Holocene year 2 issue 5

Year – 2/Issue – 5/ January - February’17

World after 5th Extinction

Dwaipayan Ghosh

".... far more pleasure is got from pressing the button of a camera than is ever got from pressing the trigger of a rifle....in one case the leopard can be watched for hours, and there is no more graceful and interesting animal in the jungle to watch....... in the other case a fleeting glimpse.... the acquisition of the trophy which soon loses both its beauty and its interest" - Jim Corbett, in the Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag

Part Two : His Majesty’s Guest Peacocks welcomed me with shrilling screams at the entrance. The Leopard Lair Resort is a property of Thakur Devi Singh Ji Ranawat, Thakur Sahib of Bera. Bera was a Jagir of 1|Page

Sisodia Dynasty’s Ranawat Clan of Mewar. After the fall of Chittorgarh Fort, Rana Uday Sing II moved to the foothills of Aravalli range, where he had already founded the city of Udaypur.

Rana Uday Singh’s son, the Great MaharanaPratap II Singhji granted this Jagir of Bera to his 4th son, KunwarShekha Ji, for his bravery. Rao Shekha Ji never stayed in Bera.

His son Thakur Chaturbhuj Singh Ji built the BeraGarh and started living there. Rao Bahadur Thakur Devi Singh Ji, Present Thakur Sahib of Bera, is the great-great-grandson of Thakur Chaturbhuj Singh Ji. I was excited to be a guest of the successor of the great MaharanaPratap.

Makrand, His Majesty’s personnel, dressed in ethnic Rajasthani outfit, led me to the cottage, “Madira”, one of the three designated cottages.

My stay was arranged there as his “ कु म” ordered. Built with rough rubbles and inclined concrete roof,

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Year – 2/Issue – 5/ January - February’17

the cottage room was equipped with two cosy beds, basic modern facilities and an attached bathroom with hot and cold shower. The feeble lights in the room, uncannily dark coated roof, and creamy white painted walls, all were in sync to perpetuate an eerie ambiance, which was perfect to create the mood of a “wild” explorer. Due to the thick stone wall, it wasn’t as hot as outside but still needed to switch on the AC machine in early July in western Rajasthan. “Would you like to have some tea?”

Makrand asked and I nodded in agreement. The tea came in a royal manner, inside a finely finished teapot covered in thick cotton jacket, to keep it warm. It was refreshing and I went for a blissful bath after having that regal drink.

When Markand told me that “ कु म” will be there at 5pm, I had well enough time to have a nap.

After having a simple but delicious Rajasthani vegetarian lunch consisting of Roti, Daal and Sabji, followed by Dahi, I tried to doze off keeping my camera gears ready. I was exhausted, but imagine the excitement of a wildlife enthusiast, who has been travelling in

leakage with polymer tape. “Is it alright?”, a deep baritone voice surfaced making everyone around all ears. A middle aged man with thick

moustache, wearing grey jeans, black hunter shoes, khaki safari jacket and brown hat, appeared.

It didn’t need any further introduction. A successor of India’s one of the most famous dynasties was in front of me. I approached “ कु म” to greet him. A man full of vivacity, watching leopards for the last two decades, would be my co-passenger in this voyage. Thakur Devi Singh Ji is the man who devoted his life teaching local villagers how to cohabit with the most elusive cat in the world, a hunter turned conservator. “Let’s have a wonderful evening” he ordered and the Jeep started. …… to be continued

myriad jungles in India, in search for big cats in the last six years and so, now nearing an acquaintance of his most favourite cat, the most favourite animal rather, roaming around human habitats! The anticipation is epic!

Encounter with leopards of Aravalli, along with a successor of the once Rulers of Aravalli, was about to occur in just a few hours. I was recollecting the recent news of human-leopard conflicts in western Rajasthan, especially in Jodhpur and Udaipur districts, flashed in National News Papers and wondering why there was no news of conflict from this particular region. Thakur Sahib might be able to answer these questions or might not be.

