Friday 22 June 2012
Tuesday 19 June 2012
Sunday 17 June 2012
It’s not too late, I think its time to react to protect our national Animal. The present statistics show that just 1411 tigers remain in our country. Shocking isn’t it!!
“We are roaring for the cause. Are you?”
1411 is average estimation of India’s wild tigers, as per the monitoring exercise by Wildlife Institute of India in association with NTCA, Government of India in 2008.
I feel responsible to save my national animal. At this instinct, I want to appreciate Aircel for making us aware by taking the initiative. Aircel has partnered with WWF-India to help “Save Our Tigers”. The Tiger as the National Animal of India symbolizes the power, strength, elegance, alertness, intelligence and endurance of the nation. Our national Animal is fighting for its life. Previously from around 40,000 tigers at turn of last century, there were just 1411 tigers at present in our country.
I think this is the correct time to react to protect our heritage otherwise we could lose it forever.
Over the past years there is a steep fall in the tiger population. Due to illegal smuggling of Tiger Skin and other body parts, there are very few tigers left in the world today.
According to the World Census of Tigers, there are only 5000 -7000 tigers in the world today. Out of which, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, China and Myanmar claim to have a population of 3000 to 4500 and India alone claims to have a population of 2500 to 3750. These were according to year 2002 statistics. But Now, the number is just 1411.
Join the noble cause the same the big cats from extincting.
Hope This Initiative from Aircel and WWF-India should result in positive growth of Tigers in our Country.
Roar for this cause here @ SaveOurTigers
Our National Animal is Fighting for its Life. Show your support by joining @ Saveourtigers.com
Till now over 96,000 people have joined this community to show their support to save Our Nation Animal from Extinction. So make a difference by joining and ask your friends to join in to support this roar.
You can also know much about this Program @ WWF-India or Saveourtigers
Read more at http://hellboundbloggers.com/2010/02/23/save-our-tigers-just-1411-left/
Yes, says a young stockbroker, and the team behind a wildly ambitious online project to find and follow India's remaining wild tigers, armed with a new weapon — social media. Yolande D'Mello speaks to urban professionals and entrepreneurs using the power of Twitter, Facebook, SMS and email to save India's wildlife.
Saptarishi Saigal's week is a demanding one. The stockbroker with Aditya Birla Money Ltd., from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, spends Monday to Friday tracking the market's highs and lows. Come Saturday morning, the 29-year-old drives two-and-a-half hours to get to Bandhavgarh National Park, spends hours with villagers, and discusses depleting natural reserves with forest officials. Of the 90-odd villages along the periphery of the park that has the highest known tiger population in India, Saigal has managed to survey 25, and mediates between locals who lose their cattle to tiger attacks, and officials on issues of compensation and relocation.
This has been his routine since 2007.
Two weeks ago on a muggy afternoon, there was a breach in the schedule when Saigal spotted a tigress snuggling with her cubs. Christened Kankati (cut-eared) by the locals because of deep scars on her ears, her first litter has been fathered by Bamera, Bandhavgarh's dominant male tiger. A cautious Saigal pulled out his Nikon D700 to capture private moments of the family.
Find, shoot, upload
In the next few hours, the pictures were uploaded on www.tigernation.org, a two-month-old social networking site that wants to find and follow India's remaining wild tigers. Founded by British conservationist Julian Matthews, it allows its 1,000 members to sign up for free, create a profile and 'follow' their favourite tigers in Bandhavgarh and Ranthambhore, Rajasthan, while receiving real-time updates about their movement, via photographs, videos and blog posts uploaded on the hour.
"Vacationers who visit Indian tiger reserves upload their pictures on Facebook anyway. We figured, why not use this data intelligently to keep a watch on the tiger population," says Matthews.
TigerNation's core team includes experienced conservationists who identify tigers in every new upload, looking for a match in their database. The collated information makes its way to a special profile page created for each tiger. According to Matthews, Ranthambhore has 46 tigers (22 new cubs were born between October 2011 and May 2012) while Bandhavgarh has 26 identified tigers and several unrecorded ones. "The idea is to record every tiger in India through citizen photography. Mapping and tracking the population creates a better chance of survival," says Satyendra Tiwari, who runs a lodge in Bandhavgarh's Tala village, and is on TigerNation's team.
Coming up is the launch of a unique identification software that costs millions of pounds. Developed by Georgios Michalakidis, director of UK software development firm Thoughtified, it will help the team identify tigers based on their stripes; much like fingerprints.
