Agitating villagers promised a survey of land holdings

After a week-long closure, forced by an agitation by villagers living on the periphery, the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan's Alwar district has now re-opened for visitors. The stir, led by Bharatiya Kisan Union, proved yet another blow to the reserve, struggling to regain its past glory in the wake of re-introduction of tigers.

After Panna's successful rewilding, Sariska is sanguine

First there was the Sariska debacle in which all the tigers were found missing in the reserve in Rajasthan's Alwar district sometime in 2004-05. Then there was similar misfortune in Madhya Pradesh's Panna Tiger Reserve in February 2009 — the wild cats became extinct there.

Umri is the second village to be relocated allowing more space for wild animals

Almost five years after the first re-location of a village, inhabitants of another settlement inside the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan's Alwar district have moved out lock, stock and barrel, allowing more space for the wild animals and the existing population of tigers. The residents of Umri, village of Gujjar settlers, left last week for Rundh Mozpur, some 40 km away.

This time it is not merely crying wolf! The Indian Gray Wolf, inhabiting scrub lands and the ravines along the banks of the Central Indian rivers, needs protection. The immediate threat to the Indian wolf ( Canis lupus pallipes ), found along the banks of the Yamuna, Chambal, Banas and Mahi rivers, is the destruction of its habitat due to sand mining, cultivation and levelling of the ravines.

An initiative to save the State's community land

Rajasthan has pioneered an initiative to save its community land by preparing a draft policy. The State is the first to bring out a “Common Land Policy” on the lines of the National Policy for Common Property Resource Lands (Common Lands), 2002.

This is your empowerment, Gehlot tells women
Fighting the ignominy of being among the worst States in the country when it comes to mother mortality rate (MMR) and infant mortality rate (IMR), the Rajasthan Government on Monday launched a major initiative to protect newborns and mothers. Thousands of people including a large number of women turned up in this tehsil town to witness the launch, which Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot termed a “major step towards empowering women”.

If the one-time dacoit-ravaged, poacher-infested Panna National Park in Madhya Pradesh gives a complex to Rajasthan wildlife authorities and conservationists alike, that is all because of female fecundity.