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WILDLIFE: Two Tigers Airlifted to Rajasthan to revive population

India’s once thriving tiger population is rapidly declining, prompting great concern from preservation groups. In what the Associated Press called an “unprecedented attempt to revive the tiger population” in Western India, the Indian government airlifted two tigers to a national reserve this week.

According to the article:

The tigers were carried by Indian Air Force helicopters to Sariska Tiger Reserve in the western state of Rajasthan, whose entire tiger population has been wiped out by poachers during the last decade.

Poaching and a vanishing habitat have savaged Indian tigers, which were believed to number in the tens of thousands a century ago. The tiger population has dropped from nearly 3,600 five years ago to about 1,400, according to the latest tiger census in February. 

In its coverage of the tiger airlift, the Times of London details the troubled history of the Sariska Tiger Reserve.

Sariska used to be India's most famous tiger sanctuary and was at the centre of the Project Tiger conservation programme launched by Indira Gandhi, the late Prime Minister, in 1973. In a big embarrassment for Indian wildlife authorities, the Government was forced to admit in 2005 that all of the tigers in the park had been killed.

Since then, the Government has launched an emergency programme to rescue the tiger, vowing to create eight new reserves and a Tiger Protection Force to combat poachers.

More on the issue at The Hindu:

Poaching and a vanishing habitat have hit tiger numbers in India over the years. They were believed to number in the tens of thousands a century ago but the population has dropped from nearly 3,600 five years ago to about 1,400, according to an official tiger census done across the country in February 2008.

OBIT: Edmund Hillary, Everest summiteer dies

A young Kiwi beekeeper-turned-mountaineer, Sir Edmund Hillary, who became the first person to climb Mount Everest along with Nepali Tenzing Norgay Sherpa on May 29, 1953, died yesterday at an Auckland hospital. He was 88.

Hillary and Sherpa became heroes, both in their native countries and in the international arena after successfully conquering Everest.

Here's a brief excerpt from the Associated Press article about Hillary and his life:

"The gangling New Zealander devoted much of his life to aiding the mountain people of Nepal and took his fame in stride, preferring to be called Ed and considering himself an 'ordinary person with ordinary qualities.'"

Also listen to NPR's All Things Considered where David Breashears, a fellow climber, talks about the life of Hillary.

Hillary is widely respected in Nepal for his service and generosity. He has helped raise funds for higher education of Sherpa families and funded and helped build hospitals, health posts, airstrips and schools.

The Telegraph writes about how Sherpas mourn the loss of Hillary.

Sir Edmund Hillary has been mourned in Nepal as a "second father" to the Sherpa people and an honorary son of their mountains and valleys.<snip>

In 2003, when the country celebrated the 50th anniversary of his achievement, he was driven like a king through cheering crowds in Kathmandu in a horse-drawn carriage.

He was made an honorary citizen. His bond with the people was deep.

When I was growing up in Nepal, there was a rumor about how Tenzing Norgay Sherpa actually carried Edmund Hillary on his back and stepped on the summit. The rumor probably suggests the discontent among many Nepalis and Indians (Sherpa later lived in Darjeeling, India) because Sherpa was sidelined in the coverage of Everest's conquest. Virtually all media outlets to date report Hillary as the first man on Everest.

A letter written by Sherpa, published after his death, said that Hillary was the first person to set foot on Mount Everest. But this photograph of the conquest, which was taken by Hillary, shows Sherpa standing on the top. Hillary was never photographed on the top of the mountain.

Sir Edmund's explanation for that was that Sherpa did not know how to use a camera and there was no time to teach him how to operate a camera on the top of a mountain.

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BHUTTO: Cartoon by Mike Lukovich

[ See SAJAforum collection of coverage, sources, resources about the Bhutto assassination ]

This is the second cartoon by a Pulitzer-winnning cartoonist this week that conflates the Bhutto assassination and the tiger mauling in the San Francisco Zoo. The other was Michael Ramirez's cartoon (see it here). This one is by Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Post your comments below.

DESI SPOTTING: A tale of two Rajas - a tiger and an elephant

This is a posting about two animals named Raja that were in the U.S. news this week - and neither is connected to the tiger attack story in the San Francisco Zoo.

