The Lalit Blog

Photo: Lalit Shastri Profile by CREW This genus occurs throughout the Americas , Africa , China and India . Their caterpillars feed on certain Fabaceae , for example vetches ( Vicia ). While most are thus beneficial by keeping weeds at bay, some occasionally become nuisance pests on crops like alfalfa . In some species, the wings of males have brilliant ultraviolet reflection, while those of females do not.

( This warning was issued by CREW and boldly published by The Hindu in 1999--much before Sariska. ) A report by Crusade for Revival of Environment and Wildlife, (CREW) on the Tiger crisis in Madhya Pradesh warns that the State is perhaps the last hope for the survival of tiger species in India and leaves a stern message that "if the slide down is not arrested immediately, the magnificent tiger could soon be on the verge of extinction."The report crisis titled "The Vanishing Stripes" was released to the press here today.CREW is a non-Government organization(NGO) set up two years ago. Date: 14/06/1999 Source: Hindu (New Delhi) Tags: Wildlife

Lalit Shastri In his zeal to put the State on the fast track of development, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had announced at the Global Investors Summit at Khajuraho in October 2010 that he would personally monitor the outcome of MoUs inked for investment at these summits but a close appraisal of the Government's much hyped initiative has revealed major chinks reflecting attempts by the State authorities to by-pass statutory requirements only to benefit the chosen ones. On the sidelines of the Khajuraho Investors' Summit, one saw Iqbal Singh Bains, a senior bureaucrat, in a private discussion  with chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Incidentally,  their tête-à-tête was in earshot and the CM was fully in agreement and gave the approving nod for the blatant move to parcel out the Gwalior SADA land to a private party at a throwaway price. Bains is considered a blue eyed boy of the Chief Minister. Follow up investigation revealed that Bains with the backing

CREW Report April 25: Bhopal will soon have a notified bird watching zone in the area adjoining Van Vihar National Park along the picturesque Upper Lake , which is a perfect habitat for hundreds of species of resident and migratory birds. This was announced by Madhya Pradesh Minister for Urban Administration and former state chief minister Babulal Gaur after he inspected the suitability of the location with a team of senior officers this weekend. It is an important migration area for Storks, grebe, bar headed goose and numerous ducks. In the winter season, this area becomes the home for the birds from Siberia and Himalayas . Talking to CREW, Mr. Gaur said: “after it is developed as a Birding zone, the area adjoining Van Vihar National Park, including Gora Bisenkhedi village would become one of the top locations in Central India for viewing winter migrations of birds that arrive here from Ladakh, and even northern Europe . The idea is to treat this project as a specializ

These houses at Bariam village near Pachmarhi have been declared as illegal Violation of Wildlife Protection Act Booker Prize-winning novelist Arundhati Roy received a jolt this Thursday when the court of the divisional commissioner of Bhopal and Narmadapuram quashed an appeal against a lower court order declaring as illegal the purchase of land and construction of bungalows by her film maker husband Pradip Krishen and three others at Bariam village near Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh. The court of Bhopal and Narmadapuram Divisional Commissioner Manoj Shrivastava quashed the appeal of Mr. Krishen and three others challenging the November 2010 order of the Piparia sub-divisional magistrate declaring as illegal the bungalows constructed by Mr. Krishen, along with those built by renowned novelist Vikram Seth’s sister, a doctor Jagdish Chandra Sharma and a retired forest officer M.K. Jadhav. The divisional Commissioner’s court has issued the order quashing the appeal in this case by addr

Click >>> Tigers-are they safe in Tiger Reserves On 14th December, 2006, tourists found a large male tiger in Kanha dragging an iron trap attached to one of its legs. Fortunately, there was timely action after the tourists had raised an alarm and the male tiger was tranquilized and rescued from the trap. Next year on October 27, a large male tiger was once more trapped by poachers in Kanha Tiger Reserve. This tiger also had a miraculous escape. The poachers had set three iron jaw traps on one of the main tracks passing through Kanha, near Chimpta Camp in Kisli Range. Some laborers sent there to repair the road and cut the grass along the track noticed the tiger caught in a trap. When the laborers came very close, the huge tiger, using all its strength, could manage to extricate itself free from the jaw trap. These two instances clearly show that the poachers strike their targets at will inside the Tiger Reserves. When contacted this is what the Kanha Park director, K. Nayak,