Imitating Facebook
It's a win-win situation, the experts say, with this exhaustive database at the disposal of park field directors, border and intelligence agencies, NGOs and wildlife organisations. For the urban members, it's the lure of connecting with like-minded youngsters, sharing photos, receiving news feeds about gripping jungle drama, and playing a game that challenges them to compare tiger stripes — just like on Facebook.
"As with any social platform, gamification is an important element, and works as an incentive. We currently provide a 'badge system' that awards users for different activities. Tiger jigsaws and mobile apps that use augmented reality are in the pipeline," says Michalakidis. While the TigerNation site is still in beta testing stage, Matthews has plans to introduce role-playing next. Donning the park ranger's hat for a day, members get to locate missing tigers, make sure watering holes are clean and the feed, adequate. "It will help them realise the significant work done by forest officials, while offering them entertainment," he says.
Farmville has competition.
"It's about time," says Prasant Naidu, founder of Lighthouse Insights, a website that reviews brand campaigns that employ social networking. "Indians believe that if an NGO is talking about street children, you have to show them hungry, pathetic kids. How many times have we heard about the last 1,400 tigers? Let's talk about the ones that are there."
What's social media got to do with saving?
The idea behind people-powered conservation stems from the realisation that millions of Indians are using text, email, Twitter and Facebook to harness direct action. The power of instant worldwide communication can bail out India's endangered species, say experts.
And a recent press report should only make them happier. India is already the third largest Facebook market, and by 2015, we are expected to have more Facebook users than any other country in the world.
While a social media presence that allows people to 'follow' or 'like' you is the latest fad for both, brands and social organisations, for it to work on ground, the objective must be linked to implementation, insists Naidu.
Offline impact
Twenty-one-year-old New Delhi resident and engineering student at a college in Manipal University, Ramit Singal knows how that's done. A book on birds gifted by his dad when he was just 13, made him an avian fan. When a cement factory was expected to come up near his hostel, Singal knew it was bad news for migratory birds there. He uploaded a before and after photograph of the area on his Facebook profile, and received a 100 shares in just one day. Conservation India, a non-profit portal that facilitates nature conservation, jumped in. After four applications and repeated visits to the municipal authorities, an investigation was ordered, revealing that a tank in the facility contained dangerously high levels of fly ash. The construction has been halted till further notice.
Singal's pool of pictures find their way to migrantwatch.in, an online initiative that sees 1,500 members, including homemakers, students and businessmen across 31 Indian states, collect and share data on migrant birds. "Conservation initiatives depend on good quality data. Phenological monitoring projects like MigrantWatch, which aim to gather high volumes of field data over a large geographical area, cannot succeed without involving young enthusiasts. New media, spurred by access to the Internet and popularity of smartphones, is growing into a powerful tool," says Raman Kumar, ecologist and coordinator at MigrantWatch, that receives funding from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru.
And mapping migration is far from a futile pastime. "Migratory birds are powerful signalmen. The advent of the monsoon, for instance, has been linked with the appearance of the Pied Cuckoo. Say, a species that visits a place every year, fails to make it this time, it's reason enough to investigate damage to local habitat," explains Singal.
App to report discovery of new species
New York-based Yasser Ansari of Indian-Pakistani origin is proof that entrepreneurs are designing conservation projects leveraged by the power and portability of mobile devices, instead of using social media as just an add-on. The 'Chief Leaf' of Project NOAH, a social network launched in 2010 to document all organisms of the natural world, launched an iPhone app that allowed users to upload pictures and data spotted in realtime. It soon became the number one educational app in America.
A team of five employees in the US, and 50 volunteer-moderators called Project NOAH Rangers, help young members edit content, identify species, while offering technical support. Users can log in through their existing accounts on Facebook and Gmail.
From his home in Sarahan Bushahr, Himachal Pradesh, Chime Tsetan, a science teacher, is able to log into Project NOAH's map, which lists all the 2.3 lakh wildlife spottings with location details, uploaded by its 1 lakh members.
It's this at-home, from-home advantage that Saptarishi Saigal is banking on. With his family planning a wedding soon, he's not sure how long it will be before he has to end his weekend tiger trails. But he knows he'll never be too far away from the blow-by-blow drama in the wild.
Priceless data
A Project NOAH user from India who identifies himself as Dipanshu snapped a photo of a flower (above) while hiking in Sikkim. He uploaded what he believed was an orchid, but baffled plant experts around the world. It turned out that it wasn't a new species, but one that had never been photographed. "So, now we have the only known photo of the Impatiens," says Ansari.
