PATNA: Having lost a tiger and a leopard in incidents of man-animal confrontation in the recent past, officials of Bihar's Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) are working out a plan to make locals aware about the importance of preserving the wild animals.
For this, they have decided to take a group of villagers, to be selected from amongst members of 87 eco development committees functioning in the villages located in the vicinity of VTR, either to the Jim Corbett or Kanha Tiger Reserve.
The villagers, during their visit to either of these two tiger reserves, would be shown that how the forest and wild animals have become a major source of income for locals. Both these tiger reserves attract a large number of tourists every year which leads to pumping of crores of rupees in the local economy.
"We intend to send a group of about two dozen local villagers on the exposure visit so that they could themselves be witness to the fact that how the reserve can be a very good means of livelihood for them and that too without damaging the flora and fauna of the VTR," reserve director J P Gupta told TOI. He added that a proposal in this regard would soon be sent to the state government for approval.
As has been the trend in the past, the locals have been largely dependent on the forest resources for their livelihood. This has been a matter of concern because this dependence has adversely affected the conservation and protection moves in and around the VTR. So much so, that in some extreme cases villagers have even taken recourse to retaliatory measures against the wild animals treating them as a threat to their and their's cattle lives.
"The exposure visit to other tiger reserves where locals are earning healthy sums due to promotion of eco-tourism would certainly help in overcoming such feelings and also help in inculcating a feeling of responsibility among locals towards protecting the forest and wild animals," Gupta said.
The VTR director said a group of reserve's field personnel from the rank of forest guards to range officers would also be sent on such exposure visits.
"Protection measures taken by field personnel of other tiger reserves and their role as facilitators for tourists visiting the reserves are the two main aspects we want our field personnel to learn during the exposure visit," he said.