click>>>> Tiger Crisis-where lies the problem For long the central Indian State of Madhya Pradesh, blessed with the Satpura-Maikal landscape, has commanded the "Tiger State" status which has now gone to Karnataka. Till now, Madhya Pradesh was ahead of all other states in the country in terms of the estimated tiger population. The latest tiger figures that have put Madhya Pradesh in the second place behind Karnataka were released by Union Minister for Environment and Forest Jairam Ramesh in New Delhi on March 28, 2011. This interview by Srinivas Murthy, director Panna Tiger Reserve was recorded for CREW before he took up his present assignment at Panna. A CREW presentation. Category:

click>>> Black shouldered kite Black shouldered kite is found all over India till about 1500 meters in outer Himalayas. Its habitat is light forest, open scrub and grass country,

click >>> Glossy Ibis black ibis is a resident found throughout India from south of Himalayas (Terai to South). It It is gregarious and feeds with storks, spoonbills, egrest and other ibises in marshes and along riversides.

click >>> Grey Hornbill These birds are found in Haryana and Kumaon to extreme North-East; Central India-Madhya Pradesh, Bastar in Chhattisgarh and northern Andhra Pradesh.It lives around forests, orchards and groves

From CREW archive Students target group is always very sensitive to nature conservation issues and bird watching is an important tool to attract young kids and student groups so that they can be sensitized on these issues along with the awareness campaign. Summer vacation is a right period when this activity can be taken up when the specified target group is having some free time with them. Academy campus is very rich in flora and Shahpura Lake in front of the campus makes it a birdwatchers heaven where majority of the arboreal and water birds are available. IIFM campu

Save Upper Lake of Bhopal

From CREW archive Sahara Time STATES THE TROUBLED TIGER SANJAY SHARMA, BHOPAL 21 - Jan - 05 Poachers are the biggest threat to the survival of the tiger in its natural habitat in Madhya Pradesh," Crusade for Revival of Environment and Wildlife (CREW), an NGO devoted to the cause of environment and wildlife, had warned the State Government in its hard hitting investigative report "The Vanishing Stripes" that was released in the first fortnight of June 1999. The situation in the tiger state, home to over 30 percent of the Indian tigers, is no better even now. As per the population estimates of 2002, there are 711 tigers and 1,086 panthers in the state. The recent recoveries of the carcass of a tigress and her cub and the remains of a tiger within days of each other are an indicator of the dismal picture. The remains of a tiger killed by poachers inside the Pench National Park were found last week. Only three days prior to it the carcass of a tigress and her cub were found

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Environment and Climate Change Environment and climate change are complex issues. As we grope for answers to dilemmas of development while trying to preserve the purity of the environment, the Centre attempted to create awareness of the different issues involved. The Centre has been collaborating with an NGO, Toxics Link, for several years to organise lectures on environment and related issues, both topical and popular. The areas covered in the lectures were: ‘Bhopal–Tragedy Lingers On’; ‘Must the River Die?’; ‘Urban Sewage: A Dirty Reality’; ‘Bio-Fuel: An Alarm Bell on Food Safety?’ ; ‘Gharial–On the Verge of Extinction' ; ‘Use Renewable Energy. Make your House Energy Efficient’; and ‘Preserve the Future’, films from the UK Environment Film Fellowship on wildlife and environment.

The Hindu June 29, 2008 Staff Reporter "Study will yield vital new information on their habitats " NEW DELHI: "We could be closer than ever before in understanding the real cause of the death of more than a hundred gharials at the National Chambal Sanctuary since December 2007," said Gharial Crisis Management Group chairman Ravi Singh here . Participating in an Environment and Public Health Lecture Series organised by Toxics Link and India International Centre, he added: "Fundamental gaps in the knowledge of gharial biology were highlighted in the course of investigation and we are hopeful that telemetry test now under way on gharials will fill in gaps in our understanding of this species." Mr. Singh said the study would yield vital new information on gharials and their habitats including assessment of health and status of population in the crisis zone. More than 100 gharials have been lost in the National Chambal Sanctuary since last December. Team set up

The Hindu 24/12/2004 By Our Staff Correspondent BHOPAL, DEC. 23. One more tiger was killed in the Thuepani beat falling under the Gumtara range of the Pench National Park on Sunday night. With this latest killing, the total number of tigers found killed inside the Pench National Park and its buffer area has gone up to four within just one week. Earlier the carcass of a tigress and her cub, slaughtered by poachers, was found in the buffer area of Pench National Park on December 17. On the basis of information passed by an informer after this poaching incident, a resident of Kurai village was arrested as he was found possessing few tiger nails. During interrogation, he passed information that led to the seizure of another tiger's skeletal remains from Kurai Ghati deep inside the Pench National Park on Sunday. The number of tigers poached or killed under mysterious circumstances in the Pench National Park and its buffer area has gone up to four after the villagers fro

