TCF is partaking in Sanctuary Asia's social media campaign to stop Tiger Temple in Thailand from getting a zoo permit - ultimately allowing to keep 500 tigers captive and propagate illegal trade and abuse of captive tigers. The campaign #TigerTempleTakedown urges citizens and tourists - past and potential - to take down photographs and selfies promoting Tiger Temple and spread the word.
The Corbett Foundation alongside several national and international NGOs at the 3rd Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation from April 12 to 14, 2016 in New Delhi urges Ministers to commit, at this meeting, to a 'Zero Demand' approach to the illegal international trade in tiger parts in a bid to achieve 'Zero Poaching'. The undersigned in this document draws attention to the captive facilities in various countries as a source of tiger parts and derivatives and appeals to legislators to challenge the "legality" of such processes, the ecological consequences of which are devastating.
The Corbett Foundation received the Best Responsible Tourism Project Award for it's "Tribal Museum" during the MP Tourism Awards 2016 held in Bhopal on 15th October. The award was presented by the hon'ble Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh in presence of other dignitaries and received by TCF's Baiga colleagues from Kanha. The Baiga community from Bandhatola village in the buffer zone of Kanha Tiger Reserve, manage the Tribal Museum through Mukki Eco Vikas Samiti - a Self Help Group facilitated by TCF. All earnings of this Tribal Museum go to this SHG.
USHA International Ltd. and The Corbett Foundation have collaborated to launch the 'Silai School' Programme at Kanha Tiger Reserve. The first batch comprises ten women entrepreneurs from the local community, who will be trained in tailoring a variety of garments, and further, to become master trainers in the Silai School that they will establish in their villages. USHA has sponsored a sewing machine for each trainee and advanced training in this skill. The training will be conducted at TCF's Conservation Centre in village Baherakhar on the outskirts of Kanha Tiger Reserve.
A community-based solar fencing project has been initiated to protect standing crops in farms adjacent to Kaziranga Tiger Reserve from being destroyed by foraging wild elephants. Villagers have contributed labour and provided bamboo posts to erect a 4 kilometer-long solar-powered fence enclosing more than 3000 bighas of farm land. A sense of community-ownership and the addressing farmer welfare ensures the project's sustainability, while allowing for unhindered movement of wild elephants beyond forest boundaries.
We are delighted to announce the release of our latest publication, 'A Field Guide to Insects and Spiders of Kanha Tiger Reserve'. Authored by Aniruddha Dhamorikar, this book contains an exhaustive coverage of over 600 species of insects and spiders in Kanha Tiger Reserve in Central India, with accompanying photographs from the field - an outcome of nearly three years of intense fieldwork. This publication is available for purchase at TCF's e-shop.
TCF's publication of the first-ever coffee table book on the Great Indian Bustard was released by Ms Aban Marker Kabraji, Regional Director, IUCN Asia at The IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC) in Hawaii on September 4, 2016, in the presence of other esteemed delegates and dignitaries. 'Great Indian Bustard - A Pictorial Life History' is authored by Dr. Asad Rahmani and co-authored by Devesh Gadhavi and Kedar Gore, and is available for purchase at TCF's e-shop.
Thanks to Bajaj Auto Ltd., TCF has now added three mobile pathology labs to its Rural Medical Outreach Programme, making affordable pathological testing and diagnosis available to even remote villages.
Supported by TOFTigers, Steppes Travel and The Tribes Foundation, six individuals from around Kanha Tiger Reserve have been appointed Village Wildlife Guardians. They work closely with the Forest Department, monitoring and reporting human activity in and Around Kanha Tiger Reserve, aiming to curb any activity that undermines conservation efforts in and around Kanha Tiger Reserve.
TCF has, on a pilot scale, facilitated residents of 3 villages around Corbett Tiger Reserve in cultivating Chamomile - a crop that is not only economically lucrative but is also unpalatable to crop-raiding wild herbivores. As a result, fields full of Chamomile cultivation have been left untouched by wild crop-raiders - a desirable outcome for the mitigation of human-wildlife conflict.
Preserving What's Precious is a project with a holistic approach to tiger conservation with the involvement of local communities, in Bandhavgarh Sanjay Dubri Corridor in Madhya Pradesh. TCF is extremely grateful to Jet Privilege Pvt. Ltd. for its support for this venture that will certainly bring in a necessary change in the wildlife conservation space, as well as in the lives of the local communities!
