As the Union Minister of Forest and Environment, Jairam Ramesh, gets ready to preside over the inauguration of the two-day All India Tiger conference to be attended on Friday by top forest officials and wildlife experts from various Indian States in Jim Corbett National Park, wildlife poaching and environmental degeneration will not only be part of the discussion but appear as practical problems affecting the very venue of the meet.
According to a survey undertaken recently on the directions of the Union Tourism Secretary, Sujeet Banerjee, the tigers and other wildlife in Corbett Tiger Reserve area are facing problems resulting from uncontrolled human activities in the adjoining 77 tourist lodges.
While land in the Sunderkhal corridor linked with CTR has been taken over by those relocated from Tehri, another corridor area has been taken over by the tourist lodges, greatly affecting the movements of wildlife in CTR.
The survey revealed that though a maximum of 600 persons are allowed in a day to enter the CTR area, the tourist lodges provide boarding and lodging facility to 3,197. About 70 per cent of the visitors arriving in these tourists lodges aren’t here for ecotourism but for attending dance parties and other recreational activities which create noise and light pollution.
In addition, the garbage generated in 31 per cent of the lodges which are built on agricultural land adjoining CTR is dumped improperly in the ecologically sensitive region while garbage generated in 26 per cent of the lodges is simply burnt without any scientific regulation.
Even the Forest Department fleet of vehicles, used to ferry people in and out of the CTR area, consists of 26 diesel vehicles which cause unnecessary vehicular pollution in CTR.
Observers point out that although Uttarakhand claims to be encouraging ecotourism to capitalise on its environmental resources, unregulated tourist activities taking place have been causing damage to the environment and increased stress on wildlife including elephants.
The survey, which concluded in January, shows that unregulated human activities in the CTR area are damaging not only the environment but also increasing the threats faced by wildlife right in areas where they are meant to be protected.
While Ramesh presides over discussions involving top forest officials from 17 Indian States in the Jim Corbett National Park, it remains to be seen whether the conference is able to reach concrete decisions to stop the irreversible damage to our unique national wealth and environmental resources.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Gujarat opposes shifting Lions to MP
Amid the growing concern over the depleting tiger population in the country, Gujarat today opposed in the Supreme Court, the Centre’s proposal to shift the Asiatic lions from the Gir forest to the Kuno tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh.
The Gujarat government warned that relocating lions from Gir was fraught with “irreparable damage to the sociology of lions” and asserted that MP cannot manage the relocation as it had failed to protect its own tiger sanctuary.
“MP’s tigers are dying. It will be highly improper to shift the lions to Kuno reserve,” Mukul Rohtagi, the counsel for Gujarat told a bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and justices B S Chauhan and Chandramouli Prasad.
The Modi government argued that the people of the state take pride in the lion sanctuary. Any attempt to translocate them to Kuno “against the will of the people of Gujarat will cause irreparable damage to their conservation and cultural ethos.”
The Union Ministry for Environment and the Wildlife Board had come out with the relocation proposal on the ground that the lion population could diminish in the event of an epidemic outbreak as witnessed elsewhere in 1994.
“There were eight tigers at Kuno in 1992 and as stated by the July 21, 2009 affidavit by Madhya Pradesh, there is no significant population of tigers at Kuno,” argued the Gujarat government.
The state governemnt said that shifting the lions to Kuno will cause health problems to them as they would be prone to immune deficiency disorders. According to the Gujarat, government, the proposal for the translocation of lions is based on a false alarm/fear of an epidemic calamity on the specious arguments of the Gir lion’s genetic weakness.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/State-opposes-shifting-of-Gir-lions-to-MP-tiger-reserve/578860
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