(IN): NDTV impact: Buffer zone for Tadoba Tiger park

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http://tiger.ndtv.com/storypage.aspx?id=NEWEN20100140121

 

NDTV impact: Buffer zone for Tadoba Tiger park

*NDTV Correspondent*

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*It is a big victory for NDTV-Aircel's Save our Tigers campaign. A day after

NDTV ran a story on how the the Tadoba Andheri Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra

is fighting multiple problems in the absence of crucial buffer zone

notification, the Maharashtra government has finally acted.

 

Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has now cleared the notification files, which

means that activities like mining and industries will now be totally out of

bounds in the buffer zone of the Tadoba Tiger reserve.

 

" Yes we have given clearances for some buffer zones. I have cleared the

Tadoba proposal. We need to have buffer zones as suggested by the Ministry

of Environment and Forests ( MoEF ). We are doing that, " said Chavan.

 

This move will certainly go a long way in securing the 625 square kilometre

protected forest in Chandrapur which is home to over fifty tigers, a

sanctuary shattered by the hostile coal mines that surround it on at least

two sides.*

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*ALSO SEE:*

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http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/tiger-reserve-surrounded-by-coal-mines-22109.php

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Reserve surrounded by coal mines

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Friday April 30, 2010, Tadoba

 

Looking at the coal mine trucks that dominate the dusty roads in Chandrapur,

it's hard to tell that the main road that leads to the Tadoba Andhari Tiger

Reserve goes through this. But before you get there, the open cast mine will

greet you first. We crossed the Padmapur Open-cast mine that really looks

like a crater, and it's by no means an exaggeration.

 

The 625 square kilometre protected forest in Chandrapur called the Tadoba

Andhari Tiger Reserve is home to over fifty tigers, a sanctuary that's now

shattered by the hostile coal mines that surround it on at least two sides.

 

Recently the Prime Minster wrote to Maharashtra asking it to notify the

crucial buffer zones around tiger parks because in the Tadoba Reserve there

is a need for more space.

 

In fact it was in the crucial tiger corridor in the Lohara village that the

Adani coal mine was suppose to come up. There was large scale public protest

against the mine. Bandu Dhotre who led the agitation told us, " The mine

would have taken up 10,000 acres of tiger habitat. Why just the tiger, it

would have taken up the habitat of other animals as well since the tiger

corridor would have been completely destroyed. "

 

Permission for the mine was finally denied by the Union Environment

Minister.

 

Buffer zones are specially notified areas around parks or reserve forests

that are meant to divide the park from areas of human pressure. Putting a

law in place for buffer zones is mandatory, yet the Maharashtra state

government has continued to drag its feet on it for over two years.

 

This division is of vital importance as by law any activity like mining or

others that destroy the habitat have to be kept at least ten kilometres from

the buffer zone which helps protect the parks habitat.

 

Without this notification the Tadoba buffer zone is not yet legally out of

bounds for mines and industries.

 

While mining activity is Tadoba's biggest problem, over the last one year,

the man-animal conflict has also escalated particularly in the eastern side

of the reserve with 14 people and 4 tigers dead.

 

Harshawardhan Dhanwatey, President of the Tiger Research andConservation Trust

or TRACT, says, " Tadoba has 60 odd villages and 20-25 years ago, the

population was not more than 100/80 people. Today the population has gone up

by three times. The impact of these villages on Tadoba is quite a bit.

Grazing a big problem here because there is a lot of cattle that these

villages own and it is contributing to the degradation of forest. Clearing

of bamboo also contributes to degradation. This lessens the forest cover

which in turn lessens the forest cover.

 

All this also increases the possibility of encounters.

 

But battling the many problems is not easy given that the team that mans the

forest is, itself, understaffed.

 

" Unfortunately the status of the forest staff is not up to the mark. At

present we have 5 RFO postings out of which 3 are vacant and we want to

increase the posts of RFOs as well as forest guards. Right now, there are

only 34 beats. The size of each beat on an average, therefore, is very

large. Almost, one beat guard has to protect an average area of 1848

hectares which is certainly a big area to protect, " says Sanjay Thakre,

Field Director, Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve.

 

It's a miracle that the tiger population has survived these man-made traps

when it desperately needs man-made ecological fillip to thrive and grow.*--

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