Corbett’s hog deer pushed to the verge of extinction

Hog deer is facing the prospect of extinction in the Corbett National Park, which is among the best habitats for tigers.

Updated on: May 20, 2010, 23:40:51 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Hog deer is facing the prospect of extinction in the Corbett National Park, which is among the best habitats for tigers. From thousands in the early 1960s, their number is now estimated to be fewer than 50, as the ecosystem of the park has been altered to sustain the population of tigers, elephants and chitals.

“We continue to burn the chaurs (Chaur is typically a plain area atop a hill) regularly, gradually turning the terrain more suitable for chital and for viewing of wildlife, including elephants. I regret having to say this, but I do believe that we have managed the chaurs of Corbett for tourists, for elephants and for the chital,” said M.K. Ranjitsingh, chairperson of Wildlife Trust of India, in a note presented at the last meeting of Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife.

“The net result is that the prolific and once ubiquitous hog deer, which cannot adapt to closed forest habitats, is now on the verge of extinction.” Corbett officials say they don’t have any confirmed figure on the hog deer population.

Hog deer numbers have declined in north India, but they have survived the human onslaught in the Kaziranga National Park in Assam, which has huge grasslands — a must for the animal to survive.

Corbett turned a disaster zone for hog deer after the Ramganga Dam was constructed, a few years ago. “The flooding of grasslands meant permanent loss of their habitat and they were pushed into the upper chaurs, which are now devoid of their natural grasslands,” Ranjitsingh said.

Ranjitsingh has asked the environment ministry to start a grassland revival plan for the Park. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh has directed ministry officials to work out a plan to save the hog deers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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