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Featured Topic: Panthers of Pali (Part Two)

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Editors’ Desk: The Palm Oil Menace

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Story Room: Still in the Shadow of Tiger

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Wild Craft: Polar Biodiversity BOSCO

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Workshop

at

Theme Poster: Uttarakhand

A Jeep Wrangler, famous for off-roading, stood with its bonnet open near the cottage when I came out. Chauffeur cum mechanic dressed in grey safari suite, Natwar Laal, was at work leaning onto its engine. “There is a small problem with the engine oil pipe line”, he uttered. It took five minutes to arrest the 2|Page

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Year – 2/Issue – 5/ January - February’17

Editors’ Desk: The Palm Oil Menace “Like oceans, rain forest absorbs carbon from atmosphere…….decades and decades of forest breathing in carbon is storing in leaves and organic matters…..so that carbon emission is held safe for us……until we clear them and light them on fire….and that acts like a carbon bomb….and releases massive carbon emission back in to atmosphere” --- Lindsey Allen, Director, Rainforest Action Network The above mentioned statements were heard in National Geographic’s recent documentary, “Before the Flood”, in which Actor Leonardo DiCaprio met with scientists, activists and world leaders to discuss the dangers of climate change and possible solutions. The documentary was released on September 9, 2016. Palm oil menace of South East Asia was significantly captured in this documentary as well.

According to the documentary, 80% lands for palm oil cultivation are made available by clearing rainforest of Indonesia. Forest of Bukit Lawang also falls in this parcel of land.

Palm oil production is important to the economy of Indonesia as the country is the world's biggest producer and consumer of the commodity, providing about half the world supply. Oil palm plantations stretch across 6 million hectares (roughly twice the size of Belgium). Indonesia plans to add 4 million additional hectares towards oil palm biofuel production by 2015. As of 2012, Indonesia produces 35 percent of the world's certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO).

Production of palm oil in Indonesia has, since 1964, recorded a phenomenal increase from 157, 000 tonnes to 33.5 million tonnes in 2014.

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Palm oil accounts for 11% of Indonesia's export earnings of $5.7bn.

Maintaining its status as the world’s largest producer of palm oil, Indonesia has projected a figure of 40 million tonnes by 2020.

In this context, the global production figure given by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) was 50 million tonnes for 2012, double the production of 2002. This increase is reflected also in increases of Indonesia’s production of palm oil for the same period, from 10.300 million tonnes in 2002 and 28.50 million tonnes in 2012.

The entire production of the oil is derived from Indonesia's rainforest which ranks third in the world, the other two being in the Amazon and Congo basins. According to the Indonesian Palm Oil Association, one third of this production is attributed to smallholder farmers and the remaining to the multinationals. Palm trees that were planted about 25 years ago have an annual average production rate of four tonnes of oil per hectare and now there are plans to increase this by introducing newer varieties which could double the production rate per hectare.

A government moratorium on the clearing of new forest has become effective from 2011 which will be effective till 2015. Of the total logging in Indonesia, up to 80% is reported to be performed illegally.

A major environmental threat that palm oil production faces, is the destruction of rainforests (source for palm oil) in Indonesia and Malaysia (according to reports deforestation accounted for a minimum of 8 million hectares of forest land in Indonesia).

This deforestation has also resulted in serious threat to endangered species such as Borneo pygmy elephants, Sumatran elephants, Sumatran tigers, Sumatran rhinoceroses, and both species of orangutan which live in these forests. Also reported are human rights abuse in the form of using child labour and debt bondage in the plantations of Borneo and Sumatra.

According to a Greenpeace report palm oil production contributed deforestation of 25% of forest land in Indonesia during the period 2009 -2011, which has proved to be a serious threat to the habitat of the orangutan, the Sumatran

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Year – 2/Issue – 5/ January - February’17

elephant, and the Sumatran tiger which are critically endangered species.

In Kalimantan, deforestation for oil palm plantation development is said to endanger the living space of indigenous tribes and orangutans.

In the month of October, 2016, one of the editors of Exploring Nature, along with the team of Sumatra EcoTravel (a local Ecotourism organization) visited two such villages, Gotoroyon and Lambourn, close to Bukit Lawang, where villagers are united against this Palm Oil Menace and a corrupted section of Indonesian Government, who are in favour of rain forest destruction to make more money out of palm oil cultivation. 18 such villages have come together to fight against palm oil cultivation and protect rain forest.

EcoTravel is promoting such endeavour by introducing alternate sources of income to the farmers, which have no detrimental effects on environment and forest. One such endeavour is pisciculture. In the village of Lambourn, the team met an owner of organic pisciculture, Bangor. There was a time, when Bangor used to manage her fish ponds by 100-150 labourers. But now it’s difficult for her to keep even 10 workers, because all workers are now interested in palm tree cultivation, as that helps them to earn more money. Team EcoTravel and fish ponds owners like Bangor are now working hard to get back their workers by motivating them for organic pisciculture as well as by educating them on importance of rain forest and ill effects of palm tree cultivation on rain forest.

of Sumatra is the most affected one. It was featured in the documentary as one of the key reasons of climate change, and was also resonated by Dharma, head of one of the 18 villages united in this battle against palm oil menace. The explorer and the team were hosted at Dharma’s house for a sumptuous lunch.

