[sach.sri]

Originally Posted by Subrat Seet

Nice pictures of Indian pitta and tigers too. Great.
Subrat

Thanks Subrat for appreciating the Pitta picture


-------
continuing with the TL














Did you know tiger cubs usually urinate in water, so that male tigers dont catch their smell and they remain safe. But this changes when they attain adulthood and garner their territory. Then they scent mark their territory with their urine.







yaaaawn...


to be contd...

[gd1418]

This female cub looks so cute, harmless & innocent.

Originally Posted by sach.sri

Attachment 950729

Not only tiger cubs, but most animal juveniles do so to escape attention.

Originally Posted by sach.sri

Did you know tiger cubs usually urinate in water, so that male tigers dont catch their smell and they remain safe. But this changes when they attain adulthood and garner their territory. Then they scent mark their territory with their urine.

Attachment 950731

[sach.sri]

It has been quite a while since i updated the thread. Was quite busy with work and travel related to work and could not update. However, the SC ruling regarding banning of tourism in core areas of the tiger reserves - came as a shocker and goaded me into putting up an update.

This ruling - though well intentioned has put a big question mark on the future of wildlife tourism in India. Will this help in Tiger conservation is anyone's guess - the experts opinion on this is mixed with majority experts pointing out that tourists form a large body of "independent" observes and help in reporting any abnormalities and also as a deterrent to miscreants.

Wildlife tourism if handled properly provides good benefits. It benefits the local populace and people associated with it - generates a lot of employment to the people. Which in turn kills the motivation for poaching - as people make money from tourism industry and help preserve the forests and animals (why kill a goose that lays golden eggs)

This move might put an dampner on this industry and it can also mean loss in Forex due to reduced inflow of foreign tourists who visit india for viewing wildife and Tigers!

Africa is a good example - wildlife tourism in Africa is a big industry and has provided incomes and better lifestyles to local people to the extent that it has reduced poaching and wildlife thrives in Africa. People themselves protect the forest and thrawt poachers!


Hopefully - we might see a reversal in the next hearing in August.

With this thought - some more pictures from our Tadoba trip. CElebrating the Tiger!!


Day - June 01, 2012. Panderpouni cubs @Ambepat waterhole. Playing, enjoying, relaxing.

[AlphaKilo]

Originally Posted by sach.sri

Thanks Subrat for appreciating the Pitta picture

Did you know tiger cubs usually urinate in water

Are they also followers of swami Agnivesh? (remember the Shantiniketan school girl incident and his comment).

Fantastic pics and with the new ban on tourism, this will probably be the last of tiger visits in TBHP. But neverthless this has been a fantastic thread and good camera work. Long live the national animal.

[sach.sri]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

Are they also followers of swami Agnivesh? (remember the Shantiniketan school girl incident and his comment).

Fantastic pics and with the new ban on tourism, this will probably be the last of tiger visits in TBHP. But neverthless this has been a fantastic thread and good camera work. Long live the national animal.

Thanks Alpha. Let us just hope that this ban does not stay and is reversed, else it would be a really sad thing. Atleast my son has also seen Tigers in the wild.

[gd1418]

Not in the least Alpha. The entry in the forest has not been entirely banned, only the core areas have been made out of bounds (that in any case were out of bounds earlier too).

Nothing stops the Tiger from wandering anywhere and while the sightings may become less, they shall still happen.

We should wait for 22nd Aug when the final judgement shall be delivered.

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

with the new ban on tourism, this will probably be the last of tiger visits in TBHP.

[sach.sri]

Originally Posted by gd1418

Not in the least Alpha. The entry in the forest has not been entirely banned, only the core areas have been made out of bounds (that in any case were out of bounds earlier too).

Nothing stops the Tiger from wandering anywhere and while the sightings may become less, they shall still happen.

We should wait for 22nd Aug when the final judgement shall be delivered.

Sirji - dont agree entirely. IMO - Tourists are allowed in "tourist zone (for want of better word)" where the jungle deptt has created trails and maintains them. Now this can be in "core" area of the forest or the "buffer" area. Today - the term core is very loosely defined and so whereever there are no trails is termed as "core" which is not entirely correct.

What this judgement does is to formalise the definition of "core" and bans tourist movement on the area defined as core. This will in turn mean that we will only be allowed to go in area that are closer to human inhabitation - as buffer areas will have villages, etc and will be closer to the entry of the jungle, so while there are chances of tigers coming in those areas - the chances are slim at best and also - the thrill of going in the "jungle" will be diluted.

[fazalaliadil]

Sachin,

Its Tigers, Tigers all the way on your log. Beautiful sightings.

About the SC order, Banning movement in the "Core Areas".
As GD Sahab rightly pointed out the core areas were always out of bounds, now they will be demarcated more seriously for sometime and as usual the rules will be diluted and disregarded in future.

From a different perspective the SC order is very justifiable as the wild animals need the space and an undisturbed range to mate, breed and feed. The present trend of making our parks and reserves into open zoos with huge tourism activity needs to be checked, this was long overdue.

There are other things more important that the hon'ble court needs to look into, namely...deforestation, forest land grabbing and clearing for cultivation, creation of new human settlements, sheep and cattle grazing, timber cutting and smuggling etc.

The primary focus should be on saving the forest first.

Cattle grazing in the Nallamalla forest (Srisailam ) is annually 6-8 lakhs heads. This directly translates into the first fatality of precious fodder and water being consumed by the cattle which is actually meant for the native wildlife.

The secondary damage is disease carried by the domestic animals which are passed on to the more sensitive wildlife.

