The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Fresh ideas, interventions to save the tiger

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 28, 2007
ePaper


<SCRIPT language='JavaScript1.1' SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N4322.hinduonline/B2155503.3;abr=!ie;sz=468x60;ord=[timestamp]?"> </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT> <A HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/N4322.hinduonline/B2155503.3;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=468x60;ord=[timestamp]?"> <IMG SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/N4322.hinduonline/B2155503.3;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=468x60;ord=[timestamp]?" BORDER=0 WIDTH=468 HEIGHT=60 ALT="Click Here"></A> </NOSCRIPT>

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Fresh ideas, interventions to save the tiger

Alladi Jayasri

Forest Department preparing tiger conservation plan

BANGALORE: Tiger conservation in Karnataka, one of the States with a robust tiger population in the wild (about 400), is to be infused with fresh ideas and innovative interventions in science as well as management of forest space.

Taking forward the tiger conservation agenda set forth by the recently constituted National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the Forest Department is getting ready to prepare the Tiger Conservation Plan covering the four tiger reserves as well as other forest areas where tigers are found, A.K. Verma, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden, told The Hindu .

The NTCA, constituted as per the recommendation of the Tiger Task Force that went into the reasons for the failure of the Project Tiger in some of the tiger reserves, has asked the States where the 29 tiger reserves are located, to constitute a steering committee headed by the respective Chief Ministers.

The States are required to prepare a Tiger Conservation Plan, tailored to suit the needs of each tiger reserve, and establish a Tiger Conservation Foundation, based on the good practices emanating from some tiger reserves.

The Forest Department has written to the Government pressing for the creation of the steering committee, and the Tiger Conservation Foundation, and is in the preliminary stages of drafting the Tiger Conservation Plan, Mr. Verma said.

He said drawing up the conservation plan would now be a challenging task — the funding for the tiger reserves (Project Tiger is a centrally-sponsored scheme) has trebled from Rs. 30 crore to Rs. 104 crore a year, and though the four tiger reserves are to be the main focus, the NCTA expects the State Governments to go beyond the borders, as it were, to do all it takes to protect the tiger within or outside the reserve. That will mean Rs. 2 crore a reserve annually, to be matched by the State Government.

Besides Karnataka's track record in wildlife protection and tiger conservation has been good, and it has always attracted the best in terms of scientific intervention from the research wing, Mr. Verma pointed out. The old radio and communication equipment in the Bhadra, Bandipur and Nagarahole Tiger Reserves have been replaced with state-of-the-art high frequency radios. The fourth reserve, Anshi National Park, which has just been declared a tiger reserve, and is due to be inaugurated shortly, will also sport these sets.

As part of toning up protection and anti-poaching drives, recruitment of guards to create new anti-poaching camps, and regularising these jobs has been taken up. At another level, workshops have been organised for judicial officers and the enforcement wings on wildlife crimes, and intelligence gathering, Mr. Verma said.

While the Department needs around 500 forest guards to be deployed in 6,319.33 sq. km of forests that Karnataka boasts, 50 per cent of the posts are vacant. Recruitment of 100 guards is likely soon, Mr Verma said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka

News Update

Stories in this Section