"Vacationers who visit Indian tiger reserves upload their pictures on Facebook anyway. We figured, why not use this data intelligently to keep a watch on the tiger population" - Julian Matthews, founder, tigernation.org
Want to save the tiger? Pay up
TigerNation calls itself a conservation-based business, with its website claiming it has raised private funds to set up cutting-edge technology worth millions. While current users are able to sign up for free or pay what they like, in the next three months, it will allow them limited access. "We plan to have premium subscription packages for research organisations that want to access our database. Once returns get sizable, we'll be able to pump it back into on-ground conservation," says founder Julian Matthews, who believes a fee will make members value the service enough to take it seriously.
"It's (effect of social media) a drop in the ocean, but it makes a difference in delivering facts, gaining eyeballs and changing perceptions. It allows you the chance to talk about issues that don't get picked up by mainstream IUndian media" - Vidya Athreya, biologist at the Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bengaluru
"While a social media presence that allows people to 'follow' or 'like' you is the latest fad for both, brands and social organisations, for it to work on ground, the objective must be linked to implementation" - Prasant Naidu, social media commentator
Saptarishi Saigal's week is a demanding one. The stockbroker with Aditya Birla Money Ltd., from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, spends Monday to Friday tracking the market's highs and lows. Come Saturday morning, the 29-year-old drives two-and-a-half hours to get to Bandhavgarh National Park, spends hours with villagers, and discusses depleting natural reserves with forest officials. Of the 90-odd villages along the periphery of the park that has the highest known tiger population in India, Saigal has managed to survey 25, and mediates between locals who lose their cattle to tiger attacks, and officials on issues of compensation and relocation.
This has been his routine since 2007.
Two weeks ago on a muggy afternoon, there was a breach in the schedule when Saigal spotted a tigress snuggling with her cubs. Christened Kankati (cut-eared) by the locals because of deep scars on her ears, her first litter has been fathered by Bamera, Bandhavgarh's dominant male tiger. A cautious Saigal pulled out his Nikon D700 to capture private moments of the family.
Find, shoot, upload
In the next few hours, the pictures were uploaded on www.tigernation.org, a two-month-old social networking site that wants to find and follow India's remaining wild tigers. Founded by British conservationist Julian Matthews, it allows its 1,000 members to sign up for free, create a profile and 'follow' their favourite tigers in Bandhavgarh and Ranthambhore, Rajasthan, while receiving real-time updates about their movement, via photographs, videos and blog posts uploaded on the hour.
"Vacationers who visit Indian tiger reserves upload their pictures on Facebook anyway. We figured, why not use this data intelligently to keep a watch on the tiger population," says Matthews.
TigerNation's core team includes experienced conservationists who identify tigers in every new upload, looking for a match in their database. The collated information makes its way to a special profile page created for each tiger. According to Matthews, Ranthambhore has 46 tigers (22 new cubs were born between October 2011 and May 2012) while Bandhavgarh has 26 identified tigers and several unrecorded ones. "The idea is to record every tiger in India through citizen photography. Mapping and tracking the population creates a better chance of survival," says Satyendra Tiwari, who runs a lodge in Bandhavgarh's Tala village, and is on TigerNation's team.
Coming up is the launch of a unique identification software that costs millions of pounds. Developed by Georgios Michalakidis, director of UK software development firm Thoughtified, it will help the team identify tigers based on their stripes; much like fingerprints.
Imitating Facebook
It's a win-win situation, the experts say, with this exhaustive database at the disposal of park field directors, border and intelligence agencies, NGOs and wildlife organisations. For the urban members, it's the lure of connecting with like-minded youngsters, sharing photos, receiving news feeds about gripping jungle drama, and playing a game that challenges them to compare tiger stripes — just like on Facebook.
"As with any social platform, gamification is an important element, and works as an incentive. We currently provide a 'badge system' that awards users for different activities. Tiger jigsaws and mobile apps that use augmented reality are in the pipeline," says Michalakidis. While the TigerNation site is still in beta testing stage, Matthews has plans to introduce role-playing next. Donning the park ranger's hat for a day, members get to locate missing tigers, make sure watering holes are clean and the feed, adequate. "It will help them realise the significant work done by forest officials, while offering them entertainment," he says.
Farmville has competition.
