Equip Forest Guards to Protect Wildlife in India

Greetings from Wildlife Trust of India!

We hope this email finds you in good health and high spirits.

With this email, we share with you the updates on our project ‘Equip Forest Guards to Protect Wildlife in India’. We would also like to express our heartfelt appreciation for your generous donation to the project. Your support means the world to us and will make a significant impact in our efforts to protect wildlife and its habitat across India.

Your support for us goes beyond the financial contribution – it is a powerful statement of your trust in the work we do and a testament to your compassion and dedication to making a difference in wildlife conservation. Thank you for understanding the importance of WTI's work so we can continue to make a positive impact.

The updates from the project are as follows –

Located in the eastern part of India, West Bengal is home to a variety of flora and fauna. Over 10,000 species of animals (approximately 11% of our country’s fauna) inhabit West Bengal state which comprises tropical semi-evergreen forest, tropical moist deciduous forest, tropical dry deciduous forest, littoral and swampy forest, sub-tropical hill forest, eastern Himalayan wet temperate forest and alpine forest. Of this, around 4692 sq km has been designated as Protected Area – comprising 6 national parks and 15 wildlife sanctuaries.

In West Bengal, there are about 650 elephants spread across North Bengal and South Bengal. In addition, the state hosts 100-150 visiting elephants from Assam and Jharkhand. Of late, there has been an increase in the human-elephant conflict in several villages of West Bengal. Extensive damage to crops by elephant, attacks on humans, and retaliatory killing of elephants are all a part of the equation. Jalpaiguri village had been particularly affected and was recently in news for the extensive damage to crops and elephant attacks.

Staff from the forest department as well as many local wildlife organizations and experts have been working to mitigate human-elephant conflict in the state. In addition to this they are handling other responsibilities such as – eco-development, eco-tourism, patrolling, wildlife conservation, awareness programs etc.

To recognize and felicitate the impressive work done by frontline forest staff, conservation organizations, and individuals who have been committed to protecting elephants and their habitat; a mega felicitation and celebration event was conducted on World Elephant Day (12th August). The event also aimed to raise awareness among the people of Jalpaiguri village and over 350 school students and teachers from 14 different schools who participated. The event agenda included cultural shows, live quizzes, elephant-themed skit, and an elephant documentary screening. Frontline forest staff from Goruma Wildlife Division, Jalpaiguri Division, and Baikunthpur division also participated.

During the event photographer jackets, winter jackets, headlamps, and tents were awarded to frontline forest staff; with your generous support.

That’s all for today. We’ll be back soon with more updates on the project. Till then, take care!

Wishing you continued success and happiness!

Warm regards,

Team WTI

Greeting to you from Wildlife Trust of India,

Hope you are doing well!

This email comprises an update for our project ‘Equip Forest Guards to Protect Wildlife in India’. Along the updates, we send to you our heartfelt gratitude for your generosity and for your trust in the work we do to protect our country’s wild animal population. It is through such acts of kindness that we are able to implement our conservation initiatives and work towards our vision of a secure natural heritage of India.

Kazinag National Park is located on the north bank of Jhelum River, close to the Line of Control between India and Pakistan in the Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir. Since the last four months, human-leopard conflict in the region has taken to alarming proportions. In the outskirts of Kazinag National Park, 5 children have been attacked and over 50 sheep killed by leopards. Human-wildlife conflict is not a new phenomenon, but it has certainly escalated in the past few years in Jammu and Kashmir. Rapid urbanisation and deforestation are the primary reasons for the rise in negative interactions. As the leopard habitat is being rapidly encroached upon for human requirements, the animals are left with no option but to turn to human settlements for food.

Understandably, the repeated attacks were causing fear and anger in the local community. To keep the locals safe and also to prevent any retaliatory killing of leopards by the enraged people, the forest department mobilised 6 teams to mitigate and manage the conflict situation.

While the monitoring teams had equipment for the capture and relocation of conflict leopards, they lacked basic field gear. For support, the Forest Department approached WTI and a Rapid Action Project was initiated to provide the monitoring teams with camera traps, torches, high altitude tents and sleeping bags. All six teams have been stationed in high-conflict areas. They have been actively keeping track of leopard movement and preventing leopards from entering into the villages.  

Although the solutions are short-term, we believe, these are critical to save lives, of both humans and leopards. As the tussle for space between humans and wildlife increases, these measures prove very effective in mitigating conflict and promoting co-existence. While we continue to identify the gaps and equip the frontline forest staff of India, we once again thank you for funding the initiative.

Warm regards,

Team WTI

Hello and greetings from Wildlife Trust of India!

We hope you are doing great.

With this email, we are sharing the updates for our project titled 'Equip Forest Guards to Protect Wildlife in India”. We are so honoured and grateful for your support as you chose to donate for the project among so many wonderful causes out there. This means a lot to us. Thank you so much for believing in our work.

Today’s updates are from Sohelwa Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh, where we addressed human-snake conflict through a Rapid Action Project sanctioned in the reporting period.

