Although this topic is not relevant to this group I believe that all wildlife groups, conservation organisations including egroups come together and unitedly fight against any development project/s that may endanger any form of wildlife. The Narcondam Hornbill is only found on Narcondam Island in the Andaman islands. The letter below is self-explanatory.
Cheers, Kiran Srivastava Mumbai ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Praveen J <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 9:43 AM Subject: [keralabirder] Narcondam Hornbill: Appeal To: keralabirder <[email protected]> Dear all, As most of you are aware, Narcondam Hornbill is facing a grave threat to its extinction - and there has been an appeal to write to MoEF. Many of you have already written to the Minister. See more details here. http://www.conservationindia.org/front-page-featured/narcondam As an organisation with e-presence, we have been also asked to write as a group to the minister. However, we realized that, while most letters are addressed to the minister, probably not many have reached the Indian Coast Guards. Hence, we felt that, we as KeralaBirder, should address the letter to Indian Coast Guard - the location being adjacent to international boards and being an island - coast guards have a greater role to play in ensuring the island survives as it is - and the threats for the Hornbill may not be entirely within the nation. Here is a draft which we have prepared - and we have taken upon ourselves to represent the community. We hope you wont have objections to the same. Kindly let us know if you have comments/amendments to make in the note before Sunday, 29th July. best rgds Praveen, Dipu, Nameer --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vice Admiral M.P. Muralidharan, AVSM, NM, Directory General, Indian Coast Guard, Coast Guard Headquarters, National Stadium Complex, Purana Quila Road, New Delhi - 110 001 27th July 2012 Respected Sir, We are body of naturalists and birdwatchers in Kerala, and we write you to express our concern for an ‘Endangered’ bird of the Narcondam Island near Andaman Islands, where coast guard has intentions to set up a manned RADAR station and supporting power generation plants. We understand from the media that the proposal for RADAR station is taking into consideration the increasing risk of national security in that particular region of Andaman Sea. While commending the great work coast guard has exercised and continue to exercise across the Indian Territory, we bring to your kind attention on what impact the RADAR station installation might have on the plants and animals of the island. Narcondam is a small volcanic island with verdant evergreen forests of unique life forms that is found nowhere else in the world. The flagship species of this island is the Narcondam Hornbill, a large colourful bird, similar to the majestic Great Hornbill which happens to be the state bird of many Indian states including our own. This is the only bird species in the whole of India which is restricted to a single island. There are less than 250 hornbills left and they require large trees in the island to survive. A couple of decades back; we had a serious problem with the introduced goats in the island. The goats started feeding voraciously on the tender saplings of the evergreen trees – and if conservationists had not taken action, this itself would have made the island denuded of the forests very soon. Such is the fragility of these islands that any small disturbance would leave island crippled. The island is slowly recovering from this catastrophe which could have easily made this bird extinct in a few years. Our assessment based on several reports published in media is that setting up a RADAR station with sufficient infrastructure support like buildings, roads and construction machinery is a big disturbance on the small island, several order more than the problem of introduced goats – and clearly a pathway to destruction of the island’s forests and the beautiful Hornbill. As citizens of India, all of us - and as the guardians of national security, everyone of the coast guards - has the greater responsibility of ensuring all the life forms in the political limits of the country are safeguarded – just the same way as the people of the nation are guarded. Considering the graveness of the issues at hand – a situation of national security vs. biological security – we as concerned citizens are ready for a dialogue with the decision makers in the Indian Coast Guards and we are sure the learned conservationists who are campaigning actively with the Ministry of Environment & Forests will be ( http://www.conservationindia.org/wp-content/files_mf/NCFs_Letter_MoEF_Narcondam.pdf ) keen to impress upon you the importance of this island. We should find out a viable alternative to thwart the threats on national security while still ensuring the safety of our biological resources. Meanwhile, may we humbly request you to withdraw the current proposal of the RADAR station in the island for the greater good of the nation and initiate the process to find an alternative solution without affecting the current status of Narcondam Island? With regards Yours sincerely, Praveen J, Dipu Karuthedathu, P O Nameer For the members of KeralaBirder, An online discussion forum for Birdwatchers of Kerala http://groups.yahoo.com/group/keralabirder ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/keralabirder/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/keralabirder/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