On Thursday, Dec. 27, the St. Louis Zoo celebrated the 15th birthday of Raja, the first Asian elephant born at that zoo (that's a photo of him at the zoo site, showing of his "elephant yoga" skills). Here is the official press release announcing the event and here's the coverage from the Belleville News-Democrat:

A crowd gathered at the St. Louis Zoo's Rivers Edge Thursday morning to watch Raja, the first Asian elephant born at the zoo, celebrate his 15th birthday.

Raja's birthday gifts included cereal, melons, bananas, popcorn and other favorite foods. Employees also constructed giant cards for visitors to sign.

The birth of Raja in 1992 was big news at the zoo. Raja remains a star attraction and is a two-time father.

He first mated with a 34-year-old Asian elephant named Ellie, who gave birth to a 341-pound daughter, Maliha, in August of 2006.

Raja then mated with Ellie's other daughter, 10-year-old Rani, who gave birth to 236-pound Jade in February of 2007.

Raja stands at nearly 10 feet and weighs about 9,000 pounds. He remains the centerpiece of the zoo's prized collection of Asian elephants on display at the zoo's River's Edge, which also includes several members of the hippopotamus family, black rhinos, cheetahs and hyenas.

On the same day, in a zoo in the city of Tucson, Arizona, a tiger named Raja died. From KOLD-TV:

Workers at Reid Park Zoo are mourning the loss of, "Raja," a 7-year-old Indochinese tiger. He died suddenly on Thursday afternoon.  An examination is underway to determine the exact cause of death. Raja did not show any signs of illness prior to his death.

Zoo officials say it may be weeks before final results of the necropsy are available.  The post mortem examination is standard procedure with all animals that die at the zoo.

"Raja" and his brother first arrived at the zoo in October of 2001.

Here are some of the other headlines:

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BHUTTO: Cartoon by Michael Ramirez

[ See SAJAforum collection of coverage, sources, resources about the Bhutto assassination ]

Today's editorial cartoon by Michael Ramirez is a play on both the Bhutto assassination and the San Francisco Zoo tiger attack that killed one man and put two brothers in the hospital.

When I first saw this in print this morning in the New York Post, it was in black-n-white and I missed the lettering in the tiger's stripes. Meanwhile, I am sure that Ramirez hadn't noted the South Asian connection to the tiger story. It isn't a Bengal tiger, but those brothers, it turns out, are desi.

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DESI SPOTTING: Two Desi Brothers Among Tiger Attack Victims

Saturday, Dec. 29 UPDATE...Video from NBC Nightly News:

New details in tiger attack

Dec. 29 UPDATE... From Lisa Tsering, reporter, India West:

Regarding what I'm calling the "tiger twins" coverage, my photographer Som Sharma and I spent three hours camped outside the Dhaliwals' house in San Jose, along with around 2 dozen other media. We were the only South Asian press present. They left the hospital in the afternoon but unfortunately didn't go home -- no doubt they're trying to evade all of us!

ORIGINAL POSTING, Friday, Dec. 28:

The big news on Christmas Day in the U.S., two days before Benazir Bhutto's assassination, was that of a tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo. A 350-pound Siberian tiger named Tatiana (seen here in a Flickr photo) killed one young man and put two others in the hospital before being shot to death by the police.

The identity of the dead victim, Carl Sousa, Jr., has been made public and his parents have been interviewed on TV and elsewhere over the last couple of days. But the names of the two other victims, who are brothers and frinds of Sousa's, were not revealed. Until today. From a report this morning by the AP's Jordan Robertson and Marcus Wolhsen:

The 4-year-old tiger, a female named Tatiana, went on a rampage near closing time Tuesday, killing Sousa and severely injuring the two others before police shot it to death.

Brothers Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, were at San Francisco General Hospital with severe bite and claw wounds. Their names were provided by hospital and law enforcement sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the family had not yet given permission to release their names.

After interviewing the brothers, police said Kulbir Dhaliwal was the animal's first victim.

As the tiger clawed and bit him, Sousa and the younger brother yelled in hopes of scaring it off him, police said. The cat then went for Sousa, slashing his neck as the brothers ran to a zoo cafe for help.

After killing the teenager, the tiger followed a trail of blood left by Kulbir Dhaliwal about 300 yards to the cafe, where it mauled both men, police said.