The Hindu Sunday, Dec 19, 2004 By Lalit Shastri BHOPAL, DEC. 18. Poachers continue to strike at will in Madhya Pradesh and the latest case of poaching has been detected in Seoni district where the carcass of a tigress and her cub were found lying just outside the Pench National Park on Friday. When State Tiger Cell sources were contacted here, they told The Hindu that the tigress whose carcass was found outside the Pench National park on Friday had been poisoned two or three days ago. They said that the tigress and her cub had been skinned and their flesh had been left behind. One person belonging to the Pardi tribe had been rounded up for interrogation and further investigations were on. The latest tiger poaching incident is a pointer that the local contacts, who are mainly tribals carry out the real killings. They are in turn linked to international gangs having contacts in Nepal and China. During a short period in May-June this year, the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPS

The Hindu 28/03/2005 By Lalit Shastri BHOPAL, MARCH 27. Wildlife experts have questioned the official claim — based on a census conducted in the protected area (PA) from March 18 to 24 — that there are 34 tigers and a cub in the Panna Tiger Reserve of Madhya Pradesh. A spokesman of the wildlife wing of the State Forest Department told The Hindu that a large team, including officials from the Kanha, Pench and Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserves, joined the census operation. On analysing the pugmarks and other evidence, the team confirmed the presence of 20 female tigers, 14 male tigers and a cub in the Panna Tiger Reserve. Raghunandan Singh Chundawat, who has done extensive field research in the Panna Reserve, has reacted sharply to the latest census projection. He says the authorities claim to have counted 13 tigresses within the territory of a single, monitored tigress. The "absurd claim" flies in the face of everything that is known about the natural history of tigers, he said. &q

The Hindu 30/07/2005 Staff Correspondent Is alleged to have links with Sansar Chand BHOPAL: In a major breakthrough, the Chhattarpur police on Friday arrested an alleged tiger skin smuggler who has reportedly confessed to his involvement in the smuggling at least five tiger skins and 30 leopard skins during the last few years. The Chhattarpur Superintendent of Police, Yogesh Chaudhary, told The Hindu that Mohammed Raees of Bandhni village was arrested on Friday. He had allegedly admitted to being engaged in the smuggling of wild animal skins for five to seven years and was also linked with the recently arrested international tiger skin smuggler Sansar Chand. The last tiger skin smuggled out of the area by him was sometime in the last quarter of 2004. Describing the modus operandi of the accused, Mr. Chaudhary said he used to procure tiger skins from poachers belonging to the Pardhi tribe by paying Rs. 50,000 for each skin. These were then packed and routed to Delhi and o

The Hindu 19/12/2004 By Lalit Shastri BHOPAL, DEC. 18. Poachers continue to strike at will in Madhya Pradesh and the latest case of poaching has been detected in Seoni district where the carcass of a tigress and her cub were found lying just outside the Pench National Park on Friday. When State Tiger Cell sources were contacted here, they told The Hindu that the tigress whose carcass was found outside the Pench National park on Friday had been poisoned two or three days ago. They said that the tigress and her cub had been skinned and their flesh had been left behind. One person belonging to the Pardi tribe had been rounded up for interrogation and further investigations were on. The latest tiger poaching incident is a pointer that the local contacts, who are mainly tribals carry out the real killings. They are in turn linked to international gangs having contacts in Nepal and China. During a short period in May-June this year, the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI)

The Hindu 21/12/2004 By Lalit Shastri BHOPAL, DEC. 20. The poaching menace has raised its ugly head inside the Pench National Park in Madhya Pradesh where the remains of a tiger, said to have been killed by poachers, were found on Sunday. This is the second poaching incident inside or in the vicinity of the Pench Tiger Reserve within a short span of just one week. In the earlier incident, a tigress and her cub were slaughtered by poachers. Their carcass was found lying just outside the Park area on Friday. The latest poaching incident surfaced following interrogation of Vijay Singh, a villager from Bichwa-Kurai. He was rounded up on December 17 after he was found having four tiger nails. On the basis of information provided by him, the remains of a tiger were found from a spot at Kurai Ghati overlooking the lush forested valley. This place is about five kilometres from Rukhad. The area is also being projected as Mowgli Land by the Madhya Pradesh Government to promote eco-tourism an

