Search This Blog

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Rajasthan to get its 3rd tiger reserve, India its 39th

NTCa has given in principal approval to to the project Darrah National Park, some 50 kms from Kota reports TOI. Tigers from Ranthambore are slated to be relocated to Darrrah. The sanctuary also called Rajiv Gandhi National Park consists of three sanctuaries Darrah, Chambal and Jaswant sagar.
With tigers being killed across the country at a rapid pace, one way of saving the population is by bringing new areas under forest cover and repopulating them with tigers to offset the pressure on the existing few parks. An initiative like Darrah is certainly a good start.

Tigers will now roar at Darrah

More abandoned cubs found in Tadoba as forest workers take govt to court

Indicating loss of another tigress in Tadoba, four cubs were found abandoned by villagers a couple of days back. This is the 4such instance of a big cat going missing which in all likely hood has either been poached or poisoned. With Tadoba loosing tigers at a fast rate and the forest officials not being able to take effective steps to stem the killing the sanctuary is fast becoming favourite hunting ground for poachers. The reserves has also been in news recently for people in the area opposing mining activity and serious issues with relocation of villagers residing inside the park. A few months back the Maharashtra govt had transferred park officials across the state en masse without even appointing a replacement at Tadoba which came in only after a few months. One wonders whether the laxity has lead to this series of damaging losses. In a related development daily workers inside the park have filed a case in the Nagpur high court demanding details how the money received from Centre and NTCA has been spent by park administration. The case filed after the park ran out of money whic left many workers unpaid this despite the centre having released almost 11 Crs for TATR recently. The high court has ordered the state govt to file an affidavit on how the funds have been spent.

Panna gets a tiger from Pench

After the park lost all its tigers recently, one by one the govt is repopulating it by transferring tigers from other reserves. After two tigresses were settled in Panna, a tiger was shifted recently from the nearby Pench National park. After the controversy over relocations carried out from Ranthambore to Sariska where the tigers were found to be siblings, one hopes the govt has taken adequate care to avoid repeat of such instances.

Another wildlife racket busted

The CBI today arrested 7 people from across the country and claim to have busted another wildlife racket. Some of the the arrests were made in Nagpur where the team also siezed tiger skin and bones clearly indicating poaching gangs still running free in the area.

Wildlife racket busted; tiger, otter skins seized