The Kerala forest department will
soon be setting up a biodiversity
research centre and a eco-habitat
cerntre, said the state forests minister
P R Kurup. According to Kurup, the
Rs 5-crore project, expected to be completed in five years, would come up in Karmur district. The centre would help
coordinate the govrnment's efforts at
identifying rare forest wealth endemic
to Kerala. Such centres would also
come up in Malappuram district, the
Malabar region and southern Wynad.
The recent seizure of eight panther
skins in Debra Dun worth around
Rs 50 lakh has revealed the presence of
an international mafia operating in
the Garhwal region of Uttar Pradesh.
The state police said that mafia was
supplying animal skins to counter-parts in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong,
Malaysia and Indonesia. The animals
are killed either by poisoning water
sources or by trapping them. Shockingly, most of this illicit business is
said to be around the Rajaji National Park.
The Council For Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR) recently
took strong exception to the US
ambassador Frank Wisner's threat
to stop collaboration with Indian
scientists if India failed to amend
its patent laws. The CSIR said that
India sees its science and technology
as an integral part of a global activity
and extends its "arms of cooperation
in science and technology across
the world".
India has signed a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) with Nepal,
which is an important conduit for
smuggling tiger parts to China.
Another MoU is expected to be signed
with Russia focussing on the protection of endangered migratory bird
species. India would take up the issue
of smuggling tiger parts and medicinal plants to Myanmar in the next
Convention on International Trade
of Endangered Species meeting.
The newly-formed Bhubaneshwar
chapter of the Wildlife Society of
India in Orissa has urged the authorities to declare the historical
Udaygiri and Khandagiri hills as a
"no horn zone" for the sake of a large
number of monkeys living in the area.
The chapter has also decided to initiate measures to ensure the protection
of elephants in the nearby Chandaka
wildlife sanctuary.
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