A Crime Not Noticed!

It was a few years back; I visited Chennai and its Marina Beach, a memorable experience in itself. What could be a better way of relaxing in a summer evening than to take a walk along the sea-beach? I can remember the day as vividly today as I did on that same day. While I was enjoying my walk, I came across a young kid; he may be fifteen or sixteen years old. He was carrying a bag filled with some coral reef, star fish and sea-shell. He insisted me to buy some as a momentous. I was fascinated by the items in his bag and curious to see more. After a tough bargain over the price, I decided to by a piece of coral reef and two dried up star fish. The beauties of these items were irresistible. Back home they enhanced the beauty of my living room. They often reminded me of that day.

A few days back I learn some more details about coral, and the threats faced by it due to human activities. I did not know that the ocean took thousands of years to produce it so that countless number of other organisms could live with it in a symbiotic relationship. I have taken away a part of it and disturbed the ocean ecology. Like me, there are thousands and thousands tourist who might have taken it as a momentous. If all of us continue to fulfill our greed, it will not be long that the entire coral reef will be destroyed and eventually lead to a disaster in the ocean ecology.

I, now, realize that the kid was doing a crime, and I helped him to do more. I did not notice that I was involved in a crime against the nature. May be the kid did not know what he was doing just like I did.

Now the piece of coral reef in my living room reminds me of the crime every time I look at it and I suffer for the crime I committed.

I am sharing my story so that other should not suffer like I do.

Fastest Land Animal on Earth is Moving Fast towards Extinction.

I am talking about Cheetah, the fastest land animal which is a critically endangered species in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals, especially the Asiatic Cheetah. After the extinction of Indian Cheetah, only the Iranian Cheetah is left with a meager population of 50-60.

It is far more saddening that this animal received its name from the oldest Indian language i.e. from Sanskrit word chitraka meaning “speckled”, yet Cheetah is extinct in India.

Cheetah was always associated with Indian hunting stories. It is said that Emperor Akbar had 1000 hunting cheetah which is depicted in many persian and indian miniature painting. Now though trials are going on to clone the Indian Cheetah and bring back these beautiful animal ,but only increasing the population of Cheetah can not solve the problem. We have to recreate its habitat and also balance the feeding ecology. As Cheetah feed mainly on antelope, so return of Cheetah may lead to extiction of some of these species like the Blackbuck and Nilgai, both are near threaten species.

We, as a superior species than rest, have the moral responsibility to protect all other creature.
Let us do it.

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.