"It's about time," says Prasant Naidu, founder of Lighthouse Insights, a website that reviews brand campaigns that employ social networking. "Indians believe that if an NGO is talking about street children, you have to show them hungry, pathetic kids. How many times have we heard about the last 1,400 tigers? Let's talk about the ones that are there."
What's social media got to do with saving?
The idea behind people-powered conservation stems from the realisation that millions of Indians are using text, email, Twitter and Facebook to harness direct action. The power of instant worldwide communication can bail out India's endangered species, say experts.
And a recent press report should only make them happier. India is already the third largest Facebook market, and by 2015, we are expected to have more Facebook users than any other country in the world.
While a social media presence that allows people to 'follow' or 'like' you is the latest fad for both, brands and social organisations, for it to work on ground, the objective must be linked to implementation, insists Naidu.
Offline impact
Twenty-one-year-old New Delhi resident and engineering student at a college in Manipal University, Ramit Singal knows how that's done. A book on birds gifted by his dad when he was just 13, made him an avian fan. When a cement factory was expected to come up near his hostel, Singal knew it was bad news for migratory birds there. He uploaded a before and after photograph of the area on his Facebook profile, and received a 100 shares in just one day. Conservation India, a non-profit portal that facilitates nature conservation, jumped in. After four applications and repeated visits to the municipal authorities, an investigation was ordered, revealing that a tank in the facility contained dangerously high levels of fly ash. The construction has been halted till further notice.
Singal's pool of pictures find their way to migrantwatch.in, an online initiative that sees 1,500 members, including homemakers, students and businessmen across 31 Indian states, collect and share data on migrant birds. "Conservation initiatives depend on good quality data. Phenological monitoring projects like MigrantWatch, which aim to gather high volumes of field data over a large geographical area, cannot succeed without involving young enthusiasts. New media, spurred by access to the Internet and popularity of smartphones, is growing into a powerful tool," says Raman Kumar, ecologist and coordinator at MigrantWatch, that receives funding from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru.
And mapping migration is far from a futile pastime. "Migratory birds are powerful signalmen. The advent of the monsoon, for instance, has been linked with the appearance of the Pied Cuckoo. Say, a species that visits a place every year, fails to make it this time, it's reason enough to investigate damage to local habitat," explains Singal.
App to report discovery of new species
New York-based Yasser Ansari of Indian-Pakistani origin is proof that entrepreneurs are designing conservation projects leveraged by the power and portability of mobile devices, instead of using social media as just an add-on. The 'Chief Leaf' of Project NOAH, a social network launched in 2010 to document all organisms of the natural world, launched an iPhone app that allowed users to upload pictures and data spotted in realtime. It soon became the number one educational app in America.
A team of five employees in the US, and 50 volunteer-moderators called Project NOAH Rangers, help young members edit content, identify species, while offering technical support. Users can log in through their existing accounts on Facebook and Gmail.
From his home in Sarahan Bushahr, Himachal Pradesh, Chime Tsetan, a science teacher, is able to log into Project NOAH's map, which lists all the 2.3 lakh wildlife spottings with location details, uploaded by its 1 lakh members.
It's this at-home, from-home advantage that Saptarishi Saigal is banking on. With his family planning a wedding soon, he's not sure how long it will be before he has to end his weekend tiger trails. But he knows he'll never be too far away from the blow-by-blow drama in the wild.
Priceless data
A Project NOAH user from India who identifies himself as Dipanshu snapped a photo of a flower (above) while hiking in Sikkim. He uploaded what he believed was an orchid, but baffled plant experts around the world. It turned out that it wasn't a new species, but one that had never been photographed. "So, now we have the only known photo of the Impatiens," says Ansari.
"Vacationers who visit Indian tiger reserves upload their pictures on Facebook anyway. We figured, why not use this data intelligently to keep a watch on the tiger population" - Julian Matthews, founder, tigernation.org
Want to save the tiger? Pay up
TigerNation calls itself a conservation-based business, with its website claiming it has raised private funds to set up cutting-edge technology worth millions. While current users are able to sign up for free or pay what they like, in the next three months, it will allow them limited access. "We plan to have premium subscription packages for research organisations that want to access our database. Once returns get sizable, we'll be able to pump it back into on-ground conservation," says founder Julian Matthews, who believes a fee will make members value the service enough to take it seriously.
