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CROCODOPOLIS world of crocodilians TM SCIENCE · CULTURE · INDUSTRY · NEWS · COMMUNICATION · CONSERVATION
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SCIENCE
February 13, 2007
GHARIAL
CONSERVATION ALLIANCE
(Formerly known as Gharial Multi-Task Force)
NEWSLETTER Number Two/ November 2006
Much
has transpired since the circulation of the last newsletter in September
and below is a summary of the main activities of the GMTF. 1. Gavialis
Website -- Much delayed, the website is now undergoing final fine
tuning and we should have it online shortly. Apologies from the
undersigned for not getting this vital function of the Task Force going
sooner. 2. Gharial
Conservation Coordinator --
Initial optimism on finding the right person for the job in
India has been replaced by wonderment that we can’t find someone out
of our population of over a billion. We are in the process of screening
several applicants and hopefully we will have someone on board soon. One
reason why things are not moving as fast as we’d like them to is the
lack of a fulltime coordinator. International GCCs
are: Colin Stevenson/Rene Hedegaard for Europe, Terry Cullen for USA and
Adam/Erin Britton for Austral/Pacific. They are responsible for fund and
awareness raising in their respective regions. 3. River
Watch Workshop --
Originally conceived as a gharial workshop, the scope of the
meeting, jointly organized by Jiwaji University (and hosted by them in
Gwalior) November 28th – 30th, GMTF, WWF-India
(who have kindly agreed to fund the meeting) and the Madhya Pradesh
Forest Department, is: “Conservation
and Management of Aquatic Animals”. We are aiming toward the
realization of a coalition of like-minded individuals and agencies both
within the Government and out, all working toward the same goals of
river conservation for sustainable livelihoods and guaranteed protection
of river fauna. For more details you may contact me or RJ Rao. 4. Projects/funding
-- Gharial conservation
work that most urgently needs funding will be deliberated at the meeting
of the GMTF Core Group on 30th November in Gwalior, following
the River Watch Workshop based on our Action Plan under formulation.
Already identified areas of support could be for: 1.
Short, hard-hitting conservation film
on the gharial crisis with a wide target audience 2.
Conservation oriented research
projects (for example: the fate of annual hatchling production and
head-started gharial (the monsoonal ‘flush effect’),identifying
essential environmental requirements for gharial survival, future
impacts of river development projects on gharial survival). 3.
Equipment requirements of
field workers (boats, binoculars, GPS etc). 4.
Mapping of gharial nesting,
basking and feeding areas and collation of river information (fisheries,
irrigation projects, presence of other endangered species etc etc) in
key gharial habitats. 5. Uplisting
the gharial to Critically Endangered
-- The document is ready to submit to the Species Survival
Commission of the IUCN for consideration which will be done shortly by
CSG Chairman Grahame Webb. 6. GMTF
Core Group – The Core Group consists of 11 members, at this time
all from India, mostly people with gharial conservation/research
experience and including two members of the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust
Administrative Committee, which holds the financial responsibility for
GMTF. GMTF members are urged to communicate with the Core Group with
suggestions and comments to help gharial conservation efforts. The list
of Core Group members is below: B.
C. Choudhury (bcc@wii.gov.in) Dhruvajyoti
Basu (dhrubasu@rediffmail.com) G.Dattatri
(shekar.dattatri@gmail.com) Goutam
Narayan (goutam.narayan@gmail.com) Harry
Andrews (mcbtindia@vsnl.net) Lala
A. K. Singh (laksingh2005@yahoo.co.in) Nikhil
Whitaker (nikhil.whitaker@gmail.com) R.J.
Rao (soszool@rediffmail.com) Raj
Gupta (rajgupta@milesworth.com) R.K.
Sharma (rksharma_ncs@yahoo.com) Rom Whitaker
(kingcobra@gmail.com)
7.
More agencies and individuals on
board for gharial/river conservation – The undersigned went to New
Delhi to meet with Ravi Singh, CEO, and other key persons at WWF India to solidify their involvement in the River Watch programme.
Ravi cemented the WWF commitment by offering to support the Gwalior
Workshop and discussions with Goutam Parikshit (WWF Freshwater Program)
and Sandeep Behera (Ganges River Dolphin Project) set the stage for an
ongoing collaboration with GMTF. Tigerwatch,
the NGO headed by Fatehsingh Rathore, ex-Warden of the Ranthambhor Tiger
Reserve (part of which borders the Chambal River), is enthusiastically
on board with their long expertise in enforcement and people’s
participatory activities. We are also
pleased to report that support from the eco-tourism sector is growing.
Manju Barua of Wildgrass, Guwahati, Assam writes: “We will be glad to support
members of your survey team if and when they transit through Kaziranga.”
And following this his partner Ranjit Barthakur writes that the offer to
stay at Kaziranga “can be
extended to Wild Mahseer,
Balipara, which is probably closer to the dolphin point at Tezpur.
