10 hours ago
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Environmentalists and wildlife experts person questioned the Kerala government’s connection to measure the carrying capableness of the State’s forests and behaviour a wildlife census arsenic portion of efforts to code human-wildlife conflict, arguing that it risks reducing a analyzable ecological contented to wildlife numbers portion overlooking situation degradation, wood fragmentation and quality pressures connected wood ecosystems.
They besides challenged Forest Minister Shibu Baby John’s assertions connected elephant populations and tiger territory requirements, calling for technological assessments of wood wellness earlier drafting conclusions astir wildlife “overpopulation”.
Announcing a 100-day enactment program to tackle human-wildlife conflict, Mr. John said the authorities would attack the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, to survey the carrying capableness of Kerala’s forests and measure their quality to enactment wildlife populations, peculiarly elephants and tigers, with a absorption connected regions specified arsenic Wayanad, wherever the contented is particularly acute.
Forest section officials said wildlife censuses were already being conducted and would beryllium intensified arsenic portion of a State-wide appraisal of chaotic carnal populations.
Mr. John said preliminary figures suggested the elephant colonisation had doubled, though the section presently relied connected estimates. The Minister besides said a tiger typically requires astir 20 sq km of territory, but successful Wayanad each tiger has entree to lone astir 4 sq km, which helium said was contributing to the emergence successful tiger-related conflicts.
Human imapact
Speaking to The Hindu, P.S. Easa, a subordinate of the National Board for Wildlife, said immoderate carrying-capacity appraisal indispensable see quality settlements, quality activities and their interaction connected wildlife habitats. Given the ample quality and wildlife populations that stock the State’s landscape, the absorption should beryllium connected knowing the effects of quality beingness connected habitats and wildlife, helium said.
Mr. Easa cautioned against viewing the WII arsenic having a ready-made solution and said the authorities should undertake a rigorous technological appraisal and question “independent expert” opinions earlier arriving astatine conclusions.
He questioned claims that reliable wildlife information were lacking, noting that elephant and tiger populations are already monitored, the second done camera-trap surveys. Any carrying-capacity study, helium said, indispensable person a intelligibly defined methodology and, successful the lawsuit of Wayanad, dainty it arsenic portion of the larger Nilgiri scenery alternatively than an isolated unit.
Mr. Easa besides disputed the Minister’s assertion connected tiger territory size, saying it varies according to situation conditions, vegetation and prey availability and cannot beryllium reduced to a fixed benchmark. He stressed the request to measure prey populations, including deer, to find whether Wayanad tin prolong its tiger and leopard populations, adding that prey scarcity could beryllium pushing tigers retired of forests.
The Wayanad Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi (WPSS) criticised the carrying-capacity study, arguing that precedence should alternatively beryllium fixed to studying wood degradation, situation loss, encroachment, invasive species, monoculture plantations, wood fires and unregulated tourism to mitigate human-wildlife conflict.
Priority to wood restoration
“The Forest section has conducted wildlife censuses for years. The latest census reportedly recovered a important diminution successful elephant and tiger populations successful Wayanad, a inclination seen crossed Kerala. Regrettably, the Minister appears to person accepted claims by vested interests that human-wildlife struggle is caused by excessive numbers of elephants and tigers successful Wayanad’s forests,” said N. Badusha, president of WPSS, adding that precedence should beryllium fixed to wood restoration to code the issue.
Meanwhile, Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan, an adjunct chap astatine ATREE, Bengaluru, welcomed the connection but said the survey should beryllium autarkic and interdisciplinary, focusing connected wide ecosystem wellness successful the State alternatively than lone tiger and elephant numbers.
