Journalism of Courage
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This is an archive article published on June 10, 2009
On wastelands: scorpions losing bite,owls their diet
The wastelands,called padik zameen in the local parlance,on the outskirts of Pune are just pieces of degraded lands that do not fulfil their life-sustaining potential for many.
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The wastelands,called padik zameen in the local parlance,on the outskirts of Pune are just pieces of degraded lands that do not fulfil their life-sustaining potential for many. But not for environmentalists who for the first time have studied and located eight species of scorpions in these lands,which are rapidly being utilised for construction and other purposes.
City-based experts Dr Satish Pande,trustee of the Ela Foundation,and Dr Anand Padhye,Reader at the Department of Zoology at Abasaheb Garware College,among others,have strongly recommended an environment impact assessment before undertaking development projects on wastelands. Loam and stones on hilltop and hill slopes are mostly preferred by scorpions. These are followed by scrubland with stones. Currently,these habitats are considered as wasteland by the state and are earmarked for development projects such as plantation,beautification and urbanisation,which will lead to habitat loss, says Pande.
He says the mobility of scorpions is restricted and converting these wastelands for other purposes without environmental assessment studies can not only have an adverse effect on the population of scorpions but also have repercussions on their predators like owls.
Pande,Padhye,Amit Pawshe,M N Mahajan and D B Bastawade of the Zoological Survey of India worked on this study and had presented their findings on habitat preferences,diversity,mobility,population estimates and conservation implications of scorpion fauna of Saswad-Jejuri,in western India at an international conference in Romania.
We have shown that wastelands can be a very important habitat and modifications of use for different purposes can lead to disastrous consequences, Pande said. The environmentalists found at least eight species of scorpions in Saswad and Jejuri areas in Purandar taluka of Pune district.
The environmentalists encountered scorpions and separately colour-coded them with a touch of oil paint of four different colours. Whats more,the pilot studies showed that the colour on the scorpions did not disappear up to three weeks after marking. After three weeks,they were again re-sampled and marked.
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