Effect of Cattle grazing on Buttefly Habitat in and around the villages in Panpatha Sanctuary.

Effect of Cattle Grazing on butterfly habitat in and around the villages in Panpatha Sanctuary.

We chose Bamera Kaseru and Pataur villages for this purpose. 

Bamera Village (N23 47.296 EO80 59.050) is one of the major village situated in Panpatha sanctuary. This village has very good fertile land and due to irrigation facility through canal from Bamera dam the village is thriving.

Most of the houses has cattle's and at mid day time majority of buffalo's were kept in cattle shade while goats and cows were sent for grazing in jungle. This may be due to the commercial factor in case of cattle lifting by any predator. Compensation for cows and goat is more than their market value but less in case of a buffalo.

We didn't get much interaction with villagers as most of them were suspicious about our presence in the village and were not open to talk.

This is a complete farming village. Big crop fields with good water supply. Most of the fences around field and houses were either of Bamboo and Lantana or of Cactus. One of the best Cactus fences, about 30 yrs old,  around houses can be seen in this village. This means the usual stuff that grows around fences to help butterflies is missing. During our 4 hour stay in Bamera village we just saw 3 or 4 different kind of butterflies (Common Grass Yellow, Common Gull and some sort of Grass Blue)

For some unknown reason the population of Red Shouldered Pretonia is better than House Sparrow in Bamera village. Some very good marsh land is available for water birds but all what we saw was a Large Egret and one Paddy Bird. Presence of butterflies and bees in Mustard and lentil fields as pollinators was negligible

 Is the use of pesticide killing them??

Roads in the village or in good condition. Car and Tractor can pass easily. Most of the land is irrigated and there are quite a few water bodies in the village .Government Primary School has more children than the school building could accommodate them so two classes were operating in veranda. A women was cooking mid day meal for the pupil. This could be another reason for higher attendance in the school. But in Aanganwadi things were little different. In-charge told us that total 52 kids are registered but only 20 came today. Those all 20 were having mid day meal at the time we were there.

The usual habitat for butterflies was missing. It may be due to Buffalo and goat because these two eat most of the plants. Buffalo actually pulls the plant so up to some extent it destroys the rhizome also. Most of the lantana, that is major food plant for butterflies, was cut for making fence around crop field. Most of the houses had good amount of reserve supply of fire wood means villagers are regularly visiting the sanctuary area to collect fire wood. Means a constant disturbance to the wildlife of the area. None of the villager complained about the crop raiding by deer's or wild boar and neither we saw any sign of it.

In our opinion habitat for butterflies in and around Bamera village is very poor. Villagers need to learn about the benefit from pollinators. A good field can produce poor crop with lack of support from pollinators. Villagers told us that most of the butterflies are seen only in monsoon. This is when cattle food is in abundance. Surprisingly even in marshland the butterfly population was low. 

Next day we saw a dead cattle but no vultures. Most of the meat was taken away by dogs and Jackal's. Bamera - kaseru village are situated in plains. No hills around. Nests of White Backed Vultures were also not seen around these villages.

Man Raman Singh, a resident of village Kaseru says he has not seen vultures since last 6-8 years. His other comment was, Man has become scavenger so vultures has no chance to survive.

We saw some very good mustard fields but hardly any butterflies or bees. In one such field there were only 10-12 Common Jezebel with one Lemon Pansy doing the job. High numbers of Jezebel due to Honey Suckle growing on Mahua trees.

An odd flowering Lantana was the only food plant for adult butterflies.

Kaseru and Bamera village are minimum 2-3 degrees hotter than Tala. Butea monosperma is already flowering here while trees in Tala even don't have buds.

Cattle grazing is the only reason for a poor butterfly habitat in this area.  

We will be there again on the same dates in next months.      

Vulture Estimation Panna Tiger Reserve 2011

I must thank Mr Murthy, Field Director Panna Ntl Park who got a highly professional job done by most amateurs. Secondly I thank camp staff who made our stay comfortable where we were drinking mineral water, eating fresh vegetables and drinking tea made out of fresh milk.
I started my journey from my house at about 3 AM in the morning on 20th Jan. to board Sarnath Express from Umaria. When I reached Satna at about 0800 hrs vehicles were already waiting for us. All the luggage in one Dagga and most of us set in another Dagga (Tata 407 Mini truck).Road up till Panna is good and than up till Madla it's as it is anywhere else in M.P.
It was a chaos at Madla rest house. No one knew what is our duty or what we have to do until the arrival of  Deputy Director. There were many participants who arrived there without registration. After these formalities and lunch we were asked to jump in available vehicles for a short introductory park round and then we will be dropped in our respected camps.
At Dhundhva we saw more than 100 vultures on one roosting site and about 70 vultures i could count in one of my photograph. Majority of them were Long Billed Vulture.

After collecting our Dinner packets we were waiting for our names to be called with allocated vehicle when some 11 participants who came from Delhi decided to withdraw their names from this program. This was very late to withdraw the names but their wish and they were firm. This disrupted the whole program and it took another 30 minutes or so to sort out the names.
We reached our camp site at about 0800 PM. After putting the bags everyone rush to the Fire. Yes it was cold. Next morning we heard the message about frost on wireless.

