Sachin Tendulkar's blood Opus!!

Mercedes-Benz India limited has launched the SLS AMG supercar in India. India is one of the first markets to receive the right hand drive version of the SLS AMG, which goes to show that our market is truly now a world class affair.

Nations pledge to double number of tigers by 2022

Press Trust Of India
New Delhi, July 18, 2010

To save tigers from extinction, 13 nations which are abode of the endangered big cats have pledged to get their act together to double by the year 2022 the number of the felines from the present 3,200 in the wild. A decision in this regard was taken at a recent meeting in Bali, Indonesia, by the countries along with the World Bank's Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) to develop a concrete plan to reinvigorate the tiger count.
The plan is expected to serve as a road map for tiger conservation to be adopted by world leaders at the first global summit on tigers this September in St Petersburg, Russia to be attended by Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam besides the host country.

The striped cats, whose count has declined by a whopping 97 per cent from over a lakh in the 20th century, continue to face threats due to increasing demand for their skin and body parts in the global market.

The officials at the meet agreed to prepare a national action plan comprising a Global Tiger Recovery Programme for adoption at the Tiger Summit, according to a statement from the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

It includes providing skills and equipment to rangers and law enforcement officials to combat poaching and illegal trafficking of tigers.

The global blueprint for tiger protection would be backed by joint commitments to better conserve key tiger habitats across range countries and to step up enforcement to eradicate poaching and end trafficking in tiger body parts.

Police Seize Firearms Used by Wildlife Officials to Fight Off Poachers, Putting Critically Endangered Bengal Tigers at Increased Risk

In only the last eight years, the Bengal Tiger population has decreased by over 61% and is now frighteningly close to extinction with only 1,400 of the cats left.  Habitat loss and poaching are to blame for their decline.  Nagarhole Tiger Reserve is home to the highest density of these tigers in all of India, attracting a heavy and constant flow of poachers.  Forest officers tasked with protecting the National Park’s tiger population (and other wildlife) from the poachers are now impeded by a devastating combination of muddy monsoon conditions and a complete lack of defense.

Following a shooting incident inside the Reserve, neighboring police departments confiscated wildlife officials’ firearms as part of routine procedure and will not return them until the investigation is completed and the case closed.  In some ranges of this National Park, as much as 40% of their firearms were taken, including service rifles.  In fact, the forest officers of one of the Reserve’s ranges were left with only a single rifle to protect the animals and themselves against the heavily armed poaching gangs frequenting the Reserve.

Tiger skins removed from carcasses so bones can be sold for tiger bone wine.

Further complicating anti-poaching efforts are the muddy conditions brought about by the current monsoon season, which prevents the officers from using vehicles to patrol the park.  Forced to conduct foot patrols without an adequate supply of firearms, many staff refuse to put themselves at such high risk.  Consequently, poachers are enabled to do increased damage to the Reserve’s tiger population, as well as other wildlife species such as the Asian elephant.

Many struggling nations lack the finances and manpower necessary for enforcing laws against poaching.  As a result, poaching goes on largely unchecked and wildlife populations dwindle.  In Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, these issues are further complicated by the fact that police agencies have the power to remove wildlife officials’ main means of fighting off poachers and putting the guards’ lives at risk.  One forest officer proclaims, “How can one government department seize the arms of another? The Veeranahosahalli range had only one gun until last month till we borrowed a rifle from the neighboring range for patrolling.”

The tigers of this 650 km ² National Park are at a severely increased risk of being slaughtered until the police agencies return forest officers’ firearms.  China’s demand for tiger parts used in traditional medicine and eaten as delicacy have fueled rampant poaching of the animals, decimating their populations throughout Asia.  Four of ten tiger species have gone extinct in the last 100 years.  The remaining six species are all listed as critically endangered.  Most at risk of extinction are South China tigers, with a mere 47 left in zoos and only a few remaining in the wild.  Anti-poaching efforts are key to preventing the extinction of all remaining tiger species.

Photo obtained from NatGeo News Watch

  

Racism is being legitimised by giving it a feminist spin in France.The vote in the French lower house to ban the wearing of the face veil in public is a dangerous development.

So the diplomacy failed once again!

Status of Mercy Petition with the President since independence in India

Since March 1981 till  June 2010 seventy nine cases  of Mercy Petitions have been disposed off.

Since 1997 twenty seven cases are pending.

MP forest offices go hi-tech.Wireless broadband connectivity is being developed at the area offices and forest produce checking points.
For this purpose, the Union Power Ministry has approved Rs 141, 25000 as subsidy under Central Finance Assistance (CFA) scheme.
Hope it is utilized properly!