LUCKNOW: The eight tiger reserves identified to be lying in naxalite affected belt of the country will go in for management effectiveness evaluation this August. The three-member team of experts constituted by NTCA will start from Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam (Andhra Pradesh) on August 10 and move on to Palamau (Jharkhand), Similipal, Satkosia (Orissa), Indravati, Achanakmar, Udanti-Sitanadi (Chhattisgarh) and Valmiki (Bihar).
"We have to visit five states -- Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. We have planned to give at least a month to one state," said R L Singh, former director, Project Tiger, GoI and the chairman of one of the five committees set up for evaluation of reserves. National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), in May, had come up with the project. It has roped in wildlife experts, researchers, conservationists and activists to field visit all 39 reserves in the country and evaluate the effectiveness of their management plans.
The meeting of the study-teams and project tiger officials held on July 7 worked out the nitty-gritties of the project. The project report is to be submitted by December, 2010. The ever rising man-animal conflict, increasing incidents of wildlife crime, poaching threat and subsequent decline in number of tigers has led NTCA to design the said project. "A decade back there were 4 crore tribals living in forests, their number now has shot up to 11 crore," said Singh.
Singh, along with two members of the committee -- one from forest research institute and other from WII -- will evaluate Cluster-III reserves, all of which lie in naxal-affected areas. All 39 tiger reserves of the country have been divided into five clusters, state-wise and region-wise, for evaluation. The five committees, each having a chairperson and two members, will monitor the reserves on Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) framework and assessment criteria independently.
"Prime focus would be on figuring out if there is a sizable, breedable population of tigers present in reserves," said Singh. The status of the staff, water conservation and prey base will also be studied. The management plans for different reserves can then be changed on the basis of the project report with their basic plan being same.
The management evaluation will include finding out if the staff posted at the reserve is trained and if it is deployed in sufficient number. The vegetation in reserve area, if it is more of weeds or palatable grasses, will also be checked to understand technique for regeneration of indigenous vegetation.
The committees will have to see whether the funds allocated to reserves are being used effectively for meeting the objectives of management as laid down in the respective tiger conservation plans. Besides, what activities have been taken up by people living within and on the periphery of the reserve area, status of poaching, cattle-lifting incidents, amount of compensation decided for the victims of tiger attacks by different states and efforts taken up the states for village translocation will all be evaluated independently for each reserve.
No comments:
Post a Comment