(IN): Poaching unlimited at Simplipal park

July 28, 2009

Poaching unlimited at Simplipal park Minati Singha, TNN 27 July 2009,

10:25pm IST

BHUBANESWAR: Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR), one of the country's richest

eco parks, is facing double trouble. Four months after Maoist ravaged

the world

heritage site, not a single government official has visited it, leaving it

at the mercy of poachers and timber smugglers.

Currently, the reserve has 61 tigers as against 104 in 2004. Fearing more

damage to the forest, Mayurbhanj Forum, a wildlife activists' group, has asked

the state government to take immediate steps to protect the reserve. It has also

claimed that hundreds of sambhars, deer, tigers and other animals have been

killed and a large number of trees felled ever since the Maosists attacked the

park on March 28.

" Forty tigers have disappeared from the reserve in the past three years. Is

it not a matter of concern for the government? " said Bhanumitra Acharya, a

forum activist said.

" Since there is not a single police or forest official, poachers and timber

smugglers are having a free run at the park. Trees are being felled in

Nawana and Pithabata and smuggled to Baripada, Balasore, Keonjhar and

Karanjia, " he added.

Besides, the forum also blamed stone crushing units and illegal mining for

the rapid destruction of the reserve. " We have told the government several

times, but there has been no action yet, " Acharya added.

The forum also presented a video footage and photographs of scores of people

carrying timber and firewood on bicycles. " There is no effort from the park

authorities to stop them, " he said.

" I was one of the few persons, who reached the place after Maoist attack.

Not only Maoists, some migrant labourers from Jharkhand and Bihar as well,

are involved in the business. If police and forest officials stay away, it's

not possible to protect the world heritage site, " he said.

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