Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2020 | 12(3): 15405–15406
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5791.12.3.15405-15406
#5791 | Received
14 February 2020 | Date of publication: 26 February 2020 (online
& print)
The State of Wildlife and
Protected Areas in Maharashtra: News and Information from the Protected Area
Update 1996-2015
Reviewed by L.A.K. Singh
Puspaswini, Friends Colony, 1830- Mahatab Road, Old Town, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751002, India.
With about 7,000 stories and news
reports, the Protected Area Update (PAU) constitutes a huge and valuable
database. For nearly 25 years, and in over 140 issues, edited by Pankaj Sekhsaria, we have been getting brief access to happenings
in different Indian states about aspects related to administration, legal
aspects, management, conservation, people & research in wildlife, protected
areas, and nature conservation.
The book in hand is about the
state of Maharashtra. It is with news
and information compiled and edited from PUCs published during 1996–2015. The earlier such
compilation was in 2013 covering PAU news about northeastern
India during 1996–2011. Congratulations to the editor and his team for the
purpose addressed and output delivered through this well designed, neatly
laid-out publication on Maharashtra, from the house of the famous Duleep Matthai Nature
Conservation Trust.
The editorial notes and brief
introduction about the protected area network in Maharashtra with a selected
list of relevant references set a well-toned beginning, providing the minimum
required details for global readership.
The Melghat
Tiger Reserve (year 1973) of Maharashtra is one of the first nine tiger
reserves of the country. The growth of
tiger reserves to six numbers by 2014 and the concept of having interstate Pench Tiger Reserve holds the state in respect. Also, the
state has a list of six other national parks, 38 wildlife sanctuaries, and two
conservation reserves. Pages of the book offer chronological news from these
areas, thoughtfully aided by an Index.
The Index-entries will be useful
for lobbyists, conservationists, wildlife managers and governments which,
before taking their own decision, seek examples in wildlife management
practices or decisions from other parts of the country. Certain entries in the Index need
rectifications or omits after page-matching.
Although a book on Maharashtra, it does mention about a few other states
like Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand.
A state like Odisha not appearing in this list indicates the future need
to have better news-networking and translations of news from local other state
languages for primary entry in PAUs.
Some of the acronyms also need a place at page ii.
Out of three subject sections,
the first section takes us year after year, through selected news and
information from 34 areas covering wildlife sanctuaries, bird sanctuaries,
conservation reserves, tiger reserves, national parks, eco-sensitive zones, and
prime wetlands of importance in Maharashtra State. It also provides information about special
research projects, like that on the Forest Owlets, the references to CAMPA, the
Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act (FRA
2006), developments about the Coastal Regulation Zone, Environment Protection
Act, Biological Diversity Act, National Tiger Conservation Authority, decisions
of the judiciary, decisions by the National Board for Wildlife, road expansion,
staff deployment, garbage management, village relocation, mining, sacred
groves, actions related to Great Indian Bustard, wild Water Buffalo, leopard
problem, etc. It is a news treat.
Section-2 on ‘Analysis and
Perspectives’ of five important aspects give access to research results and is
thought provoking. ‘Tribal Rights and Tiger Reserves’ under the Wildlife
(Protection) Act is still a topic of debate and challenge for wildlife manager
of any Wildlife Protected Area.
Media contents in newspapers often
constitute primary source of information as ‘data’ for verification, inclusion
and analysis while writing an article or taking a managerial decision or
process a research plan. Many a times,
wildlife research have to start from such pieces of data obtained from the
public direct or through local newspaper, which the modern and international
scientific community may not like to bring under wildlife scientometrics
(Singh 2015). On the other side, wrong
reporting may also bring an end to facts hidden behind a report, as it had
happened in 1930s for ‘black tigers’ (page-ii in: Singh 1999).
When I came to stay in Similipal Tiger Reserve for the next 16 years from 1987
after return from Government of India, it was after a gap of 80 months away
from most of the fields in Odisha and with terrestrial wildlife. I resumed with newspaper items on
man-wildlife interface, and developed my personal collection on bits of
happenings from different parts of Odisha.
Some items were understandably spiced-up by reporters, and needed to be
accepted with editing; but there were the others that possessed ‘something to
accept about locations and the problem’.
Around the same time, in an all-India scene, typed and mimeographed
‘Environmental Abstracts’, based on compilation of various news items were in
circulation.
That was the click about
location-wise importance of wildlife news.
From 1990s PA Updates have presented professional compilation of news
items focusing protected area locations.
With Kalpavriksh-tag and support from Duleep Matthai Nature
Conservation Trust, Pankaj Sekhsaria has obviously
clipped off a lot and used selected items in the compiled-book on Maharashtra.
Pankaj Sekhsaria,
well known for his research and books on the Andamans, with experience of more
than two decades, has very thoughtfully added Section-3 to provide a complete
issue of PAU (Vol. XXV, No. 4, August 2019, no.140). It gives ready reference to the original
style and content of PAU issues.
It is interesting to search about
the chronological news pertaining to any particular protected area in
Maharashtra. Overall, the PA Update compilation in book format provides a good
reference point and shows the need to have similar compilations for other
states. Professionals as well as general
readers, interested in or searching for happenings about wildlife conservation,
will find the style and contents engaging.
These could be the starting point for some research studies.
ISBN: 978-81-923269-3-1 (First print
2019).
Edited by Pankaj Sekhsaria
Published by the Duleep Matthai Nature
Conservation Trust, Kalpavriksh, and Rainfed
Books.
Pages: xii+235pp, 100
line-drawings; Price Rs. 400/-
References
Singh, L.A.K. (1999). Born Black: The Melanistic Tiger
in India. WWF-India,
New Delhi, viii+66pp.
Singh, L.A.K. (2015). A scientometric
analysis of the trends of information dissemination on ‘true albino’ and
‘white’ mammals. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 111(3):
216–220.