SUMIT DOOKIA
Conservation of Indian Gazelle or Chinkara through community support in Thar Desert of Rajasthan, India.
Field team in Jodhpur area with all age representatives
School kids at a campaign site in Jodhpur Distt.
| Location | Country | Categories | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jodhpur, Nagaur and Bikaner districts | India | communities, Conflict, Farming, Indian Sub-continent, Mammals | 26 Mar 2008 |
Thar Desert is a unique bio-geographic part of India and holding almost 85% of world population of Indian Gazelle/Chinkara. It is included in schedule I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act (1972), and “Lower Risk/Conservation Dependant” of the IUCN Red Data List (2002).
Present remaining habitat found under stress due to over grazing and intense agricultural activities. The proposed study aims to conserve isolated populations and study of its population dynamics since it is an important source population for future conservation action plan. A network of volunteers will monitor the satellite populations and awareness will be increased in local communities.
Along with this, community level, under cover anti-poaching network is required to combat the poaching, as since 2-3 years, poaching is rampant at various places and this community oriented network will liaison and work with local governments’ anti-poaching team. Community groups will form to monitor isolated population clusters and their habitat, which are a potentially critical resource for survival of Chinkara. Conservation of such sites will help, to liaison for developing Community Conservation Areas. During this project student, local NGOs, village community groups and forest department staff will be trained and later involved for conservation action planning.
The study will further identify threats to the habitat; animal it-self and recommendations will be made for the protection of Chinkara. Special attempts will be started to collaborate with State Forest Department and Community leaders to declare some areas as Community Conservation Areas’ for long lasting conservation. Steps will be taken to support local communities and State Forest Department, to declare some areas as Community Conservation Areas (under Protected Area category). These CCAs’ will build up community-animal relationship stronger. That itself is a big contribution in targeting conservation measures for Chinkara.
For more information contact sdookia_gazelle@rediffmail.com
You can read about Sumit's previous RSG project at http://www.ruffordsmallgrants.org/rsg/Projects/SumitDookia