Staff kept the fire burning throughout the night. Our rooms were filled with smoke. It was difficult situation. I slept first half of the night and got up at about 2 AM. Straight to fire. Some other participant soon joined me near the fire. I made tea at about 0500 AM for everyone who were awake. I think it was too early for others.

We left camp sharp at 7 for our first Vulture Estimation count. One party went to check the cliffs and we went to look around Jatan Ki Matiya Pahadiya. First day we did not see any vulture nest or roosting site. One abondoned nest was found on a tree. I did not see any sign of life on this nest. No new branches were added recently and nor we saw any recent droppings. At about 10AM we saw two Red Headed Vultures flying.

Leopard pug-marks were seen almost on all the roads and footpath we used. We came back to abandoned  Raipura village at about 1100 AM. Raipura village was relocated Nadiya beehad near Rajgarh village in 2005. These villagers left their cattle free in the forest. Probably that time carrying the cattle along with them may be costly affair, more than the cost of cattle's probably. Now these feral cattle's are breeding in the park. They are not use to of human being so one clap can alert them. We faced a bull who was not at all happy with our presence in his area. Forest staff was also concerned about his mood so they quickly grab the stick for safety.

We were told that there are many vultures can be seen near the river but we didn't find any except few Long Billed and one Egyptian vulture was seen flying high.
Last night we heard lots of spotted deer alarm calls near the camp but we did not had a good enough torch to explore the area so I asked the guard to arrange some battery for their torch. He quickly brought some from a nearby village shop.
Our programme after lunch was to check the transit line that we could do with great difficulty because after some time we lost the sign of transit lines. Nothing was seen.
In nut shell I will say that this was a very good effort of Forest Deptt. Many people learned about Vultures and their importance in nature. Last day we heard that total 1700 vultures are recorded by all of us. Good figure. Hope to do this again next year.
At about 
    

Tigers

In last few days Tiger show has started in bandhavgarh. Its just the Christmas new year rush. Wakeeta was under the Tiger show hammer constantly for fourth day. Today her mate also joined her and that was Shashi or Bamera male. Cubs are still very secretive. They dont like to see such a huge animal (Elephant) standing next to them. Soon they will gain the confidence.
Other good sighting we had was of a Sloth Bear. Last week a man was mauled in Gurwahi by sloth bear, presumably she was the same female whose cub was killed in a road accident on Manpur Road. Today I heard someone saw Saki aka Bokha limping near Mahaman?? Dont know how reliable this news is but if any one has any photo from today then please post it on internet.   

Winter makes life little hard for the cattle in most villages around Bandhavgarh National Park where people do not bring their cattle in the shed during night hours. Weak animals some time dies due to cold. One cow near park boundary died like that. Crows find that quick and Vultures followed them soon.  It's not only them alone but other scavengers  like dogs and jackals also got the news and they were there to get their share. Dogs kept Vultures and crow away from the dead cow so they were waiting for them to leave s they could land on the kill.

In this situation where Long Billed Vultures are sitting on trees waiting for the opportunity a Jungle Crow saw them as a big competitor for them.  He sat close to a vulture. Vulture did not object to this crow next to him. Probably he was not worried of a much smaller bird in size. Crow had different ideas. He started peeling the bark to throw it on Vulture. He tried but he could hardly throw it towards vulture. Vulture still ignoring his presence. Crow made some noise to offend Vulture but later he decided to take more physically. He knew that vulture has a much bigger stronger bill in comparison to his. Very cleverly he flew to circle the vulture and attacked on his tail. He was hanging to vultures tail but that did not hurt him at all. He tried few times to draw his attention but failed.

Now he decided to virtually attack the vulture. He lands on his back and started pecking on his back. This must have hurt the vulture. He turned back to bite the crow but crow was more clever than him. He pulled back himself out of reach of his bill but still sitting on vultures back.

This drama kept on going for next 10 minutes or so. Vulture was pecked many times on its back by this crow.  He never had a second of peace since this crow came so at last he decided to leave. Victorious Crow followed him to the next tree but came back to his tree, watching dogs and jackal chasing each other for food.       

Tigers of Bandhavgarh

After reading Mr Ken's email and Dr Rahul's comment I feel guilty for not updating my blog regularly. I will try it now to update regularly no matter if I have to put only few lines.
Tiger sightings have gone down here in last few days. Main reason behind is Shashi aka Bamera male who is trying to dominate the complete 109 sq km of Tala range. On some days he is covering more than twenty km in one single night. Then there are two more young sub adult Tigers who are trying to hold the ground in back of Tala range. They are not shy but scared of people on foot and on bicycle which one can find in abundance in the park. NGO'S can help in running a lodge but by distributing shoes and jackets one cant ensure to save the Tiger. Its a hard path to follow. I am saying this again and again since last 5 years that Tigers will survive in isolated pockets of forests, those are called National Parks or Tiger Project areas and this population will be managed genetically. So our these two Tigers don't have any choice except to stay in this area until they face the real challenge of their life.
Grasslands are burnt in Bandhavgarh to get the new shoots for herbivores. Burning the grass in sandy soil???
There are few papers available on this winter burning by Mr H.S Panwar and Late Sh S.R Choudhary. Its a highly debatable subject but these people did made their point acceptable to all.

