Readers of this blog will remember a project envisaged and initiated by the NDA govt under PM A B Vajpayee to link all rivers in the country to remove chronic problems of flooding and drought at the same time in different areas of the country. The project never took off as there was never a scientific consensus on whether it was a good idea or that it was feasible. Linking up tiger sancturies in the country though is a more feasible plan. And as we can all imagine before the population explosion of the last century destroyed key wildlife habitats large parts of the country formed one contigous forest cover wherein animal could roam freely. Bringing agenda to the table is a noble cause and a TOI report today cites it to be on the agenda of an MOEF meet at Sariska where the minister Jairam ramesh is likely to spell our further steps on conservation of critical tiger habitats. Before we talk about linking of sanctuaries though the govt would be well advised to be reminded that tiger parks themselves are under serious pressure and strain from various lobbies and population expansion.Case in point the Tadoba tiger area in maharashtra where the state govt has allowed mining to be expanded on a mindless scale and to top it shuffled offers fromkey posts as if to invite pochers to come in a finish the remainin wild life so that it becomes easier for the minigng lobby to take over the forests. If there arent any animals left to protect within the so called protected areas then little will be achieved out of connecting forest areas. The focus as of now should be maknig security inside tiger areas in the country foolproof so that further loss of animal can be stopped immediately.
Air corridors to link tiger reserves |
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