Workers of the Lohporya Tea Estate here caught three Leopard cubs today. Later they were handed over to the Forest Department which released them at a safer spot. Assistant Conservator of Forests Gunin Saikia said in view of the increased man-leopard conflict in which many leopards had been killed in the district in the last few years, the Forest Department was considering relocating the three cubs to another place. But since the cubs were too small to be separated from their mother, they were released nearby.

The Dhamra Port project (Orissa), a 50:50joint venture (JV) between Larsen and Tourbo (L&T) and Tata Steel, has completed its first phase of construction and will be complete-lyoperationalby2010. Santosh Mohapatra, CEO, Dhamra Por tCompany,said at a media briefing here, "The port, whose project cost is estimated to be around Rs2,463 crore, has completed more than 25% of its construction work and is scheduled to become operational by April2010."

Activists agitating for the relocation of the Tata Group's Dhamra project to save the Olive Ridley turtles It was a sight to behold at the seafront near Mumbai Port Trust garden, opposite Bakhtawar building at Colaba. Volunteers from Greenpeace lit thousands of candles there, in a bid to attract the attention of the occupant of the sea-facing flat number 163 of the Bakhtawar building, the Tata Group Chairman, Ratan Tata.

Famous bird-watcher Bikram Grewal not only relishes the sport but also publishes the fruits of his explorations to produce treaures of information on the flying creatures. He talks to Bindu Shajan Perappadan about the conservation scenario of birds in India.

Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, Vidarbha's star tourist attraction, is buzzing with activity. Inside the 625.40 sq km reserve, excavators are hard at work, digging up earth for an ambitious road-building project. Strips of forest, several metres wide, have been cleared alongside existing roads.

Bolu Nayak doesn't have to buy food for his family anymore. Wild elephants have stopped destroying this poor farmer's land in Lungsung village in Assam's Nagaon district. Crop in his 2.2 hectares are safe, thanks to conservationist Shimanta Kumar Goswami and the

Not just elephants, even cobras and pheasants have found admirers in children. These new-found attractions have rekindled kids' interest in animals, reports Paul John They may not be celebrities in the Kamala Nehru Zoological Park, unlike Ashok, the elephant, Devi, the hippo, and Raja, the tiger, but these ubiquitous creatures sure do elicit the curiosity of kids who visit them. Meet the cobra, pheasants, emus, lovebirds, badgers, pythons and Nicobar pigeons who are now the new-found attractions for adoption among kids.

After a brief lull, the recalcitrant herd of wild elephants, which has been wreaking havoc in the riverine areas of the district since the last one decade, is back to its marauding ways. The jumbos have been seen in Neamati area and Mithaichapori in the vicinity.

The concept of eco-development includes the conservation of the Protected Area along with the economic development of the people living in the fringe area. With the above mentioned objectives in mind, the Government of West Bengal issued two specific guidelines for managing the resources of Sundarbans (1) Mangrove forest areas of Sundarbans which were reserved forest and (2) Protected Area, i.e.

Many protected area managers are encountering difficulties balancing the demands of conservation and visitors. An essential component of sound management planning for these areas is objective data on visitor use impacts and needs. Gir National Park attracgts a large number of visitors, both pilgrims and tourists. What matters is not the large number of visitors, but the type of visitors, the pattern of resource use and the quality of management to achieve compatibility between activities undertaken by the visitors and the protected area objectives.

Pages