In the last one month, nearly 30 instances of human-snake conflict were reported from the region. To ensure safety of both humans and the reptiles, forest department approached WTI for help.

As a part of the project, WTI team, led by our reptile handling and rescue expert, conducted a snake rescue training of 20 forest staff officials for better management of conflict situations. The training covered both theoretical and practical aspects of snake handling and rescues. The staff were trained on identification of venomous snakes and snake behaviour, and were briefed about the common hiding places of snakes and myths related to reptiles. There was a practical on safe and ethical handling of snakes.

At night, following Day-1 of training, one of the newly trained staff managed to successfully capture and release a wolf snake near his accommodation.

In addition to the training, snake rescue kits were distributed to each patrolling camp in the sanctuary. Also, anti-snake venom vials were provided to the Forest Department for distribution in nearby hospitals. The hospitals weren’t equipped with anti-venom and last year a constable had lost his life due to the limitation.

With the aid provided, the frontline staff so far managed 25 snake rescues. The intervention has thus proved effective in managing human-snake conflict, thus helping both humans and reptiles of the Sohelwa wildlife sanctuary.

The above could have been made possible due to your support to the project. Thank you so much for making this happen.

Warm regards,

Team WTI

Greetings from Wildlife Trust of India!

Thank you so much for making a donation to our project ‘Equip Forest Guards to Protect Wildlife in India’. With your valuable support, we could adequately equip the forest staff of Kannur Forest Department in Kerala to provide help in protecting mangroves.

Here’s an update on activities conducted during the reporting period.

Mangroves, being extremely rich in biodiversity, act as both refuges and nurseries for a large variety of threatened terrestrial and aquatic species. They are an important source of fodder, medicines and firewood for people living in coastal communities. They also act as barriers against cyclones and tsunamis, preventing coastal erosion, and maintaining inland water quality by preventing sea water intrusion. The Kannur district of Kerala has 7.55 sq km of mangroves which is approximately 45% of the states total mangrove forest cover. These mangroves are facing considerable destruction as a result of human population growth and intrusive development with less than half the original acreage remaining.

WTI runs a mangrove restoration project in Kunhimangalam village of Kannur district which is one of the largest mangrove villages in Kerala. The project has received immense support from forest staff of Kannur Division which covers a very large area of the entire Kannur district along the slopes of Western Ghats. The region is prone to frequent fire outbreaks and with human population density being on the higher side, the fire outbreaks are even more common.

Last year the Division had to tackle ten forest fire instances and two instances occurred this year in February. To address the issue and help the forest department mitigate forest fires, a Rapid Action Project was undertaken.

We provided a leaf blower to help douse fires, a brush cutter to create fire lines that prevent further spread of fires, and 157 backpacks for temporary watchers and permanent staff. It has been reported that the forest staff who received the equipment support are very happy and find this quite useful during patrolling and in preventing forest fires this year. We hope that this support goes a long way in protecting the Mangrove forests from burning during summers.

We will be back with more updates on the project. Till then, take care!

Warm regards,

Team WTI

Greetings from Wildlife Trust of India!

Hope you are doing great.

We are back with the updates on our project ‘Equip Forest Guards to Protect Wildlife in India’, which you so generously chose to donate for.

Thank you so much for your kind donation and for believing in our work. It is through your support that we are able to work towards our vision of a secure natural heritage of India.

Forest guards are the backbone of a solid wildlife conservation structure and are instrumental in maintaining proper law and order within the protected areas through their tireless monitoring efforts.

In their line of work, they often face tough challenges such as inclement weather conditions, attacks by wild animals and poachers, and a dearth of basic amenities to function. While nothing much can be done about the first two problems, we can definitely try to mitigate the last one by supplementing the forest staff with basic amenities they require to operate optimally.

With your support, we equipped the temporary watchers protecting the Jammu and Kashmir wildlife division.

Jammu & Kashmir has some of the most scenic wildlife reserves in India which inhabit rare and endangered fauna such as hangul, snow leopards, Himalayan black bears, Himalayan marmots and markhors. Some of the protected areas include Dachigam National Park, Gulmarg Biosphere Reserve as well as Kishtwar High Altitude National Park. The wetlands of Hokersar, Hygam, Pampore and many more support several migratory bird species such as coots, teals, greylag geese, ruddy shelducks, etc.

The Department of Wildlife Protection is responsible for protecting, conserving and managing Wildlife Protected Area Network (PAN) spread over an area of 2000 sq. km. The Department has 24 control rooms functioning round the clock to ensure conflict mitigation, rescue & rehabilitation and anti-poaching activities. The temporary staff working in the Department required waterproof and warm jackets to carry out their protection activities in the harsh climatic conditions of the region. Thus a Rapid Action Project was sanctioned to provide 350 jackets for distribution among the staff.

That’s all for the updates from the reporting period. Thank you once again for all your support. We will soon be back with more updates. Till then, take care.

Warm Regards,

Team WTI