"It's (effect of social media) a drop in the ocean, but it makes a difference in delivering facts, gaining eyeballs and changing perceptions. It allows you the chance to talk about issues that don't get picked up by mainstream IUndian media" - Vidya Athreya, biologist at the Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bengaluru
"While a social media presence that allows people to 'follow' or 'like' you is the latest fad for both, brands and social organisations, for it to work on ground, the objective must be linked to implementation" - Prasant Naidu, social media commentator
Monday 22 August 2011
TIGERS!
TIGERS!When we say this word, we feel power in ourselfs. But now this animal is in danger.It is our national animal, something we should be proud of.So pleeeese! SAVE them.
TIGER- OUR NATIONAL ANIMAL
Already we have lost many specie of animals in last century. The animals are killed for commercial use,and for their skins.
In India in year1937 India had about 7000 tigers and now we have only 1411 tigers (estimated). Our national animal is extincting from our own country.Is there any one to save them. Can our next generation will be able to see tigers as we didn’t see many animals because no body was their to save them.
Can’t we take any precautionary measures against it. I know government has taken many measures to protect it but still it if not enough to protect them.
We have launched a campaign against protecting tigers in India and world . ( www.saveourtigers.com ) According to the estimates of biologist our tigers will soon extinct in year 2015.
We can do many things to save them please support us. In India many tigers reserves are there but still their extincting, we can provide more security to protect them, breeding of tigers all over the world , saving as many tigers as possible as from their illness by hiring vet.doctors, protecting their natural habitat as forest, etc. In some cases even government is responsible for the extinct of tigers in security purpose of tigers. Not only tigers are in endangered level of extinction but as well as lions of Africa and India, Blue whales in pacific ocean and sharks. Surely these fishes are killed to make cosmetic products from their skin and liver only for these thing they are killed. If one rich person dies all even after death he is there in news , television, etc. But if a animal dies we tell “we don’t care of animals they are the trouble on earth” is it good to say that. Even this generation does not have emotions against animals. If a animal kill’s a man you kill the animal back for protecting the man. eg : in Australia’s beach in 1980′s they killed many sharks when we asked why cause they started coming on the beach and tried to kill human . so they killed they sharks. so even if a human enters the region of animals and kills them illegally what we do? Nothing sit at home on a relaxing sofa holding a tea in hand and in other hand news paper and read and later forget it…. but if a animal kill’s a human when they go to office or any official they spread this animal is very bad it killed a human.
Think before telling anything.. How much important is each and every animal in ecosystem.human have brain to think but that poor, helpless animals what else they can do than dieing or escaping for this human world. we say animals come into the villages or cities.why do they come? Actually they don’t come we go in theirs area.
In India in year1937 India had about 7000 tigers and now we have only 1411 tigers (estimated). Our national animal is extincting from our own country.Is there any one to save them. Can our next generation will be able to see tigers as we didn’t see many animals because no body was their to save them.
Can’t we take any precautionary measures against it. I know government has taken many measures to protect it but still it if not enough to protect them.
We have launched a campaign against protecting tigers in India and world . ( www.saveourtigers.com ) According to the estimates of biologist our tigers will soon extinct in year 2015.
We can do many things to save them please support us. In India many tigers reserves are there but still their extincting, we can provide more security to protect them, breeding of tigers all over the world , saving as many tigers as possible as from their illness by hiring vet.doctors, protecting their natural habitat as forest, etc. In some cases even government is responsible for the extinct of tigers in security purpose of tigers. Not only tigers are in endangered level of extinction but as well as lions of Africa and India, Blue whales in pacific ocean and sharks. Surely these fishes are killed to make cosmetic products from their skin and liver only for these thing they are killed. If one rich person dies all even after death he is there in news , television, etc. But if a animal dies we tell “we don’t care of animals they are the trouble on earth” is it good to say that. Even this generation does not have emotions against animals. If a animal kill’s a man you kill the animal back for protecting the man. eg : in Australia’s beach in 1980′s they killed many sharks when we asked why cause they started coming on the beach and tried to kill human . so they killed they sharks. so even if a human enters the region of animals and kills them illegally what we do? Nothing sit at home on a relaxing sofa holding a tea in hand and in other hand news paper and read and later forget it…. but if a animal kill’s a human when they go to office or any official they spread this animal is very bad it killed a human.
Think before telling anything.. How much important is each and every animal in ecosystem.human have brain to think but that poor, helpless animals what else they can do than dieing or escaping for this human world. we say animals come into the villages or cities.why do they come? Actually they don’t come we go in theirs area.
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