NAGPUR: Improving protected areas (PAs) management by involving communities with eco-development as one of its components is the best tiger conservation strategy but the tiger reserves in Vidarbha do not appear to believe in it. Disturbingly, all three tiger reserves in Vidarbha - Tadoba-Andhari, Melghat and Pench - have fared badly on community development work in recent evaluation of tiger reserves conducted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
The administration of three tiger reserves seems to have only now woken up to this aspect. The reserves, while giving emphasis on resettlement of villages from the core, also focused on protection but failed to concentrate on eco-development works in the villages in buffer zones. "Village eco-development was aimed at reducing negative impacts of locals on parks. This asks for participatory micro-planning of activities at the village level to help the forest department and villages decide on set reciprocal promises," says wildlife conservationist Prafulla Bhamburkar.
"It is sad yet true that our tiger reserves have not focused on systematic community development works," admits Kishor Rithe, member, National Board for Wild Life (NBWL). To ensure tiger reserves in Vidarbha get funds from NTCA for community development work under Eco-development Programme (EDP) and villagers employment through conservation works, on December 15, 2007, Rithe's Satpuda Foundation had submitted a proposal to the chief wildlife warden for preparing village micro plans around Melghat, TATR and Pench. However, nothing happened. The Foundation again submitted the proposal on January 2011, to the present chief wildlife warden who responded positively but no action resulted.
"We are doing a lot of community-based conservation work on our own around the tiger reserves but it does not get any place in official records and hence the parks could not fetch points allotted on this count," lamented Satpuda Foundation executive director Giri Venkatesan.
TATR field director V K Sinha admitted there was need to set up eco-development committees (EDCs) on the lines of joint forest management committees (JFMs). There is an administration order on EDCs but there is no formal government resolution (GR), on providing benefits to stakeholders. Conservationists say the tiger reserves should take the remark of NTCA evaluation committee seriously and learn lessons.
Nature Conservation Society Amravati (NCSA), which has developed a good community-based conservation model in buffer zone of MTR, stated that field directors really needed to count communities living in the buffer areas. "Earlier, field directors used to participate in the community meetings organized by NCSA and resolve many issues. However, the practice has stopped now," said Nishikant Kale, ex-president of NCSA. Officials have even started ignoring health initiatives started by NCSA exclusively for buffer villages since 2005, Kale added.
Kale said wildlife wing officials needed to learn from tiger reserves like Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) in Tamil Nadu where park administration was working with the communities and reducing biotic pressure on reserves. The NTCA evaluation of tiger reserves in Maharashtra put MTR at the eighth spot, ahead of high-profile tiger reserves like Corbett and Ranthambore and Tadoba and Pench at 14th and 15th spot.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Tiger-reserves-ignoring-local-communities/articleshow/7643363.cms
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