Natural Disasters and Wildlife Conservation- Strategies for

mitigation

Dr. S., Rajesh, IFS

The scenario.....

• 21st Century has already witnessed impacts of several natural disasters

• Changes to ecosystems have contributed to asignificant rise in the number of floods and major wildfires on all continents since the 1940s.

• 60 per cent of the world’s ecosystem services arebeing degraded or used unsustainably( MillenniumAssessment Report,2005)

• climate change will cause the extinction of asubstantial number of the subset of 1000 endemicspecies currently being analyzed globally(UNEP,2006)

Major Impacting Disasters on Wildlife Conservation

• Earthquakes

• Tsunamis

• Forest fires

• Seasonal /flash flood

• Droughts

• Cyclones

• Oil spills

• Land slips

Some recent events before us...Nearly 2,500 hectares of land have been destroyed by forest fires at Bandipur and Nagarahole National Parks(Source, THe Hindu,March 23, 2014)

70% of Nepal's Bardiya National Park has beenconsumed by fire ( BBC 3 May 2012)

Some recent events before us...

Flood in Kaziranga Tiger Reserve( Source: www.google.co.in, )

cyclone damage to the Sudnerban TIger Reserve( Source: www.google.co.in )

A humungous management issue...

• Wildlife habitat destruction, fragmentation,degradation..... loss of habitat..loss ofwildlife...extirpation..extinction..

• Changes in the preferred food bases andemergency food availability, system changes,habitat over use..quality reduction

• Water stress, starvation , dehydration, causalities-incidence and spread of diseases

• Wildlife migration – vulnerability to poaching-life cycle upsetting -

The spill over issues in the interface..

• Increased man- animal conflict- challenges to conflict control strategies

• Zoonotic diseases – human health- and securityissues

• Livestock and agricultural production,productivity issues

• Loss /reduction/declination of ecosystem services

• Threat to the developmentalachievements..MDGs

Mitigation Measures

• Disaster Proofing of Wildlife Conservation Areas

– Build and increase resilience in the habitat

– Maintaining a viable and efficient wildlife population

– Maintain an energy efficient production landscapes(up and down linkages

– Securing of germplasm-corridoors- gene flow-habitat linkages- securing migratory paths

– biological, eco engineering and engineering structural measures

Disaster Proofing of Wildlife Conservation Areas

• Disaster Proofing

– Sustainable and efficiently interacting life scapearound the wildlife habitats

– establishment of special rehabilitation andemergency response areas / platforms

– Restoration of degraded landscapes- resiliencebuilding –development of sentinel landscapes

– Securing traditional cultural ecosystems( for thenon PA resident wildlife)

Project Tiger ...As a case mentioning

• Instruments- biological-ecological-financial-institutional-political-governance-monitoring –verification-reporting

• Core (exclusive agenda) –buffer (inclusiveagenda) – corridor strategy( non eco devastatingmultiple use) – landscape integrity

• Development of sentinel landscapes...highproductivity- efficiently interacting –socio-economic-political-culturally balanced landscapes

The synergy

Wildlife Conservation Areas

Avalanche/landslide protection

Soil productivity control

Mitigation of earthquake impacts

Disease control support

Cyclone impact mitigation

Fire Protection

Vent for flood water

Drought / desertification barrier

Source refernces

• http://www.igme.es/internet/boletin/2001/112_4-2001/3-ARTICULO%20NATURAL.pdf

• Wild Life (Protection )Act, 1972

• UNEP, 2014

• UNDP,2014

Thank you very much for your kind attention and time