wildindia

india / India's Wildlife, Biodiversity, Parks and Protected Areas
related: wildlife, biodiversity flickrgroup: [|Ecotourism Asia] editing: http://planeta.com/india

Planeta Wiki features collaboratively edited features about biodiversity, parks and wildlife around the world. Editors are encouraged to add relevant links, current headlines and upcoming events.

Introductions
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Headlines
http://biographic.com/posts/sto/birds-eye-view - https://twitter.com/biographic [|The wildlife map of India - Green Humour] - [|@thetoonguy] [|Into the wild, a map every Indian must see]

Tigers
[] [|MoEF preparing guidelines to protect tiger corridors] - [|@dna] [|Is India selling out its tigers?] [|Tiger Conservation and Ecotourism in India - Tourism Watch] [] [] [] [|New community driven tourism guidelines for 600 wildlife areas] [|India bans tourists from tiger reserves] [] []

The Central Indian Landscape (CIL) supports approximately 31% of India's [|#tiger] population. The CIL covers seven states – Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and a small part of Rajasthan. Despite the immense potential of CIL, no single [|#tiger] sub-population is genetically-viable in long run. That's why protecting corridors is so important.

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Parks
India has designated a total of 605 Protected Areas, covering approximately 4.74% of the total geographical area of the country.

Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP)
Great Himalayan National Park is a habitat to more than 375 faunal species as well as a great variety of plant life. The Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) is located in the Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh, India. Initially constituted in 1984, GHNP was formally declared a National Park in 1999, covering an area of 754.4 sq kms. In 1994, two major changes were made in land use around the Park. A buffer zone of 5 km from the Park’s western boundary, covering 265.6 sq km. and including 2,300 households in 160 villages, was delineated as an Ecozone. Most of the population (about 15,000 to 16,000 people) in the Ecozone are poor and dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods. http://greathimalayannationalpark.com http://greathimalayannationalpark.com/ghnp-blog/ [|@ghnpark] https://www.facebook.com/GreatHimalayanNationalPark http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5445/

Sunshine Himalayan Adventures (SHA) is an approved Tour Operator in the Northern Indian State of Himachal Pradesh (HP) and the only one permitted to offer tours in the pristine wilderness of India’s newest National Park – The Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP).

http://www.sunshineadventure.com

http://www.slideshare.net/sunhimalaya

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khangchendzonga_National_Park http://www.slideshare.net/sunhimalaya/kunchunjunga-national-park
 * Khangchendzonga National Park**

http://www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/gpap_home/pas_gpap/paoftheweek/?13725/A-century-of-protection-for-the-Bengal-Tiger-and-Great-One-Horned-Rhinoceros--Kaziranga-National-Park-India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaziranga_National_Park
 * Kaziranga National Park**

Nagarhole National Park http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagarhole_National_Park

Bandipur National Park http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandipur_National_Park

WII
Established in 1982, [|Wildlife Institute of India (WII)] is an internationally acclaimed Institution, which offers training program, academic courses and advisory in wildlife research and management. The Institute is actively engaged in research across the breadth of the country on biodiversity related issues. The Government of India in September 2012, submitted to the Director-General, UNESCO a “Request for Action” towards the establishment of a Centre of Excellence on Natural World Heritage for Asia and the Pacific region at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), an internationally acclaimed institution in the field of natural resource conservation located in Dehradun, as a Category 2 Centre under the auspices of UNESCO. http://wii.gov.in http://wii.gov.in/unesco_category2_centre https://www.facebook.com/Wildlife-Institute-of-India-1646786335639734/

World Heritage Sites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Heritage_Sites_in_India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhimbetka_rock_shelters http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=925 Kaziranga National Park, Assam, [] Sunderbans National Park, West-Bengal, [] Manas National Park, Assam, []

Elsewhere on the Web
http://www.greenhumour.com - [|@thetoonguy] http://prernabindra.com - [|@prernabindra] [|wildlife protection society of india]

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[|Wildlife Conservation Trust] - [|@WCT_India]

Community partnered ecotourism in the Protected Area neighbouring villages in the state of Maharashtra, India
We are presently involved in developing community partnered ecotourism in the Protected Area neighbouring villages in the state of Maharashtra, India. We are aware of the substantial work that is being undertaken in many communities worldwide. This is a request for help from other members in developing a [|Guideline Manual]. - Anirudh Chaoji – anirudh.chaoji@gmail.com

**__Background:__** Even today, in most parts of India, the State Forest Departments (SFDs) are implementing Conservation practices in our Protected Areas (PAs) in complete isolation of the Communities. Needless to mention – this practice has meant questionable results in protecting India’s rich biodiversity. This had also given rise to strong antagonism between the SFD and the local communities. It has long been felt that this strong lack of trust needs to be bridged.

