Puggies comb flooded jungle to track lions

8
TIMES NATION
THE TIMES OF INDIA, KANPUR
WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 2015
Coal scam: Ex-MoS says all
decisions taken by Manmohan
New Delhi: Former minister of
state for coal Dasari Narayan Rao,
an accused in Jharkhand's Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block allocation scam case, on Tuesday
said that decisions to allocate coal
blocks were taken by then then
Prime
Minister
Manmohan
Singh, who was also heading the
coal ministry at that time.
"I was only the minister of
state. All powers for allocating coal
blocks are of the coal minister and
the then coal minister was Manmohan Singh.," Rao told reporters
outside the Patiala House courts
here.
Rao's reaction came after he appeared before a special court in
connection with the coal scam
case along with Congress leader
and industrialist Naveen Jindal
and others.
The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block to
two Jindal's group companies Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL)
and Gagan Sponge Iron Pvt Ltd
(GSIPL).
Puggies comb
flooded jungle
to track lions
Himanshu.Kaushik
@timesgroup.com
Amreli: Bhimji Mehta, 35,
wades through a swamp in
Savarkundla in Gujarat’s
Amreli district in search of
the king of the jungle. Ravaged by last week’s floods, unprecedented in 90 years, this
part of Saurashtra is home to
about 75 Asiatic lions —
many
of
them
dead
or marooned.
Looking at tell-tale signs,
visible only to him, Mehta
tracks down a hungry and
weak lioness that has taken
shelter on high ground to escape the swirling waters of
Shetrunji river. The traumatized big cat is tranquilized
by foresters who are following Mehta and appears to be
responding well to treatment.
A crack team of 15 expert
animal trackers, locally
known as puggies, has
launched a massive hunt to
trace beleaguered big cats
struggling to survive the
floods that have killed 11 of
them so far. Many of them
fourth generation trackers,
their mission is to locate carcasses or lions in distress in
the water-logged countryside. Nearly 39 lions, many of
them famished for days, have
been found by them in the last
48 hours since the waters
abated.
In nearby Liliya, Mohammed Juna and Rahim Baloch, puggies from Sasan-Gir,
are in hot pursuit of two lions. By looking at the depth
and size of pug marks they
tell foresters that the two lions, aged four and 10, have
passed by only moments earlier.
“Waters are yet to recede
completely and many lions
must be hungry and struggling to find their way with
their 100 kg weight in such difficult terrain,” says Juna.
Fighting odds, including
poisonous insects and reptiles, these trackers have put
their lives on the line to locate
the missing big cats by their
pug marks, droppings, tufts
of lion fur stuck on twigs,
scratches on tree barks and
leftovers of a prey.
“Their expertise and services are invaluable to us,”
says S C Pant, principal chief
conservator of forest, wildlife. The forest department is
counting on these men, who
get only daily wages, to account for each lion in Amreli
— dead or alive.
The lion kingdom of Gujarat has far outgrown the
bounds of Gir wildlife sanctuary and the recent census
put the Asiatic lion populace
at an all-time high of 523. Like
others in the gang, Juna (43)
and Rahim (49) have inherited the skill of tracking lions
from
their
forefathers.
“These trackers know the forest like their backyard and
they share a personal bond
with big cats. They can identify the animals just by their
roar,” says Pant.
Puggies are also called
‘shikaris’ because they used
to help the nawabs and British find lions to shoot. Life has
come full circle for these onceaides-of-hunters who now
play a critical role in conservation. Everyday at 5 am this
tribe of fearless trackers walk
into lion territory, armed
with just a stick, calling out to
the big cats.
India blocks China’s
bid to save Pak on
terror finance scrutiny
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: Pakistan’s enforcement of UN financial
sanctions against terrorism
will be closely monitored by
Financial
Action
Task
Force (FATF) through its associate body, the Asia Pacific
Group on Money Laundering (APG), after India successfully blocked China’s attempt at a recent FATF meet
in Brisbane to save nonFATF member Pakistan
from such scrutiny.
FATF is a policy-making
body whose objectives include setting standards to
combat money laundering
and the financing of terrorism and supporting implementation of these standards. APG on money
laundering, somewhat of a
mini-FATF of which Pakistan is a member, is committed to the effective implementation and enforcement
of standards set by FATF.
According to sources in
the government, India, with
the support of allies like the
US, managed to derail China’s bid which was backed
by Australia to shield Pakis-
tan on terror financing. The
FATF meet agreed with India’s argument that Pakistan, despite not being part of
FATF, was part of APG
which works in close collaboration with FATF, and its
enforcement of targeted financial sanctions against
terrorism should be subject
to monitoring by FATF
through the APG.
At the FATF meeting last
week, India and the US
spoke up against Pakistan’s
lack of conviction in implementing anti-terror financial sanctions by freezing assets or attaching properties
of 26/11 masterminds Hafiz
Saeed and Zakiur Rehman
Lakhvi and 1993 Mumbai
blasts accused Dawood Ibrahim etc.
China, however, argued
that Pakistan was doing
enough and reporting on the
action taken to APG.
India was not satisfied
with the report submitted
by Pakistan to APG as it listed only unnamed accounts,
without identifying their
origins and their implications for the group’s functioning.