NTCA may clear Tadoba tiger plan on Aug 26 Vijay Pinjarkar, TNN

NAGPUR: The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is likely to approve the tiger conservation plan for Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) on August 26.

The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, was amended in 2006 and a separate chapter added on to the NTCA which replaced 'Project Tiger'. This chapter has provisions (Section 38V) for preparing a tiger conservation plan (TCP), which includes staff development and deployment plan, for proper management of a tiger reserve.

The TCP of TATR will be discussed by NTCA on Friday. Along with TATR, TCP of Naxal-infested Indravati tiger reserve in Chhattisgarh will also be taken up. Prior to this, a meeting is scheduled on August 25 to discuss the TCPs of Satpura-Bori and Pench tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh.

Chief wildlife wardens and respective field directors will attend the meeting. A representative from Wildlife Institute of India (WII) will also be present.

Of the four tiger reserves in Maharashtra, TCPs for Pench and TATR were prepared in 2009. While the government approved the TCP for TATR and sent it to NTCA, it is learnt that TCP of Pench is still with the government.

"TCPs for Melghat and Sahyadri tiger reserves have not been prepared yet," officials said. The objectives of the TCP is to ensure protection of reserves and provide site specific habitat inputs for a viable population of tigers, co-predators and prey animals without distorting the natural prey-predator ecological cycle in the habitat.

Once approved by NTCA, the TCP will also aim at ecologically compatible land uses in the tiger reserves and areas near it for addressing the livelihood concerns of local population, so as to provide dispersal habitats and corridors for spillover population of wild animals from the designated core areas.

"The TCP will also ensure that forestry operations of regular forest divisions and those adjoining tiger reserves are not incompatible with the needs of tiger conservation," officials stated.