**__Mandate:__** The SFD in Maharashtra came up with a policy that was almost revolutionary as, for the first time it looked at partnering the forest neighbouring communities for Conservation. There were many challenges and the first one was raising funds for implementation. It was here that the then Principal Secretary in the Government of Maharashtra, Mr. Pravin Pardeshi IAS initiated the (SFDs) new Policy of implementation of Eco Tourism - in association with the communities.

**__Formation of Eco Development Committees (EDC):__** Maharashtra and most other states in India had seen the formation of Joint Forest Management (JFM) committees in the past. However, in the absence of funding mechanism, the JFM movement is all but dead in India.

Thus the then Principal Secretary’s new model was unique as it ensured sustainable generation of funds for the new entity called Eco Development Committee (EDC). In the new mechanism, the gate fees generated from tourism are now directly routed to the EDC (as opposed of the state treasury elsewhere). The Forest Round Officer is the Secretary of the EDC, who ensures that the funds thus generated are utilised for livelihood generation in the community - by implementing conservation works around their community.

Communities had never believed that the SFD and more so the Tourists could actually benefit them in anyways. And now most of the EDCs have a substantial fund in their bank accounts.

**__Activities undertaken by us:__** We have been partners of the SFD for over five years in the role of trainers for their staff and have been associated with the EDC programme since its inception. Now we are conducting Training of the EDC youth to benefit from Eco-Tourism by becoming naturalists/ guides and also conducting hospitality training for helping community members run home-stays.

**Location:** Tiger Reserves and Protected Areas (PAs) in the State of Maharashtra, India: Pench T.R., Tadoba Andhari T.R., Navegaon Nagzira T.R., Sahayadri T.R., Bhimashankar W.L.S. and Kaas flowering plateau.

Related http://anirudhchaoji.blogspot.com [|http://www.ecologics.in] - []

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/conservationindia

Twitter
[|@wti_org_india]

Nanda Devi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanda_Devi_National_Park The Nanda Devi National Park, established in 1982, is a national park situated around the peak of Nanda Devi (7816 m) in the state of Uttarakhand in northern India. Along with the adjoining Valley of Flowers National Park to the northwest, it was inscribed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988.[1] Nanda Devi National Park covers an area of 630.33 km2 (243.37 sq mi) and together with Valley of Flowers National Park is encompassed in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve totaling a protected area of 2,236.74 km2 (863.61 sq mi), which is surrounded by a buffer zone of 5,148.57 km2 (1,987.87 sq mi).[2][3] This Reserve is part of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves since 2004.

Lions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiatic_lion

India - Nature's Wonderland (documentary)
http://www.pbs.org/program/india-natures-wonderland http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02z830v

filing
 *  [|Nature Conservation Foundation] (ncf-india.org)
 *  [|Conservation India] (www.conservationindia.org)
 *  [|India Nature Watch] (www.indianaturewatch.net)
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,freesans,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> [|Kaziranga National Park] (kaziranga.assam.gov.in)
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,freesans,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> [|World Turtle Trust] (world-turtle-trust.org)
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,freesans,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> [|Gibbon Sanctuary] (jorhat.gov.in)
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,freesans,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> [|Majuli Island] (jorhat.gov.in)
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,freesans,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> [|Living root bridges] (www.atlasobscura.com)
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,freesans,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> [|Asiatic lions] (www.asiaticlion.org)
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,freesans,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> [|Project Tiger] (projecttiger.nic.in)
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,freesans,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> [|Lion-tailed macaque] (www.sciencelog.net)

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