of survival."

This rare dolphin which survived in the Chinese river for more than 20 million years is the first aquatic mammal to go extinct within fifty years due to human activity. The major reason could be the Yangtze dam.

Chinese people, who nicknamed it as the goddess of Yangtze, will never be able to see it or show it to their children. Baiji can not be brought back to existence but at least we can still save the other four types of river dolphins still available in the world from disappearing. Out of these the river dolphins of Brahmaputra and Ganges are in the most critical condition.

I am optimistic that a little effort together can save our River Dolphins.

My Friends, Let us save our Planet!

Future of Asiatic Lion!

As a small child I was told that Lions are the king of the forest. But, today the situation is very different. Men rule both the cities as well as forest.

Asiatic lions (Panthera leo persica) were believed to rule the forest of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Persia and also the northern part of the African continent.

It was in 1907, the population of Asiatic Lions was found to be only 13 confined to the forest of Gir in India. Now the present population is 360 living in the sanctuary of Gir. It is a great success for the inbreeding program of the sanctuary. But, behind this rosy picture there are other problems that have arisen.

As this entire population of lions descended from a dozen of them left in early 20th century, the DNA fingerprints looks like identical twins, which make them highly vulnerable to any disease.
Beside this, since the entire population is confined to a small geographic area of Gir, any natural disaster could led to the extinction of this sub-species.

Hence the King of the jungle is now vulnerable to biological, climatic and man made catastrophe.

Let us hope that the Samrakshan Trust prepare a second home for the Asiatic Lion before it is too late.

My Friends, Let us save our Planet!

River Dolphins of India: They are BLIND but are we also?

The Blind River Dolphins, Platanista gangetica, found in Brahmaputra and Ganges rivers. They are also locally known as Hihu and Susu in Brahmaputra and Ganges respectively because of the sound they make while breathing as they are aquatic mammal and need to come out in the surface of the water every 30- 120 second for breathing.

The reasons for loosing their vision are not known but they have highly developed sonar senses.

There are other river dolphins in Yangtse river of China, Indus river of Pakistan and Amazon river of South America.

Though few years back there were many of them, but recent survey conducted in 1993 states that there are only about 600 left in Ganges and 400 left in Brahmaputra and its tributaries like Kulsi and Subansiri. Present number is not known but expected to be much lesser.

The main reasons for such depletion in the number of this unique creature are fishing, poaching and sand mining. Other reason in Ganges is also the damming like Farakka dam.

But, the sad story is that even today not much is done for conservation of this creature and we have also lost our vision just like the Blind River Dolphins. Strict measures are needed immediately.
My Friends, Let us save our Planet!

Mahatma Gandhi as an Environment Conservator!

Mahatma Gandhi is known as a non violent freedom fighter but we hardly see him as an environment conservator. He had a far sighted approach in every thing he said, he could even visualized the effect of over exploitation of the natural resources and coined this statement in 1909, which holds true in today’s context.

"The earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.”

“We may utilize the gifts of Nature just as we choose, but in Her books, the debits are always equal to the credits.”

Today, world is facing global warming and climate change, which is the consequence of over exploitation of our natural resources. It has made the climate difficult even for the human species, most adoptable animal of all, to survive. It will lead to extinction some the tropical insects, melting of the glacier at such high rate will lead to drying of some great rivers forever and rise in the sea level will reduce available land for all terrestrial animals and plants.
Now it is the time that we get back to the century old statement and follow it before it is too late.
Let me share some more quotes on nature from the great man:

“This little globe of ours is not a toy of yesterday.”

“I refuse to buy from anybody anything, however nice or beautiful, if it interferes with my growth or injures those whom Nature has made my first care.”

"What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another."

"Wildlife is decreasing in the jungles, but it is increasing in the towns"

Little Hope for Hoolock Gibbon!

Coming to the biodiversity of the North Eastern states of India, we come across another exotic creature of this region, the Hoolock Gibbon (Hoolock hoolock). Hoolock hoolock is the only species of apes found in India.

Hoolock gibbons face numerous threats in the wild, and are now entirely dependent on human action for their survival. The debilitating threats include habitat encroachment to accommodate ever-growing human populations and immigration, forest clearance for tea cultivation, the practice of jhuming (slash-and-burn cultivation), hunting for food and “medicine”, capture for trade, and the degradation and decline in quality of their forests that impacts fruiting trees, canopy cover and the viability of their home ranges. Isolated populations face the additional threats arising from the intrinsic effects of small populations. Some populations surviving in just a few remaining trees are subjected to harassment by locals and to lack of food, and are attacked by dogs while attempting to cross clearings between forest patches.

Though there is no accurate figure available for the existing Hoolock hoolock but it has been observed that during the last 30-40 years, population of Hoolock hoolock has declined from 100,000 to nearly 80,000 in 1970 and it is now estimated to be some where around 5000 only. And this is a very small number and there is little hope for the Hoolock Gibbon to survive for a long time.

According to IUCN Category of threat (Hilton-Taylor, 2000) Hoolock hoolock falls in endangered (criteria: A1cd).

Thanks to the number of organization and the forest department of Assam that it has declared a Gibbon Sanctuary in Assam. This is just the beginning but more awareness is required for fruitful result.

Asian Elephants are asking for your HELP!

Elephant, world’s largest terrestrial mammal is in grave danger of extinction if we do not take swift action. Though the elephant population of India is showing some growth over sometime as in the graph (shown); the matter of concerns are:

A. The population of Elephant in Assam and adjoining states (North Eastern States), which has the major share (9243 out of 26413), is declining drastically (11023 in 1993 to 9243 in 2002)

B. More concerning fact is the Male: Female ratio, which is alarming due to high number of poaching for the male tusk.

I appeal to the resident of these north eastern states and to the local villagers near these elephant reserves to increase the awareness against poaching and inform the local officials immediately.

If we ignore it now, we will not be able to see the largest terrestrial mammal in the future to come and our children will not see the majestic animal like we did.

My Friends Let Us Save Our Planet and its Treasures.

Where are My Sparrows gone?

Whenever I look at a sparrow (Passer domesticus) , it reminds me of my childhood as I grew up among the sparrows in my house. There were hundreds of them in my roof. But where are my sparrows now? I never realized the number of sparrows in my house was reducing slowly until now that I scarcely able to see any.
I see less number of sparrows every where now. What happened to them?

Being worried, I tried to find out the situation worldwide, and similar situation exist everywhere. May be there are animals who need more attention now but if we leave the situation of these house sparrows unattended now, it may lead to a future concern. I will request a mild effort from every person to save these small creatures, which are facing some problem without our noticing them.

While going deeper into the cause of this problem, I came across one reason which could be the reduced nesting place of these birds. As the old houses are renovated and older nest are being destroyed and newer houses doesn’t provide congenial place for building a nest.
So, Lets take a pledge, that whenever we come across any nest of sparrow, we shall try to protect them.
My Friends, Let Us Save Our Planet.