Finally, it directly is decimating the prey base for the above reasons, resulting a shortage of food and water for the predators and prey alike, the reason for them to stray out of the forest areas into human settlements in search of food and water, thus escalating man-animal conflict and finally their nemesis.

Whatever the rulings now or in the future, conclusion is...

The jungles and wildlife in India are doomed!

This is due to mostly ineffective and indifferent forest staff nearly all over India. If the staff are serious in performing their duties then there is strong local political interference.

The governments eye on the vote bank politics (can't afford to take necessary action due to fear of backlash and losing voter base).

Since animals don't vote they do not have a voice.
And Sachin, apologies for posting on your thread this OT thing.
Regards,

Inside NSTR, through my lens (2010).

This is what is happening and resulting in...









THIS !

[sach.sri]

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

Sachin,

Its Tigers, Tigers all the way on your log. Beautiful sightings.

About the SC order, Banning movement in the "Core Areas".
As GD Sahab rightly pointed out the core areas were always out of bounds, now they will be demarcated more seriously for sometime and as usual the rules will be diluted and disregarded in future.

From a different perspective the SC order is very justifiable as the wild animals need the space and an undisturbed range to mate, breed and feed. The present trend of making our parks and reserves into open zoos with huge tourism activity needs to be checked, this was long overdue.

There are other things more important that the hon'ble court needs to look into, namely...deforestation, forest land grabbing and clearing for cultivation, creation of new human settlements, sheep and cattle grazing, timber cutting and smuggling etc.

The primary focus should be on saving the forest first.

And Sachin, apologies for posting on your thread this OT thing.
Regards,

Thanks Fazal bhai. I agree on the ruling being well intentioned - but i dont think it is the right ruling. Also I have mentione my reservations on the "core" thing in my earlier post.

Yes - we need to have policies that will ensure conservation of forests and wildlife and should be looking at means and ways on how to make the policies friendly to the inhabitants around the reserves and how to promote "responsible" tourism. Unilateral baning is not the solution - IMO.

Pls dont apologise - this is a thread open to all and your comments are always welcome.

continuing the TL







More pics to follow - from Ambepat.

to be contd...

[W.A.G.7]

Fantastic read so far ! I have lost count of the number of times I have read this thread and viewed all the pictures in this thread.

[gd1418]

Great shot. What rippling muscles? Oozing raw power...

Originally Posted by sach.sri

Attachment 962319

The cub in the background is sleeping so cutely with the head resting on the crossed paws. Feel like sitting next to it and patting. But must first wear an iron armour..

Originally Posted by sach.sri

Attachment 962320

[Subrat Seet]

Superb captures. This year sighting was really great in TATR. Hope things change, so that we can see them again.

Today there is a news item in the mint. Here is the link.
SC order on tiger reserves will not affect tourism, says ministry - Home - livemint.com

Subrat

[sach.sri]

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

Fantastic read so far ! I have lost count of the number of times I have read this thread and viewed all the pictures in this thread.

Thanks mate. I also re-read the whole thread again and boy did i enjoy looking at those pics again .

Still lot more to go - just a tied up with work and i must admit also a little lazy - but then i have 3 months to go now, so can work at my pace

Originally Posted by gd1418

Great shot. What rippling muscles? Oozing raw power...



The cub in the background is sleeping so cutely with the head resting on the crossed paws. Feel like sitting next to it and patting. But must first wear an iron armour..

Thanks GD sir. This is also one of my favorite pics.

It is a pity that the cub in the background was not facing us, would have made a real nice pic

Originally Posted by Subrat Seet

Superb captures. This year sighting was really great in TATR. Hope things change, so that we can see them again.

Today there is a news item in the mint. Here is the link.
SC order on tiger reserves will not affect tourism, says ministry - Home - livemint.com

Subrat

Thanks Subrat. Yes, it was a nice year - i think all round. We heard news of multiple litters from everywhere - Ranthambhore, Pench, Bandhavgarh, Tadoba and now also Sariska. Hopefully, we shall get to see them.


My two cents on the news item -
I dont agree with the honorable minister in the news item. and totally agree with the fact that this will mean a decline in wildlife tourism - both domestic and foreign and that will in turn lead to cuts in jobs which will mean loss of employment and money to the people and that will in turn be a very big motivation for people to take to illegal means to earn livelihood.

And given the bumper crop of tiger cubs this year - the "impact" of tourism is not deterimental as i see it. In any case - in every jungle tourists visit only a small fraction where there are trails and open to tourism - which is a miniscule part of the jungle and the rest is closed to tourist.

Thanka again for visitng and the post.

[sach.sri]

Continuing with the TL after a long time....

Last set of pics from morning Safari on 01/06/2012. It was a full photoshoot of the Panderpouni cubs @ Ambepat waterhole and we enjoyed shooting the siblings over such a long period of time. Starting on 30th evening safari when she made the kill - till 2nd they were there and we shot them on all Safaris











Chamelon






Still at it - feasting


This finished our morning Safari and we planned to goto Telia range in the evening Safari to have a look at the Telia female and cubs, and what did we catch while there? coming up in next post. Watch this space.

To be contd.....

[sach.sri]

Some bad news -

Yesterday following a post on facebook - i came to know that Pandherpauni Tigress (whose kids we saw making the kill) had died last week of suspected snake bite.

What is worse is that during post mortem - it came to light that she was pregnant and was carrying 4 fetuses.

What is more is that while googling for this news, i came across the following video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_XNW95aSGE

of the hunt and the kill that we saw. On looking further - this video (atleast the later part of it) is what we shot and someone has balatantly plagarised it!

I have made a comment in there stating this - let us see how it shapes up.