Lalit Shastri (The Hindu (New Delhi), 17 June 2007 ) Madhai is protected area and an excellent living forest on the backwaters of the Denwa River near Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh. It is part of the Satpura Tiger Reserve and the Pachmarhi Wildlife Sanctuary. It is also in the vicinity of the Bori Sanctuary, which was declared the first Reserve Forest by the British in 1861. Madhai is located at the foothills with the Satpura range forming a perfect backdrop. One has to leave the Bhopal-Pachmarhi highway just before Sohagpur and take a sharp bend to drive 17 km through agricultural fields and scattered villages before coming face to face with the endless serenity of Madhai that unfolds itself across the blue waters of the Denwa. A motorboat ride and one is soon on a hillock where the Forest Department has set up its small infrastructure to manage this area. Just behind the forest guesthouse one could spot a herd of chinkara roaming freely on Thursday evening. Not far away as one drove

The Hindu Sunday, Oct 15, 2006 Lalit Shastri MORENA (M.P.): A 15-km stretch of sandy bank under the Chambal bridge on National Highway 3 connecting Madhya Pradesh with Rajasthan has remained an ideal breeding ground for the now endangered Gharial for millions of years, but now this endangered species that lays eggs in sand faces the threat of extinction due to biotic pressure and reckless illegal mining of sand. Driving on NH-3 from Morena as one comes closer to the Chambal bridge one finds that vast agricultural fields on both sides of the highway have been converted into a dumping ground for sand to be transported by trucks to far-off places in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, besides catering to demand nearer home. What comes as a major surprise here is that the picturesque Bhanpur Rest House overlooking the Chambal river has been taken over completely by the sand mining mafia and there goes on a never ending movement of tractor trolleys to dump the illegally mined sand within the S

The Hindu Saturday, Aug 14, 2004 By Lalit Shastri BHOPAL, AUG. 13. Even as the problem of encroachment continues to threaten the forests in Madhya Pradesh, the State Government claims that the mandatory requirement of compensatory afforestation has been fulfilled and the forest encroachments across the State prior to 1980 can be regularised immediately after receiving appropriate directions from the Supreme Court. The Government claim vis-à-vis afforestation notwithstanding, State Forest Department sources point out that the funds that were earmarked for afforestation were diverted to village level forest committees and only a thorough probe would establish whether the State Government's claims were justified. The Union Government had cleared the State Government's proposals for regularizing forest encroachments prior to 1980. It had also issued an order on February 4, 2004, approving the settlement of traditional rights of the forest dwellers over forest land and produce. T

Lalit Shastri (The Hindu (New Delhi), 30 Dec. 2006) Poachers continue to pose a serious threat to the survival of tigers in Madhya Pradesh. Two of them were arrested on December 19 and tiger skins were seized from them. A gun was also recovered. They were active in the Hoshangbad forests and used Jabalpur as a transit point. Earlier this month, a tiger was rescued after tourists informed the staff of the Kanha National Park that they spotted the animal in Mukki range with one of its claws caught in a crude clamp. The forest personnel tranquillised the tiger and rescued it. Tribals from the villages falling in the buffer zone along the Balaghat-Mandla border could have laid the trap, officials said. Besides the problem of poaching, the Park also faces immense biotic pressure. K. Nayak, field director, Kanha Tiger Reserve, told The Hindu that there were 18 forest villages inside the Park. Three villages were part of the habitat of the endangered Barasingha, a rare species of deer found

Lalit Shastri (The Hindu (New Delhi), 30 Dec. 2006) Poachers continue to pose a serious threat to the survival of tigers in Madhya Pradesh. Two of them were arrested on December 19 and tiger skins were seized from them. A gun was also recovered. They were active in the Hoshangbad forests and used Jabalpur as a transit point. Earlier this month, a tiger was rescued after tourists informed the staff of the Kanha National Park that they spotted the animal in Mukki range with one of its claws caught in a crude clamp. The forest personnel tranquillised the tiger and rescued it. Tribals from the villages falling in the buffer zone along the Balaghat-Mandla border could have laid the trap, officials said. Besides the problem of poaching, the Park also faces immense biotic pressure. K. Nayak, field director, Kanha Tiger Reserve, told The Hindu that there were 18 forest villages inside the Park. Three villages were part of the habitat of the endangered Barasingha, a rare species of deer found o