Compensation for people shifting from elephant corridors may go up

India’s top bureaucrats managing forests and elephants, and the wildlife conservation NGO community on Wednesday showcased public-private partnership (PPP) initiatives that promise to connect more of the 88 identified elephant corridors with forests, potentially reducing the stress on the species.

On its part, the Centre is considering hiking compensation for voluntary resettlement of residents to increase habitat available to elephants and reduce human-elephant conflict.

At a side event on ‘Securing Wildlife Corridors,’ held at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity here, director of Project Elephant A.M. Singh said raising the financial compensation to help people voluntarily move out of elephant habitat, particularly in the northeast, was at the top of the list of official priorities and a committee to be constituted soon would go into the question.

However, director-general of Forests P.J. Dilip Kumar acknowledged, in response to a question from a Greenpeace representative, that he could not say anything definite about the conservation possibilities and challenges in areas facing mining issues in central India.

The PPP success stories for elephant corridors come from the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), which has partnered governments in four areas. Under the model, privately held corridor lands are acquired and handed back to the state. This has worked in Edayarhalli- Doddasampige (Kollegal), Chilla-Motichur (Uttarakhand), Siju-Rewak (Meghalaya), and Tirunelli-Kudrakotte (Wayanad). The WTI is working on nine elephant corridors at present. In the Garo hills of Meghalaya, it has secured 1,500 hectares. In some other locations, the parcels are much smaller, at about 25 hectares each. No immediate figure on the funds involved was available.

Funds released

The Centre released Rs. 20-crore for 2011-12 to States to implement Project Elephant, and Rs. 160-crore during the same year for Project Tiger. Funds given to individuals for relocation from specified tiger habitat are much higher than for elephants.

A positive outcome of the connectivity efforts is a higher recorded presence of elephants in the Wayanad corridor, elimination of train-hit mortality of elephants in Uttarakhand since 2003, and tremendous community participation in Meghalaya, said Vivek Menon, CEO of WTI.

Commenting on the macro picture, Mr. Singh said a confident estimate of the elephant population today would be 30,000 individuals and the 2012 census would provide firm data. Legal tools available to States to declare areas favoured by elephants include the Wildlife Protection Act and the Environment (Protection) Act. Community reserves, reserve forests, protected forests and ecologically sensitive areas covering even revenue and panchayat lands could be created.

Future challenges for India in securing elephant corridors involve concluding an international agreement with Bhutan. Bilateral agreements with Bangladesh and Nepal also include the question of elephant corridors, Mr. Singh said.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/compensation-for-people-shifting-from-elephant-corridors-may-go-up/article4006582.ece?homepage=true

Dengue: Information deficit fans fears

A sense of déjà vu prevailed as the news of the death of a six-year-old in Okkiyam Thoraipakkam on Wednesday came to be known. Once again, Chennai Corporation deliberated for several hours before releasing details amidst rumours of dengue.

T. Harini’s death sparked the same scare as had that of Samji Solomon Raj of Santhome on Sunday. According to the civic body’s evening release, Harini was suffering from fever for 10 days but had recovered. On Monday, she fell sick and her doctor sent her blood samples for testing. The samples were tested for malaria, typhoid and platelet count. The tests returned negative for malaria and typhoid and the platelet count was 1.83 lakh (the regular count in 1.5-2 lakh). But the girl died on Tuesday morning. Her family remains clueless about the cause of her death.

C. Rajmohan, the doctor who treated Harini, said he had prescribed the test for platelet count as the family couldn’t afford the Elisa confirmatory test for dengue. “If platelet count is low, it would alert us to complications. The child was given biryani in the evening as the fever had subsided which led to acidity. This morning, the family fed her kanji and she aspirated on it. This has resulted in death,” he said.

One of the reasons for the scare is lack of timely communication from the official agencies. Even as residents of the city are worried, information from the civic body about the number of people affected by dengue and other infectious diseases is scant.

As a result, people throng government hospitals at the slightest sign of fever. On Tuesday, the government advised the children’s hospital in Egmore to do the Elisa test instead of the rapid confirmatory test to avoid panic. The hospital has resorted to conducting the expensive Elisa tests based on screening and co-relating their clinical findings, doctors said. The clinical signs are based on observing and monitoring the patient for 3-4 days.

Symptoms such as high fever and cold peripheries after fever has subsided, lethargy and confusion, are some of the indications, paediatricians said.

“We tell the parents to check for warning signs like lethargy or tiredness even after fever has subsided,” said a senior paediatrician attached to the hospital.

Unlike a bacterial infection, a viral infection is difficult to confirm, doctors say. “For bacterial infections, there are a number of tests. Viral infections are self-limiting and it is more a chance that the infection is correctly identified,” a senior paediatrician said. Private diagnostic laboratories say there has been an increase in the number of tests conducted in the past few weeks.

In fact, private practitioners admit that they consider sending their patients for blood tests even on the first day of fever fearing backlash.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/dengue-information-deficit-fans-fears/article4006807.ece?homepage=true