Interactions on Global Positioning System - GPS

The Environment and Forest Department of Mara Autonomous District Council and Samrakshan Saiha field base recently organized sessions to share learning and experiences focussing on GPS. These primarily concerned the ground level staff in order to get them acquainted with the equipment, enable them to  use it optimally and raise their awareness and enthusiasm levels.

While the proposal had us excited we realized that we recently had been using neither the equipment nor the associated software. We checked the batteries and took a trip around the New Saiha market and Tlangkawn area, walking about 3 kms in the process and discussing aspects that we could share with friends in the department. We understood

ü  We will need to walk with them.

ü  Each of them would need to operate the unit.

ü  They will need to be shown the map in the computer at the end of the exercise.

First of all we had a discussion at the conference hall. To address the quandary that the word GPS presented to many of them we compared it to the mobile phone, an instrument used by most of them. We discussed preliminary information here like -

ü  It was developed for defence purposes but is currently also used for civilian ends and today within our country we use it for actions like laying cables & drains, driving vehicles, tracking wildlife and more.

ü  It tells you the exact position where you are on the earth using latitude, longitude and altitude; it helps you map your path also telling the distance travelled and speed of travel, the sunset and sunrise time and more.

ü  Signals are received from satellites and more the satellites better the accuracy. This is akin to the mobile phone reception from towers! Further, the GPS does not perform well under dense cover or very cloudy skies.

ü  We also discussed the equipment we had then Garmin – GPS 60. Functions the keys offered, it being battery operated and could talk (be connected) to a computer.

Select figures were drawn on the board and experience of the survey undertaken for Tokalo Wildlife Sanctuary was discussed.

We then undertook the exercise of walking with the GPS with 3 different groups of personnel at 3 seperate locations. Locations where these personnel were based; Saiha town, Kawlchaw Nursery (apx 35 kms from Saiha town) and Tlangpui Plantation (apx 8 kms from Saiha town). First walk was within the town to understand the GPS solely while the 2 following exercises also helped map the forest department campuses since we walked the boundaries.

During these walks we discussed and worked on waypoints and tracks only. It was interesting to see the initial awe and confusion give way to confidence and fun as they discovered the correct mannerisms of assigning names to waypoints and checking the tracks on the GPS screen. There were some confusions on naming of waypoints on why we needed to be exact (PostA was different from Post A) and again mobile phones came to our rescue! Also till the readings got stable we could not mark a waypoint accurately and we had to wait for at least 2 minutes each time we marked a point. They also wanted to know of the cost of that particular GPS model which we used. After each of these walks we saw and discussed the very map on the computer and the distance we walked!

The exercises away from the town offered possibilities of sighting birds and building on the opportunity we took our field guides, binoculars and of course cameras. Some of them very interestingly took these from us to make use of them. The discussions also gave us space to discuss our conservation education efforts with them and elicit their views on the same.

All the sessions were interspersed with generous doses of tea, chang (snacks) and of course kuva (betelnut)! During these sessions some of them walked away stating their being already aware to it or it not being of much use. However those who continued asked for more with enthused eyes and left us charged up for the next step! 


Thanking the Environment and Forest Department of Maraland and all the participants. 

Post (er) from recent past ~ Survey of large mammals.

Working on posters recently for the our efforts at Saiha I was reminded of the poster we made for presenting Baghmara efforts. 

The conversation over a not great connection with Anirban who was then at Agraa when we made the final plunge towards participating in the Tropical Ecology Congress at Dehradun and the ensuing discussions. While I don't recall the details the most interesting one was on people's perception on rise in population of wild pigs and as I write I can see an astonished me noting in capital letters on the questionnaires as I sat with Mohanto. He had then returned from administering the questionnaires at Halwa Atong and Gongrot (South Garo Hills Meghalaya); the only two villages he participated in. Wild pigs figured in list of mammals pestering and therefore hunted and despite that people perceived their numbers to be on the rise. This they said was on account of the litter size! And of course the animated talk with Arpan when he called from the Calcutta airport to congratulate on our winning the prize. I was then pacing the corridors of Forest Research Institute hurriedly. The campus has to be the most amazing I have been to and am eager to put in some more time there.