Authentic home cooked Indonesian food was served, containing sambal, rice, chicken curry, boiled vegetables and coconut water mixed with “brown sugar” made out of palm tree sap.

Dharma said, it’s the responsibility of this generation to secure the future of next generation and that would be possible if forest is protected. He said that they don’t need palm oil cultivation to become rich. He always suggests his farmer friends to cultivate fruit bearing trees and that would be enough to feed their families. He also told that “Monkeys and orangutans of a forest can also get their food if we cultivate fruits. We do not consume all the fruits from trees, at least 10-20% we can leave for wild animals and in that way we can save forest and its biodiversity”.

One more significant issue, he highlighted, was emptying forest for woods to build houses.

He said, “There is no point in going for high quality woods by clearing a rain forest. We do not need to build houses which would last for 20 years, as our children and grandchildren, in any case would dismantle these houses and re-build new houses of their own choices. Instead we can go for plantation of low quality woods outside forest area to use them for building houses.”

Dharma and other locals of those 18 villages have become green crusaders of Leusur ecosystem of north Sumatra and with the help of organizations like EcoTravel, they are building a lawsuit for themselves, so that they don't lose their rights on their rain forests.

"These guys (pointing at captives, orphan survivors of forest loss - Orangutan cubs) are byproducts of forest loss ....because of palm oil industry”.... Ian Singleton, PHD (Conservation Director, PANECO Foundation), voiced, in the documentary "Before The Flood"....in this village tour, the explorer got another insight of "The Palm Oil Menace". The documentary also reinforced the fact that, 80% of Sumatran rain forests are cleared up for Palm Oil cultivation and the Leusur ecosystem 4|Page E-mail: natural_destination@yahoo.com Website:www.exploringnature.org.in

Year – 2/Issue – 5/ January - February’17

Story Room: Still in the Shadow of Tiger

Arnab Basu and Dwaipayan Ghosh

After “Hiking in Highlands”, "The Tigers’ Terrain” was the explorers’, 3 of them, much calculated and thought about exploration, specifically designed for spotting Bengal Tigers in the wild. The exploration started with lots of speculations, as well as expectations, at 3:30 PM from Kariya zone of Satpura Tiger Reserve, on 8th May, 2016.

As expectations were high, the level of superstitions in the explorers’ mind was never less. Therefore, superstitious Arnab asked the forest guide at Madhai gate of Satpura Tiger Reserve, “Are Dholes (Indian Wild Dogs) easily spotted in the forest?” – The superstition was, a negative answer to this question, might increase the possibility of big cat sighting, though not necessarily it always works. The animal is endangered and a glimpse is generally rare, unlike their African counterparts (although African wild dogs are endangered too).

Anyway, a negative answer, increased hopes as well as heart beats.

After two and half hours of exploration, usual herds of Sambar, Nilgai, Nothern plain Langoor and Rhesus Macaque were noticed. When the explorers started their journey towards the exit of the forest, driver Deepak had to stop his gypsy. Guide Harilal whispered “Leopards”.

On the left hand side of the gypsy, in thick bushes, something was moving. After few seconds, a round head with black rosettes on yellow fur was noticed, and then another and then another, three heads of three leopards, were nicely camouflaged in the bushes. They 5|Page

wanted to cross the road but stopped after seeing three gypsies, the shy animals were hesitant to reveal themselves.

After a minute or so, one came out and cautiously crossed the road. It was a cub. Then other two followed the previous one. All three of them were cubs. Where was the mother then, had she left her cubs alone? That was unusual.

Harilal, said that the mother was not sighted for last couple of days, and she was extremely shy. Do we suspect a foul play??

In the first half of the exploration series itself, big cats were sighted. A happy bunch of explorers returned to the base camp anticipating a great and fruitful series ahead.

In that same day, other significant observations were Indian monitor lizard, soft shelled turtle, Rufous treepie, nests and nestlings of woolly necked stork, crested hawk eagle and crested serpent eagle.