In terms of field workers etc we look forward to supporting you and
extend our ground and river facilities based on Manju's advice.”
Others we
need to induct are NGOs and persons involved in social uplift,
alternative livelihoods, fuel/food/fodder programmes, fisheries and
other, sometimes indirectly connected disciplines relevant to river
conservation issues.
Suggestions
are urgently needed. Tell us if you know of good
people/agencies whom we can work with.
8.
Media/Publicity/Awareness/Education/Fund-raising
– Check out the following link for the article ‘Gharial on the
Brink’ by RW and JL in the leading national newspaper ‘The
Hindu’ of Sunday, October 8th, 2006. http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/10/08/stories/2006100800260700.htm If you would
like a hard copy of this article (Xerox) for publicity purposes write to
the undersigned.
‘Sanctuary
Asia’, India’s premier wildlife
magazine carried a two page spread in its October issue called
“Gharials, Going…Going…Gone?”
Again, if you need a hard copy let me know. Our scanner is down
at the moment but we can send one by snail mail. The Centre
for Science and Environment (CSE), India’s main environmental NGO
is carrying a cover story on the gharial crisis in their magazine
‘Down to Earth’ very soon. Film
on the gharial crisis. Well known wildlife film-maker
Shekar Dattatri has kindly agreed to work with us on producing a short,
hard-hitting film to highlight the plight of the gharial, river problems
and possible solutions. We have already begun with a recent trip to one
of the three last breeding sites in India, Katerniaghat in U.P. (see
below) and he will be with us in Gwalior and the Chambal River during
the upcoming River Watch Workshop. Well known
artist and cartoonist (formerly with CSE), Rustam
Vania has agreed to help develop a gharial cartoon character which
can be used on the website and in other media. We still
need to develop an effective education campaign and need inputs from
knowledgeable people in this sphere. Radio, TV and local school
programmes are all effective avenues that need to exploited but help is
needed, especially in local languages. Volunteers to the front please!! Kent Vliet
writes: “I am happy to host anything at my new domain Crocodylia.com
for the gharial group if that is helpful”. We have a similar standing
offer from Adam Britton and his well used domain crocodilian.com. Wayne Hill,
organizer of one of the biggest annual reptile expos in the world (if
not the biggest!) at Daytona Beach Florida has kindly agreed to have
Gharial Conservation be the recipient of the proceeds from their auction
in the 2008 Daytona Reptile Expo.
This auction could net $15,000 or more and Bill Ziegler suggested we get
a good gharial carving made to put up on auction there. Other ideas
welcome, we have plenty of time to prepare for it. Firoz Ahmed
circulated an article on the gharial titled: “Extinction
Cloud Looms on Gharial” from the Northeast Page of the Telegraph
(October 28, 2006), a leading daily in Calcutta. The accompanying pic of
a salty slightly detracts from it but it is all grist for the mill. Sandeep
Behera (Ganges River dolphin project, WWF-India) sent us these links to
a coverage of the Ganges problems: Please see the links below: A
Ganga Series Investigative story by leading news Channel CNN-IBN This was
sent to GMTF on 15 October from Europe GCC Colin Stevenson: Hi,
all. And
this from Eddy Even on 21 October: Dear All, The fundraising is Hamm is the same
as I've wrote before in this group. In fact it's not really from the AG-krokodille.
Florian and I
(and Ralf and others) are members of the AG-krokodille, but will raise
the money on behalf of the Gharial Multi-Task Force. Florian Haselbach is very active on
this, and a considerable amount of money is already promised to
him. I want to introduce him to this group. The link is: http://www.terraristikahamm.de/index.php?option=com_content&task
Regards, Eddy
9.
News: bad and not so bad – The
news from Northeast India has been alarming. Firstly, China has again
brought up the issue of damming the Brahmaputra
River before it enters India to divert water to its own parched
regions. The devastation this could cause to river fauna and people’s
lives on our side of the border would be catastrophic. But more
imminent is the proposal by Oil
India Limited to conduct seismic surveys using dynamite along the
Brahmaputra. The EIA was done in a hurry with no dolphin or gharial
expert on the team and Abdul Wakid, Programme Leader of the Gangetic
Dolphin Research & Conservation Programme, Aaranyak in Guwahati,
Assam
has been
active in trying to stop the survey. Unfortunately, oil exploration is
somehow viewed like a sacred undertaking by the Government and it looks
like it will go ahead anyway. This is what Abdul Wakid wrote for the
Public Hearing on October 30th: “Since
the EIA (which was completed by Guwahati University) was a rapid
assessment; therefore, we are demanding that you (Oil India Ltd)
initiate a new and comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment with
special attention to the possible impact of the seismic survey on the
Gangetic dolphins and their habitats through an appropriate dolphin
specialist in conjunction with a local dolphin expert and conservationist team. Stop the
seismic survey until that rigorous EIA is completed.” Elsewhere,
in an interesting development, five adult gharial suddenly showed up in
October 2006 on the banks of the Torsha
River in West Bengal “causing panic among villagers living along
the river”. At present we are trying to get more details such as
whether an adult male is among the group and whether there is any
suitable habitat there in which gharial could survive. Check this link: Page
url: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061010/asp/siliguri/story_6850103.asp Last
month we all read that Orissa
was planning to release surplus gharial from Nandankanan Biological Park
into the Mahanadi River. There was an immediate response from members
that this activity should be deferred until the causes of the 99.98%
loss of previously released gharial in that river are positively
identified and mitigated. CSG Chairman Grahame Webb sent a
representation to the PCCF Wildlife, Orissa and the latest information
indicates that the releases will not be made just yet. We now know that
hatching, rearing and releasing gharial is the easy part; guaranteeing
survival of a reasonable number is now the challenge.