In last 10 days I saw these two young sub-adult tigers on two different occasions. In our opinion they are cubs from Mukunda area. There they were seen last summer. 

   Other major activity that took place here was Kabir pilgrimage. This year more than 14thousand people were walking through the critical core area of tiger in Bandhavgarh. 
It was a great chaos. Not a single animal was seen in Chakradhara Jamunia for next 4-5 days. Tourists who paid money to enter the premium zone were shunted to enter and exit from Magadhi entrance in the afternoon and after the morning game drive they lost a visit to Chakradhara meadow because they were asked to exit from Magadhi.
Poor Tourists. I have not heard any protest so far from any lodge owner but on behalf of my guests now I will protest and may ask for refund.

More later, sure.       

B2 Sundar

Since last month I had no time to write anything on my blog or other diaries. On 21st Nov morning, we were asked to see a male tiger to help in its ID. We (me and Kay) went over there to see this tiger at about 08 AM. Rajkishor and co open the cage to show this tiger to us. I asked Kay to go inside the cage to see him. She came out whispering "That's boy Sundar." I tried to match him with other young male tigers photograph but none were matching. Kay left for home leaving me behind saying that is him. Some people find it difficult to believe that it's B2. After an hour or so Kay return back with another matching picture and now everyone accepts that its B2. 
How he reached 100 km away from here is a story.
According to people there local villagers saw a Tiger moving in the jungle. They informed the forester in the village. Next day this information passed on to Ranger of that area and he also decided to have a look. But by this time this tiger moved away from that spot. People were looking for a Tiger like they are looking for a cattle. At this time he attacked on some villager. May be he went very close to him. 
Information was sent to Shahdol and Umaria. Next day when search party from Bandhavgarh reached to the spot they found a tiger lying next to a stream. He was weak and his breathing was shallow. 
There were more than 200 people looking at him making all sort of noises. this tiger even after seeing and hearing these people never made any attempt to look for a cover. He was still lying there. Search party saw him drinking water from the stream but he did not tried to move.
 He was tranquilised and taken to Shahdol for further treatment. Later that night he died on his way to Tala.
He had so many wounds on his body. Some of them were so deep and big that maggots ate most of the flesh in side and there was so much gap between skin and flesh that one could put his hand like putting it in trousers pocket.
He died of his wound inflicted by some other male. Who it could be except his own son Bamera male. Once he got these wounds and getting weaker then every tiger must have pushed him from there area. In these conditions Tigers do like to move away to a secluded place but where he could find it. That's why he was found hungry tired near the stream where he was assured of water.
B2 is not the only Tiger that is being pushed by Shashi aka P10 aka Bamera male. Pyari aka Chakradhara tigress was pushed by him. Hope some people who saw them fighting in Chakradhara meadow opposite watch tower will remember how badly she was slapped. She fell on the ground and then did not get up for few minutes. Pyari sitting in grass snarling, growling on Shashi and he stood there staring at her made her to believe that he is the one who holds this territory. She left after this. Most of the time Tigers avoid physical fight. They settle their dispute by showing their power vocally and looking big in size. There are quite a few incident to prove this. Charger-Baanka. Charger-Langdu. B1,B2,B3-Charger. B2-Kalua. B2-Kalua's brother(I did not see this but other tourist saw), Babu- Indrani, B2 Chased by Shashi, Shashi watching Bokha mating with Lakshmi,  Shashi-Pyari (Was this to defend her cubs), Vijaya -Lakshmi's male cub (Vijaya avoids him).     
B2 lived for 14 yrs and 6 months in Bandhavgarh. He became dominant male at the age of three when he sired a litter and for the next ten years he remained dominant male until challenged by his own son Shashi. 

We will miss him for many years to come.  

B2 aka Sundar

I was coming back from Ranchha via Garhpuri. When I reached Thauni meadow I heard some alarm calls. These alarm calls were so strong that i decided to stop and look at. I put my scooter aside of the road and stood on culvert for a better view. After few minutes I saw a tigress carrying a cub from left to right side of Thauni meadow. Constant alarm calls by Spotted Deer were showing her direction. I saw her walking back on the same route and again saw her carrying another cub in same manner. After few minutes the alarm calls stopped so i knew that this tigress has her den nearby.
Kay got very annoyed by the fact that why all these things dont happens in her presence?
I gave this information to Alphonse who was filming here with some film company then I went to Mr Nagar, Park Supdtt. to tell him all about this.
He was very happy to hear all this. He was very kind to allow us to go on elephant next morning and bring some more news about these cubs. He said You know the spot so go and find which tigress she is. So next morning me and Kay were on our way to Thauni on an elephant back.
In those days Tala forest colony was the main base for elephants. Present days interpretation center land was the  elephant camp.