Above all I wish I would have then had the raised (relatively) understanding, awareness and interest levels that I possess today. 

I share the poster (it is not clear but clicking results in enlarging it) and abstract below and take the space to thank Bensen for the information gathering and Dr. M D Madhsudan for putting forth the very idea of the survey. 

Tribals and large mammals: Survey of mammalian fauna and local attitudes towards wildlife in non protected areas in the vicinity of Balpakram National Park, Meghalaya

Anirban Datta Roy, Nimesh Ved (Samrakshan Trust)

Keywords : mammal survey, Meghalaya, conflict,

Theme - Biodiversity: amount, patterns, uses, conservation, and participatory research.

This poster presents the findings of a nine month questionnaire survey conducted in the Garo hills region of Meghalaya state in north east India. The survey collected information on large mammal presence in the landscape, threats to them and sources of human-animal conflict by tapping the knowledge base of the local Garo tribe.

The north-east Indian state of Meghalaya, situated in the Indo Malayan biodiversity hotspot is home to an  enormous diversity of flora and fauna. Within Meghalaya, the Garo hills region is especially biodiverse, but has been poorly documented over the years. Samrakshan Trust has identified the Baghmara Balpakram Community Conservation Landscape (~300 sq.km.) as an area of high priority and initiated a long term community conservation intervention. The landscape is bounded by Bangladesh to its south, the Balpakram NP to its north and east and the Simsang river to its west. Any community conservation initiative needs to understand local attitudes and their relationship with wildlife to form an effective strategy to deal with the challenges.

We thus conducted a survey of mammalian fauna and local people’s attitudes towards wildlife. This was done with two major objectives:

-    the establishment of a comprehensive information base for future conservation efforts as well as recognition of the current wildlife values in the region

-    to understand the attitudes of local people towards presence of large mammals in terms of hunting and the nature and magnitude of human-animal conflict in the landscape.

Questionnaire surveys were conducted in all 33 akings (clan kingdom) of the landscape with a total of 334 respondents over a period of nine months from May 2005 to January 2006. The respondents comprised of farmers, hunters, government servants and others. The questionnaires attempted to document local knowledge on 56 species of large mammal (> 1 kg) presence, fluctuations in relative densities and degree and nature of conflict between local people and large mammals. The initial list of mammals was prepared through discussions with elders and hunters in the Garo hills.

Of the 56 species, all of them were reported to be have been sighted, while the hunters reported no sightings of the Malayan Sun Bear. Rhesus macaque, Wild pig and Indian porcupine were the most common mammals sighted. They were also mentioned as species whose numbers had increased the most within the last five years. Within the respondents, professional hunters mentioned the names of the Capped langur and Barking deer as the most common large mammals in addition to the above three. Sambar, Water buffalo and the Himalayan black bear numbers were perceived to have decreased in the last five years. The biggest reason for this decline was attributed by respondents to increase in hunting activities.

34% of the respondents named the wild pig as mammal causing most damage to crops, followed by the Asian elephant (31%) and the Indian porcupine (9%). Jungle cat (26%) and Leopard cat (25%) caused the most damage to livestock (including poultry).

Hunting and trapping were mainly for domestic consumption (29 akings) while commercial hunting was reported in a few cases (4 akings). Elephant, Sambar, Water buffalo, Barking deer and Wild pig were the animals that were hunted for meat.

The impact of hunting and trapping activities in tropical ecosystems has largely been overshadowed by the stress on habitat loss and fragmentation. This study provides an indication of the dangers of overlooking the long term effects of large mammal removal. Local knowledge itself recognizes hunting as the primary factor in the decrease of certain species. The increase in commensal species such as rhesus macaques also indicates the gradual habitat degradation and land-use change. Although commercial hunting is still restricted to only a few akings, it is disturbing to note its presence in a landscape where hunting for domestic consumption has already made considerable impact. Additional pressure in the form of commercial hunting, especially of large mammals like Asian elephants is a serious threat. 

Trip to Aizawl Zoo.