10.
Gharial conservation outside
India -- With the sad loss of GMTF member Tirtha Maskey in the tragic
chopper crash in Nepal the
Core Group is presently unrepresented in that country. Ahmed Khan
in Pakistan is regularly in touch and we hope to hear some positive
results of surveys there for possible reintroduction sites. Kimzang
Namgay, CEO of WWF Bhutan has expressed his interest in collaborating with GMTF on
surveys in that (mostly) mountain kingdom. Sangay Wangchuk, head of the
Nature Conservation Division, Department of Forestry Services, Bhutan
has kindly agreed to join GMTF and is currently checking the security
situation in the southern areas of Bhutan where suitable gharial habitat
could occur. Recently M.I.
Zuberi, of Rajshahi University in
Bangladesh expressed his and his colleagues’ willingness to start
gharial surveys and conservation work in his area of the Ganges River
(the last place gharial were known to nest in that country). Nothing from
Myanmar yet and if anyone can help move things there let us know,
there is still chance of some suitable gharial habitat there. 11.
Zoos with Gharial – This from Colin: “I've checked
the online database of ISIS, and Europe has just 1.1 listed from Rene's
Croc Zoo in Denmark. That's the only listing for Europe. The US has
4.12.2 at 8 institutions, and Asia has 3.3 at 3 institutions. Total of
8.16.2 listed on ISIS as of 29 September 2006.” Obviously
Indian zoos are not contributing data to ISIS. Brij Kishor Gupta of
India’s Central Zoo Authority writes: “There are 291 gharial housed
in 24 zoos in the country. The zoo in Patna has the highest with - 120
individuals”. However, D. Basu tells us that there are XXX gharial
being reared at the Kukkrail Gharial Centre near Lucknow. Zoos with
gharial and zoos that want gharial are all good candidates for support
to the GMTF. The CZA is giving us a list of Indian zoos and we would
appreciate a list of the 8 U.S. and any other zoos worldwide with
gharial.
12.
Notes from the field – The
undersigned made a four day visit to Katerniaghat
Wildlife Sanctuary in northern Uttar Pradesh State (one of the last
three gharial breeding sites in India), along with Janaki Lenin and Bill
Zeigler. A note on the gharial survey we did in the Girwa River
(November 16 and 18) is under preparation but we thought you might like
a peek at the summarized findings: A total of
58 gharial were counted (with an estimated 20 more not seen but
secondary evidence such as tracks observed) between the boat landing at
Katerniaghat upriver to Patharana Phanta with the following breakdown: Adult
females (including an unknown number of subadult males):
25 Subadult
males (with small, developing gharas)
: 2 Adult males
(with large gharas)
:
11 Juveniles
and subadults
:
19 Hatchling/yearlings
:
1 What
is interesting (and unfortunately predictable) is the almost total
absence (only one observed) of any of this year’s estimated 500 to 700
hatchlings resulting from the 18 counted nests (at 30 to 40 per nest). Similarly, there were very few gharial (only eleven) in the
size class of those 168 released in the Girwa in Jan/Feb 2006. We
had useful discussions with the Warden, Mr. Ramesh Pandey and the
Ranger, Mr. Manoj Shukla as well as with boatmen Ram Roop and Sowai
about threats to the gharial (mainly fishing and the downstream barrage
operated by the Irrigation Department) and what can be done to mitigate
them. The
high number of adult males is also very significant, probably the
highest density recorded in any survey of the species, especially
considering the optimum gharial habitat here in the Girwa in only about
5kms. The number of adult females is consistent with recent surveys by
V.P. Singh and D. Basu. We also counted 7 Ganges river dolphins and 17
mugger on the survey. Katerniaghat is a fragile paradise and we have
been discussing the possibility of starting ‘Gharial Tours’ there
for fund raising. Next Time Our
next Newsletter will report on the deliberations at the River Watch
Workshop. Members are invited to send bits and pieces of relevant
gharial information, news and opinions which we will try to accommodate
in future Newsletters. Keep it rolling! Rom
Copyright © 2006 Gharial Multi-Task Force.
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