Type: India Mapping

Activists surrounding the Keibul Lamjao National Park (KLNP) in Manipur have now taken up the cudgels to ensure that the government does not shift the proposed heritage park from the approved site.

Keibul Lamjao National Park (KLNP)

• The KLNP is a national park in the Bishnupur district of the state of Manipur in India.
• It is 40 km2 in area, the only floating park in the world, located in North East India, and an integral part of Loktak Lake.
• The national park is characterized by floating decomposed plant material locally called Phumdi at the south–eastern side of the Loktak Lake, which has been declared a Ramsar site.
• It was created in 1966 as a wildlife sanctuary to preserve the natural habitat of the endangered Eld’s deer.
• In 1977, it was gazetted as national park.

Key faunas

• KLNP is home to the last of the brow-antlered deer (Rucervus eldii eldii), one of the most endangered deer in the world.
• It is locally called as Sangai.
• The animal is, in fact, in danger of losing its home—most of the phumdis, or floating swamps, are unable to sustain its weight.
• In 1951, it was reported extinct, but British tea planter and naturalist Edward Pritchard Gee rediscovered it in 1953.

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Ramgarh Vishdhari Wildlife Sanctuary is now notified as a tiger reserve after a nod by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).

Ramgarh Vishdhari TR

• Ramgarh Vishadhri, located mostly in Bundi district and in part in Bhilwara and Kota districts.
• It is also home to the Indian wolf, leopard, striped hyena, chinkara, antelope and foxes among other animals.
• It is now India’s 52nd tiger reserve and Rajasthan’s fourth, after Ranthambore, Sariska and Mukundra.
• The reserve will be spread in an area of 1,501.89 sq km.
• The area has been called ‘critical’ for the movement of tigers by wildlife experts and conservationists.
• Though the tiger population in Ramgarh itself was not high, it plays an important role in connecting the Ranthambore and Mukundra Tiger Reserves of Rajasthan.

Back2Basics: Tiger Reserves

• The Tiger Reserves of India were set up in 1973 and are governed by Project Tiger, which is administrated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
• A National Park or Wildlife Sanctuary that is considered significant for protecting tigers can be additionally designated as a Tiger Reserve.
• A Tiger Reserve consists of a ‘Core’ or ‘Critical Tiger Habitat’, which is to be managed as an inviolate area, and a ‘Buffer’ or Peripheral area immediately abutting a Core area, which may be accorded a lesser degree of habitat protection.
• This is the typical zonation of a Tiger Reserve.

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The world’s largest wetland, the Pantanal in South America, is at the risk of collapse due to legal land-use decisions and proposals.

About Pantanal

• The Pantanal is a natural region encompassing the world’s largest tropical wetland area, and the world’s largest flooded grasslands.
• It is located mostly within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but it extends into Mato Grosso and portions of Bolivia and Paraguay.
• It sprawls over an area estimated at between 140,000 and 195,000 square kilometres.
• Various subregional ecosystems exist, each with distinct hydrological, geological and ecological characteristics; up to 12 of them have been defined.
• Roughly 80% of the Pantanal floodplains are submerged during the rainy seasons, nurturing a biologically diverse collection of aquatic plants and helping to support a dense array of animal species.

Significance of Pantanal

• The Pantanal is a refuge for iconic wildlife. This massive wetland has the largest concentration of crocodiles in the world, with approximately 10 million caimans.
• Jaguars, the largest feline in the Americas, hunt caiman in the Pantanal, which has one of the highest density of jaguars anywhere the world.

Threats

• Around 95% of the Pantanal is under private ownership, the majority of which is used for cattle grazing.

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A Fuel Ship with 750 tons of diesel sinks off the Gulf Of Gabes in Tunisia.

Gulf of Gabes

• The Gulf of Gabes also known as Lesser Syrtis contrasting with the Greater Syrtis in Libya, is a gulf on Tunisia’s east coast in the Mediterranean Sea, off North Africa.
• The gulf roughly spans the coast from Sfax to Djerba.
• At the head of the gulf is the city of Gabès (Ghannouche) where the tides have a large range of up to 2.1 m at spring tides.
• Both Gabès and Sfax are major ports on the gulf, supporting sponge and tuna fisheries, with Gabès being the economic and administrative centre.
• It is 60 miles (100 km) long and 60 miles wide and is bounded by the Qarqannah (Kerkena) Islands on the northeast and by Jarbah (Djerba) Island on the southeast.

Regional economy of the gulf

• Except for the Strait of Gibraltar and the Gulf of Venice, it is the only part of the Mediterranean with a substantial tidal range, causing the uncovering of extensive sandbanks at low water.
• Sponge and tuna fisheries are located at the main ports of Qābis (Gabès) and Ṣafāqis (Sfax).
• Oil and natural-gas deposits have been found in the gulf, east of Ṣafāqis.

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