Final decision after receiving reports about the big cat’s presence; Forest Department currently undertaking tiger census which will end in 2017

PUNE: Low-cost methods like torches, chillies and bee cultivation, suggested by Pune-based researchers, have helped farmers in northern Karnataka protect their crops from marauding elephants.

1,706 tigers today, up from 1,411 in 2007

Should the approximately 1,700 tigers left in India be treated as sacrosanct, not to be exploited by India’s tourism industry? Or, should they be looked at as valuable commodities, responsible for filling the coffers of the state? This is the firestorm of a debate that Ajay Dubey sparked off, when he, through a public interest litigation filed in the Madhya Pradesh High Court in September 2010, asked that tourism be banned in ‘core’ tiger areas — zones where tiger density is particularly high — in line with the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and its 2006 amendment.

The forest department has suspended all safaris in the State’s tiger reserves from Tuesday morning.

The Supreme Court’s interim order banning tourism activities in the core areas of tiger reserves has shocked operators of the Jungle Lodges and Resorts (JLR) and other resorts around tiger reserves that made a living from tourism. The chief wildlife warden of the State, Deepak Sharma, PCCF (Wildlife) has sent faxes to all tiger reserves ordering that safaris must be suspended until a final decision is taken. “We have ordered to suspend the safaris inside Nagarhole, Bandipuir, Bhadra, Dandeli and K Gudi area in BRT Tiger Reserve. The ban will continue until the court takes up the matter next month,” Mr Sharma said.

Dandeli, Mookambika, Cauvery, Someshwara, BBP to be merged with forests
The State government has extended the boundaries of a national park and four wildlife sanctuaries.

The government on December 27, 2011, notified around 1,255.64 sq km of reserve forest land as national park and wildlife sanctuaries. As per the notification, the areas of four wildlife sanctuaries – Dandeli, Mookambika, Cauvery and Someshwara, and one national park – Bannerghatta, have been extended by amalgamating them with reserve forests, thereby bringing a larger area under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

Public can contribute to the corpus; thrust on education, research

Bangalore: The Forest Department and its enlisted volunteers have made an

wild elephants that stray into territories that traditionally do not belong to them and affect people and crops may be in for a surprise. The Maharashtra government has, secretly, dug up trenches in two districts, Kolhapur and Sindhudurg, bordering Karnataka. Wildlife activists in Karnataka don