Four officers who had already discovered Sousa's body then arrived and found the cat sitting next to one of the bloodied brothers, police Chief Heather Fong said. The victim yelled, "Help me! Help me!" and the animal resumed its attack, Fong said.

The officers used their patrol car lights to distract the tiger, and it turned and began approaching them, leading all four to open fire, she said.
<snip>
Police have not addressed whether the victims had teased the tiger.

On Thursday, Fong denied earlier reports that police were looking into the possibility that the victims had dangled a leg or other body part over the edge of the moat, after a shoe and blood was found inside the enclosure. No shoe was found inside, but a shoeprint was found on the railing of the fence surrounding the enclosure, and police are checking it against the shoes of the three victims, she said.

From the San Francisco Chronicle's John Coti, Jaxon Van Derbeken, Leslie Fulbright:

When Carlos Sousa Jr. didn't show up for Christmas dinner, his father called several of his son's friends - including the two brothers injured in the tiger attack that killed the teen.

Either Amritpal "Paul" Dhaliwal, 19, or his 23-year-old brother Kulbir Dhaliwal answered the phone and told Sousa Sr. that his son wasn't with them. In reality, the three young men were either on their way to or had already arrived at the San Francisco Zoo, where they would later be mauled by a 350-pound Siberian tiger.

"I said, 'Have you seen my son?' and he said, 'No,' then he wished me a merry Christmas," the father said.

The Dhaliwal brothers remained in stable condition Thursday, recovering from their injuries at San Francisco General Hospital. Their relatives, reached Thursday at their home on a quiet San Jose cul-de-sac, declined to speak to reporters.

"We have no comment at this time," said the boys' 25-year-old brother Sunny Dhaliwal, adding that his family wanted to speak to the boys and hospital staff before talking publicly about the incident.

A man accompanying family members outside the house later told a reporter that the family would have nothing to say until after consulting with a lawyer.

The Dhaliwal brothers have been hostile to police in the current death investigation and were "extremely belligerent" in an earlier encounter with police this year, authorities say.

After the zoo attack, authorities said, the brothers had refused to give their own names, identify the victim or initially give authorities an account of what occurred.

Thursday, police interviewed the two brothers, as well as Sousa's father. Authorities didn't release the details of the interviews but did say their investigation showed that the tiger first attacked the older brother.

We will keep abreast of this story and post updates. Post your comments, links and thoughts below.

MEDIA: The Saga of the AP-Paris Hilton-Elephants Story

Sometimes, we can just link to an item with no comment. This is such a time. From the New York Times piece "Making News Without Saying a Word," by Joanne Kaufman:

...The Associated Press had to eat its words after running a news article about Paris Hilton’s supposed desire to publicize the plight of elephants in northeastern India.

For the record, it is apparently true that elephants there get drunk on farmers’ homemade rice beer, then go on rampages. But it is not true that Ms. Hilton, who served jail time this year for violating probation after a drunken driving arrest, told reporters, “The elephants get drunk all the time. It is becoming really dangerous. We need to stop making alcohol available to them.”
<snip>
The quotation showed up in numerous places after The Associated Press ran an article by a reporter based in India named Wasbir Hussain. An A.P. spokesman described him as a highly regarded and conscientious stringer who had nonetheless inappropriately lifted the quote from the World Entertainment News Network Web site and filed without waiting for verification. The Associated Press hastily withdrew the article shortly after releasing it.

Post your comments below.

 

DESI SPOTTING: Name that elephant!

The Houston Zoo has a new, 384-pound baby elephant, and it's looking to name him (via Sam Kannappan, who appropriately enough calls the contest a Namkaran). Go to the zoo's website and place your vote for one of five names, including 2 Indian names:

• Colossus
• Guiness
• Sundar
• Janu
• Mac

The deadline is Friday, November 10.

You'll notice on the website that they've given a little explanation/translation for each name, and for Sundar and Janu it says "In Hindu/India, it means..." as if to suggest that Hindu is a language. Whoops.

But hopefully nomenclatural (?) justice will prevail and that little Indian elephant will receive a good Indian name.

They say this is the largest baby elephant birth on record. Maybe they'll eventually take it a step further and do like Guruvayur temple, in Kerala, which is to let you get blessed by the elephant. Elephant's trunk caressing the crown of your head - one of the world's top 5 sensations.