Some time back we visited the Zoo at Aizawl. Visits to Zoos have been a part of our Conservation Education program as they offer opportunities to see the species at length. This post shares some pictures from this visit. 

Beginning of course with Hoolock gibbons (Hoolock hoolock) or Hauhuk. As I write I recall having come across few amazing pics of the Aizawl Zoo on Ian Lockwood’s blog and of Aizawl being referred to by Lonely Planet as “Balanced precariously on a razer sharp ridge, Aizawl could well be the world’s steepest capital”.

Capped langur (Trachypithecus pileatus) or Ngau that did not appear very pleased with having visitors.

Clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) or Kelral. R Lydekker says of it in his The Wild Animals of India, Burma, Malaya and Tibet ~ “It has a special claim on the interest of the naturalist on account of the unusually great relative length of its upper tusks, or canines, which in this respect come nearer to those of the extinct sabre-toothed tigers than is the case in any other living member of the cat tribe.”

Binturong (Arctictis binturong) or Zamphu. I was absolutely besotted on seeing it laze on a tree branch and stood there long. R Lydekker says of it in his seminal work stated above ~ “The binturong may be compared in size and general appearance to a large, long-tailed, shaggy black cat, with tufts of elongated hair to its pointed ears. And since it cannot be confounded with any other animal, this comparison will suffice. It is, indeed, the only prehensile-tailed mammal of any size found throughout the three great continents of the Old World.”

Other post on zoo visits.

A. Guwahati (Assam).

B. Baroda (Gujarat). 

Indian Birds

From the time of moving to Mizoram, I have been happy to see people walk in our office at a time that pleases them, chat over cup of tea, check up the posters on the wall and more so the magazines that are put up for reading. In fact we had converted our sink to a platform for displaying magazines till we recently purchased a new dignified display place for the magazines. Most of these magazines are also distributed amongst these visitors. The idea is to share the magazines once we have read them (or are clear that we are not going to read them) rather than storing them in the office. In remote locations like Saiha it helps when these are shared with visitors who include teachers we are associated with and members of youth associations. Most of them have not had the opportunity to go through this type of material. Since most of these magazines talk of wildlife I look at this practise through the lens of conservation education. The idea being to create and share a platform that encourages deliberations on wildlife. Seeing the action to be of use we have begun sharing magazines regularly i.e. we take those we have read when we go to schools or villages for programmes. When we ran out of stock I wrote to Pankaj for help and he obliged immediately! It’s time to remind him again!

Indian Birds is a publication that adorns our office continuously in that we do not share the issues. During the recent school vacations children from neighbourhood paid regular visits to the office and while they liked the tiger poster they were fascinated with issues of Indian Birds. They kept on turning pages in awe at the photographs and brought in their friends to share their happiness. I was a little concerned of the condition of the pages on seeing their hands deal with the issues but what little I comprehended of their excitement pushed my concerns far away. Here children were getting interested in birds and all I needed was to give them space! Books were meant to raise interest and awareness levels of these and other children and not for adorning our office! My craving for order, discipline and rules seems to be vanishing and this realization pleases me in no small measure!

We showed these children field-guides too! While the snakes scared them a bit they did not show much likeness for the butterflies and birds they found too small in the field guides. They got back to Indian Birds and this time also asked if they could draw these birds! We discussed and before they left for the day fixed a date and time when they could come. Couple of more friends joined in on the stipulated day and of course before time. Most of them started with drawing birds however some of them found it a bit daunting and moved on to drawing a house. The drawing- colouring exercise was a song and the warmth with which they shared resources (table space, pencils and crayons) was invigorating. When it got over we struck these up at the office entrance!

Since am talking of Indian Birds I share something from a recent trip. Focussed reading had taken a back-seat of recent; having been overtaken by sundry web pages online besides the stuff delivered over emails. Fortunately I had put in our entire collection of Indian Birds (2 years) inside a plastic bag that we carried on our recent trip to Phura. Here in the midst of the valley-darkness, where peaks darker that the rest of the surroundings look down upon you, I feasted on them. From special issues on Bhutan and Arunanchal Pradesh where I walked lands I have ever wanted to wander in to visiting past hand-held by people we look up to. Mesmerising photographs from blood pheasants to the white bellied sea eagles added to the pleasure of the feast. Mobile phones, landlines, laptops and electricity too were cooperative to the fullest by virtue of their absence. Every candle burnt was worth its wax!