The 2nd and last exploration of Satpura were significant because of spotting sloth bears, two cubs, and one adult male and female, playing in bushes. That was an ideal way to start the day, for the explorers. This time it was the 3rd explorer in the team, Rajan, who located them and took some great shots. Other significant observations were burking deer, marsh crocodile, long tale shrike, pied kingfisher, oriental honey buzzard, purple sun bird, ashy crowned sparrow lark and Scops owl. While exiting the forest, an adult male sloth bear was found climbing a tree, searching for honey.

Explorers reached at Pench with huge expectations. There was news of series of tiger sighting. Especially Pench’s famous tigress “Collarwali” and her four cubs were apparently getting sighted almost every day. However, after reaching there, atmosphere of Pench was found a bit gloomy. The deaths of tigress “Baghinnala” and her 3 cubs were a huge reason for heartbreak among locals, especially among forest guides, safari drivers and resorts owners.

They know, while there are tigers in the forest, they have works to do. If tigers cease to exist, the men and women dependent on the forest, would be jobless.

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Year – 2/Issue – 5/ January - February’17

On 28th March 2016, various tourists entering through the Touria Gate of the Pench Tiger Reserve, noticed the darling Tigress and a mother of 4 young cubs, lying at a distance from the road. She was in her territory and guests were thrilled to click a sleeping tigress from such a close distance. The excitement turned to shock when during the exit hours few drivers of the tourist vehicles realized that she was lying in the exact position as before and that was highly unusual. The kids who always accompanied her were not around and a stranger was captured on a phone-cam on foot (it is illegal for outsiders to get off their vehicles once inside the core area, and loitering is prohibited) clicking the tigress from a dangerously close distance. The authorities were immediately informed by the concerned witnesses as they feared (rightly so) that the tigress was dead. Soon it was confirmed that the dead tigress was indeed T-17 a.k.a “BaghinNala”, daughter of legendary “BadiMada”, who was the subject of the BBC Documentary titled Spy in the Jungle, and sister of the illustrious T15 commonly known as “Collarwali”. It was past tourist hours and the park gates were shut. In the hours that followed, decaying bodies of 2 of the cubs were also discovered. On 29th of March, 2016, various dead bodies of spotted Deer and few birds were discovered, thus confirming poisoning of one of the water sources inside the park. The assumption of poisoning was bolstered, when one of the water bodies that existed close to where the tigress had died, was immediately filled and an identical water body was dug up at a little distance.

With this background story, the explorers started their 3rd (1st in Pench) safari at 5:45 AM on 10th May, 2016. The usual question of Dhole sighting was asked, however with great surprise and little disappointment, the answer was positive from guide Sunil. In four and half hours of safari, the significant observations were spotted deer, wild boar, and golden jackal female and of course a pack of Indian wild dogs – playing and drinking water near a shallow water body. Important bird species observed, were black hooded oriole, bush lark, Indian grey horn bill, white-eyed buzzard and critically endangered white rumped vulture, and long billed vulture.

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The 2nd safari at Pench (and 4th of the series) started at 4:00 PM, and driver Shera and guide Vinod were quite confident about spotting “Collarwali”. Vinod was a trained guide with certification from prestigious Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal. With lots of enthusiasm, the exploration of the day started, but suffered an immediate set back, marked by heavy down pour, lasted for an hour between 4:30 to 5:30 PM. All hopes got washed away, rain cooled down the forest and minimized possibility of big cats coming out of dense forest to quench thirst. However, intermittent warning calls of langoors, sambar and spotted deer were heard throughout the whole safari from different corners of the forest, confirming movement of big cats within the dense forest. Although some of the calls by male spotted deer were suspected as false calls. Male spotted deer sometimes make false call to make female spotted deer scared, so that they come closer to them out of fear and to seek protection. Male spotted deer take that as an advantage for mating. Quite an opportunist lover.

However, serious and strong warning calls were heard at around 5:45 PM. There were combined calls of peacock, jackal, burking deer and red jungle fowl. Everybody was sure, that, those calls were for nothing but Bengal Tigers and movement was not beyond 200 meters from the explorers’ location. Vinod said, “You may not like to trust spotted deer, but sambar and jackal never give false call.”

Despite of strong calls, nothing came out of the dense forest and an hour of waiting didn’t yield any result, but a black napped hare, fruit bats and a juvenile crested serpent eagle, which just finished eating of its kill, an adult peafowl. 1st day’s safari at Pench ended there.

