LUCKNOW: Naxals are not posing any threat to tigers. This is the outcome of report submitted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority. The authority has come up with its final report of the detailed survey and study of all 39 tiger reserves conducted in 2010. The report, handed over to the MoEF last week, states that naxals are not posing any threat to tigers and wildlife in the reserves situated in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
The reserves in naxal-affected belts were clubbed separately in Cluster III for study. Unlike Manas in Assam, which had reported instances of rhinos getting auctioned by armed locals, tigers in the reserves lying in naxal affected states are not under threat by naxals. "We did not find any such instance," said RL Singh, former director, project tiger and chairman of the committee which studied cluster III reserves.
But this has not stopped the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) from recommending a security set up different from the remaining reserves for the said cluster. The reserves in the naxal-belt have come up with their own ways to boost the conservation of wildlife. Satkosia tiger reserve in Orissa, which was founded in 2007, has employed tribals and traditional forest dwellers in the conservation of wildlife.
In Andhra, tribals, 'chenchus', man the reserve. The forest departments have employed at least one young men or a women from each tribal family to patrol the area on a daily wage. A tribal earns some Rs 2,700 per month for patrolling and protecting the reserve area.
The ever-rising man-animal conflict, increasing incidence of wildlife crime, poaching threat and subsequent decline in number of tigers led NTCA to evaluate the reserves. All the 39 tiger reserves were divided into five clusters, state-wise and region-wise, for the exercise.
The five separate committees have studied the management plan of reserves, breedable population of tigers, status of staff, water conservation, prey base, utilisation of funds, the activities taken up by people living within and on the periphery of the forest, 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.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Naxals-posing-no-threatto-tigers-says-report/articleshow/9486868.cms
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