Thanking Aasheesh Pittie, Pankaj and all visitors.

Interactions with teachers.

Some weeks ago we had a program with teachers at our office. These teachers teach in schools we have been associated with. We organized this get-together to

1.      Screen and discuss a conservation film that focussed on teachers.

2.      Share of our actions.

They came on time and as we began we realized that participant numbers exceeded our expectations! We started the film helped with energetic acoustics from our then freshly acquired speakers. The initial silence and confusion moved away their spaces being quickly taken up by excitement and fun.

The film Bagh Sanrakshan – Ek Anokha Prayas (Tiger Conservation – A Unique Effort) has been made by BVIEER and talks of their interesting journey under the auspices of the ICEF project. Participants saw how conservation education was getting priority in various parts of the country and the different programs voluntary organizations undertook towards conservation education with students and teachers. They saw action in class rooms in rural areas, visits by teachers to national parks and bal-mela (fair organized by students). While the coverage was limited to the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh it was fun to see actions like placing pictures of wildlife species on a tree picture based on the position the particular species preferred on the tree and surveys undertaken by students.

Our actions were restricted to pitch in with field-guides (birds, mammals and snakes) when wildlife was discussed and help with translation (Mara, Mizo or English) when need arose. The idea being to share the concepts, allow the space to dwell on the same and possibly walk the road ahead together. After the screening we had tea, biscuits and kuva (paan) and talked about select wildlife species as we flipped through the field guides.

In the ensuing discussion one of the participants wished that they could be a part of such wonderful and inspiring trainings while other argued saying that it was not training that was pertinent for nature conservation but loving wildlife and respecting God’s creations that we had around us. One participant was of the opinion that they should be taken on exposure visits to large zoos like the one at Guwahati (he later asked me what animals I was fortunate enough to see there) since it would allow them to see wildlife at close quarters while another held the view that while conservation of wildlife was important and should be practised tasty birds like Khaleej Pheasant (Vahrik) should be kept out of the purview! One of them even pushed away the mammal guide on coming across the Slow Loris (Ruleipa) picture! I was aware to the belief concerning the shy primate referred to as the boneless but the extent left me baffled.

Like during the screening our role during the discussion that followed was minimum (I am re discovering the virtues of speaking less!). These discussions were open with respect to time and topic and the idea was to get them talking of wildlife and its conservation, put forth their views and perspective.

We shared report on the actions undertaken during the recent past, our plans for immediate future actions and discussed them briefly seeking their inputs in the process. Their interest and enthusiasm play a pivotal role in these.

And of course we shared the Hoolock Gibbon (Hauhuk) posters developed by ZOO.

Thanking the participants, BVIEER for film and ZOO for posters!

Saiha skies

Have been looking upwards while pondering of recent; sharing the result .....

View from Kawlchaw

Saiha skies during afternoon on the day of the solar eclipse

View from Tlangpui

Closer look at the jet-line!

Saiha skies on the day of the year the moon was nearest to earth 

During evening ~ 

At night ~ 

A week at Phura

Sharing images from a wonderful time at Phura recently .....

Phura football ground on a chill winter morning. The only place coming across which I have felt the urge to play football!

 Most interesting feature of Phura trip: tea-stall discussions.   Here, Jack and John enjoy their chat with a school teacher.

The Forest Guest House at Phura. Our place of stay. Here John attempts to take the GPS location.

Uncle at Phura Forest Guest House who also cooked for us. As we said bye on the last day I asked him to pray that we get his energies and smile if and when we reach his age!

Phura – Kaisih road mercilessly scratched by JCB; saddening sight but the butterflies seemed to make merry!

Endearing walk from Palak Dil to Phura. Little more than 5 kms it touches rice fields, plantation, abandoned jhum plots and  beautifully thick forest patch.

Leaf drop silence at Palak Dil!