Last safari of Pench and 5th of the series was significant for hearing intense warning call of langoors at 7:00 AM and spotting pug marks of big cat. However, the pug marks didn’t look fresh and both driver Shera and explorer Dwaipayan suspected those

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Year – 2/Issue – 5/ January - February’17

as Leopard’s pug mark. There was rumor in the forest, that a male tiger was spotted somewhere near route number 1. But the explorers could not find any evidence of that.

The last segment of the series started at Kanha at 5:45 AM of next day (12th May, 2016). The 3rd explorer, Rajan could not join the team, because of some technical glitches. Guide Shamim first heard a mild warning call of sambar, near the crossing point of Kanha and Kisli zone of the tiger reserve. The zone was known as the hide-out of famous tiger “Munna”. Around 6:20 AM, severe warning calls of Northern Plain Langoor and spotted deer were heard in that area. Dwaipayan admitted, that was the strongest warning call, he had ever heard in any exploration in a forest. Several spotted deer were found running away in opposite direction from where the call was coming. However, waiting for an hour or so wasn’t enough to get “Munna” out of his hideout. There was news from other side of the forest that, another male and female tigers were spotted near Kanha zone.

movement of the big cat……but for the explorers…..still in the shadow of the tiger!!

For Team Exploring Nature Editors’ Desk: Dwaipayan Ghosh Arnab Basu Review: Anwesha Ghatak Title & Logo Design: Arijit Das Majumder Saikat Chakraborty Newsletter Design: Dwaipayan Ghosh Arnab Basu

Explorers reached there and from around 5-6 km away from Kisli zone, they found fresh pug mark and mark of an adult male tiger sitting on soil.

Around 10:30 AM, they started retreating from forest, Driver Raju was telling stories of “Munna”, who is the most respected tiger of Kanha and more famous for being the only male tiger, who didn’t kill his offsprings, in recent history of Kanha.

The significant observations, for the day, were Swamp deer, King Vulture, Sirkeer Malkoha, Jungle Owlet etc.

The other 3 safaris in Kanha were very quiet.

The forest was lush and cool, with sights of happily grazing herbivores and colorful birds.

In the last safari, while returning, the explorers spotted fresh tiger’s scat, confirming recent 7|Page

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Year – 2/Issue – 5/ January - February’17

Wild Craft: Polar Biodiversity Workshop at BOSCO

The 4th model of the Wild Craft section of Exploring Nature’s biodiversity model series Polar Biodiversity model was donated as Christmas and New Year gift to BOSCO RAINBOW HOME At Hombegowda Kannada Primary School, located at # 10, Wilson Garden, Bangalore.

“Rainbow Home” is for girl children, in partnership with “Partnership Foundation”, Netherlands, which now stands under Rainbow Foundations India (RFI). The goal of the Rainbow home is to provide holistic development formation to girls who live either on the streets or in difficult family environments with no way to enjoy their rights as children. There are 71 children between the age of 3 yrs to 14 years residing at BOSCO rainbow home.

Prior to admission in formal school, the children at Rainbow home undergo a bridge course, during which the children receive spiritual formation, value education, socio-cultural formation, and psychophysical development. During the Bridge course, the children get counselling, periodical health check-ups, outings, talent enhancement trainings and indoor games. The bigger girls get opportunity to develop their leadership qualities and participate in decisionmaking in matters, related to the management of the home. In the Rainbow Home, a day starts with yoga and exercises.

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The children are divided into groups consisting of three members. It’s called as "three sister’s committee". The small parliament looks after the minute needs of each individual. The enhancement of leadership, enables the children to take up

responsibilities in the given time and space.

The major services of the centre: • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Formal Education Yoga Classes Counselling Talent Enhancement Programme Craft Work Awareness on Health & Hygiene Recreational Activities Rainbow meet Religious Celebration Value Imparting Programs Radio Programme Indoor & Outdoor Games Picnic Home Visits

Exploring Nature conducted a 30 minutes workshop along with “ERM Foundation” representative, Pooja Uthappa, on the Christmas Eve of 2016. This workshop was a part of ERM Foundation’s programme of giving clothes and chocolates as Christmas gifts to children of BOSCO. Around 20 girls were there to attend the workshop. The importance of polar biodiversity with respect to climate change and global warming, was primarily discussed in this workshop.

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Year – 2/Issue – 5/ January - February’17

Theme Poster

:: UttaraKhand – Sketch by Ajay Kumar Debnath ::

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