The Hindu : `Works in KNP taken up as per norms'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 15, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

`Works in KNP taken up as per norms'

By Our Staff Correspondent

MANGALORE, MARCH 15. Habitat management and protection works in the Kudremukh National Park (KNP) are being carried out in conformity with the management principles as envisaged in the manual for wildlife management in protected areas prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India (document number IND-92/007), according to an official press release.

Referring to the contentions raised by J.N. Ashokavardhana of Arohana and Krishna Mohan Prabhu of the Western Ghat Force, the release said water, which percolated into the ground, appeared in the form of springs. Soil was the basic ingredient for plant growth. Hence, soil and water should be conserved. Patrol tracks were essential for protecting wildlife and forest wealth and to promote eco-tourism, the release said.

Community participation in protection of forests and conservation of wildlife was an internationally accepted fact, the release noted. Based on this fact, the State Government had issued a Government Order on people's participation in the form of setting up village forest committees and eco-development committees. Today, people's participation was a requirement in many a government scheme, it added.

The release said many non-governmental organisations, including the Kudremukh Wildlife Foundation of Mangalore, the Bhadra Wildlife Conservation Trust of Chikmagalur, and the Conservation of Wildlife and Heritage of Kodagu, had recently implemented projects of community leadership for tiger conservation using foreign funds. The implementation of the projects had been supervised by Ullas Karanth, wildlife expert, and coordinated by Praveen Bhargav of Wildlife First and Sanjay Gubbi of the Centre for Wildlife Studies. More details had been posted on the website, www.5tigers.org/STF/stfindia.htm, the release said.

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