The cleaning session at Arekere (Dorsani Palya) Reserve Forest on Sunday 29th June 2014 had many of the morning walkers join the effort. The extra hands really helped the volunteers (who have pledged their support to the clean-up campaign) do more than they had expected.
However it was noticed that apart from plastic, a lot of rubbish, including wet waste, gets thrown from the road, over the compound wall. People are using this like a road side garbage dump! For a proper clean-up of this part, the group decided to engage paid labour or rag pickers.
With stray dogs frequenting the area, Prasanna wonders how long the hares will survive. The Forest Department and others will need to make a focussed and concerted effort to keep the dogs out and preserve the habitat for the hares so that they can breed. In the huge 130-acre area, surely if there is a will, it should be possible, with the support of the Forest Department.
We need to go beyond making the forest a beautiful place for walking and exercising. We need to save the hares that have made this their home. If you have any ideas on how the hares can be protected and would like to join the effort, please email Prasanna Vynatheya .
I have seen hares in a few of my friends' farms and on the roads between places around Bangalore and a little further away. My observations are:
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* The reasons are - hunting by humans and killing by dogs. Other reasons are loss of suitable feeding and burrowing places, this is brought about by extensive picking of bushes and cutting of small plants and trees for firewood or over grazing by goats etc.
* I believe that every farmer who sees hares on his property must and should think of ways of protecting them by growing very thorny bushes at some remote corner of the plot thus giving the hares a chance to at least raise their young. Of course there are more things to do as well.