A well-calculated compensation plan eases relocation pain of forest dwellers from the core area of Melghat Tiger Reserve. It’s not the kind of relocation story that one usually hears. Early last year three villages were uprooted from their traditional land in the core area of the Melghat Tiger Reserve to make way for free movement of the big cat. They did not protest, and walked away with their belongings and herds of cattle.

The Supreme Court has temporarily stayed an order of the Madras High Court, asking resort owners near Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu to vacate the land. In April, the high court had given resort owners three months to hand over the land with them to the state to pave the way for an elephant corridor in the Nilgiri mountains. The corridor would connect Mudumalai to the Sathyamangalam forests in the east of the Segur plateau.

Habitat fragmentation, loss of habitat and other anthropogenic activities have caused a population decline in many species, caused restriction in their distribution or even led to their local extinction. We attempted to understand the impact of such pressures on the newly identified and possibly the largest population of the endangered lion-tailed macaque, Macaca silenus in the Reserve Forests of Sirsi and Honnavara, Karnataka, using a temporal series of satellite images.

Among the wild cats, cheetah is unique and is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx notable with its non-retractable claws and pads. The cheetah made headlines last year when the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), New Delhi, announced setting aside three grassland sanctuaries to bring the extinct cat back to India. (Correspondence)

In an atmosphere marked by a growing confrontation, the Assam Forest Department and a dominant section of the Assamese nationalists and conservationists argue that the Kaziranga National Park is facing imminent danger from its neighbouring habitats. The poor farmers, fishermen, and petty traders in the neighbourhood refuse to give up their land and be rehabilitated. This article journeys briefly into some of the issues to help understand the complex contest over both conservation practices and ownership of a prized space.

The Girnar Ropeway project in Gujarat gets in-principle approval subject to six
specific conditions. They include minimum disturbance for the long-billed vul-
ture, Girnari Giddh habitat, cafeteria for vultures, increase in the height of two
towers along the ropeway, a cess on ticket turnover revenue for conservation

Species conservation is difficult. Threats to species are typically high and immediate. Effective solutions for counteracting these threats, however, require synthesis of high quality evidence, appropriately targeted activities, typically costly implementation, and rapid re-evaluation and adaptation.