(IN): Tiger gets the boost as leopards are lynched.

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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100406/jsp/northeast/story_12304282.jsp

 

Boost to tiger conservation

- Ramesh visits Nagaon, KazirangaROOPAK GOSWAMI AND SARAT SARMA

 

Kohora/Nagaon, April 5: Tiger conservation efforts in the region received a

big boost today with Union minister for forests and environment Jairam

Ramesh announcing the setting up of a unit of the National Tiger

Conservation Authority in Guwahati within “two to three months”.

 

The minister said the tiger density at Kaziranga National Park was the

highest in the country as revealed by camera trapping (a method of counting

wildlife through cameras set up inside forests and programmed to click

automatically). According to figures available so far, Kaziranga would have

around 75-100 tigers.

 

“The Centre is ready to provide all help to the Northeast in tiger

conservation. The setting up of a Guwahati unit of the NTCA will be a

historic moment and will help get things back on track,” he said, adding

that the Centre was also contemplating setting up an office of the Wildlife

Crime and Control Bureau in Guwahati. At present, the bureau has an office

at Moreh in Manipur.

 

Ramesh arrived at the home of the one-horned rhino this afternoon — his

first as forest minister — and immediately proceeded to the Arimora range.

 

He also met the freshly recruited field staff at Kaziranga, including its

first batch of female forest guards, and assured them of better facilities

like night-vision devices.

 

Ramesh, who had arrived in Guwahati yesterday, left for Nagaon in central

Assam this morning en route to Kaziranga. He reached Nagaon town at 10.15am

and inaugurated a bamboo museum during his hourlong stay.

 

He told reporters here that the Centre would showcause two companies engaged

in the construction of the East-West corridor in the state for their slow

pace of work.

 

Ramesh, who travelled on the Guwahati-Nagaon stretch of National Highway 37,

said he had taken the route four years ago, too, but its condition remained

the same. The minister was referring to Maytas Infra Pvt Ltd and Madhucon

Projects Ltd.

 

He also announced Rs 30 crore for cleaning the Kolong that flows through

Nagaon and Morigaon districts. Ramesh will proceed to Majuli, Asia’s largest

river island, in Jorhat district of Upper Assam tomorrow.

 

________

 

Leopard killed in tea estate

A STAFF REPORTER

 

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100406/jsp/northeast/story_12305415.jsp

 

*Guwahati, April 5:* A female leopard was beaten to death by labourers after

it attacked and injured two workers at a tea estate in Jorhat district of

Assam this morning.

 

A source in the forest department said the five-year-old animal attacked two

labourers, Santosh Majhi, 22, and Ranjit Goala, 26, at Sangsua tea estate

under Pulibor police station around 11.30am.

 

The leopard lunged at the duo, wounding Ranjit in the back and on the back

of his head. It then dug its teeth into Santosh’s right thigh and dragged

him some distance with amazing speed.

 

The petrified screams of the duo alerted other labourers who attacked the

animal with *lathis *and whatever they could lay their hands on and clubbed

it to death.

 

Both Santosh and Ranjit have been admitted to Jorhat civil hospital in a

critical condition. “They were badly mauled,” the source said.

 

This is not the first time that a leopard has strayed into the garden. About

a year ago, two leopard cubs were beaten to death by the labourers.

 

The growing number of such incidents indicate a rise in man-leopard conflict

in Upper Assam.

 

According to a conservative estimate, more than 50 leopards and several

people have been killed in the past few years. “It is a very disturbing

trend as leopards are listed as Schedule 1 species under the Wildlife

Protection Act,” the source said.

 

He said the problem had aggravated because unlike other big cats which

prefer to remain deep inside forests, leopards prowl near tea gardens on the

fringe of forests.

 

Last Monday, a five-year-old Royal Bengal tiger was captured on the fringe

of a forest in Atkhel tea estate in adjacent Sivasagar district after it

killed two persons. It has been released inside Manas National Park.

 

The forest department had set up cages in Jorhat and Sivasagar some years

ago to capture big cats from human habitats and release them in sanctuaries

but the move has failed to yield results.

 

 

 

 

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