NAGPUR: Enlivening hopes to ban tourism in core zones and critical tiger habitats (CTHs) of reserves, the Supreme Court (SC) issued notice to National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Madhya Pradesh government. The notices were waived on a special leave petition (SLP) filed by Advocate Gaurav Agrawal on Friday on behalf of Ajay Dubey of Prayatna, a Bhopal-based NGO working for environment protection for a decade.
"The SC has granted three weeks' time to respondents NTCA and the MP government to file their replies," Dubey told TOI.
The SLP was filed against the interim order of January 19, 2011 passed by the Jabalpur high court rejecting Dubey's prayer for barring all kinds of commercial tourism, hotelling and other human activities in the core and critical areas as notified in the tiger reserves of Madhya Pradesh.
The Jabalpur high court had ruled that tourism is not prohibited in the tiger reserves but is permitted subject to normative standards laid down by the NTCA. Keeping parks inviolate for the purposes of tiger conservation does not indicate banning of tourism.
The court had ruled that the word 'inviolate' used also does not imply complete prohibition or banning of tourism.
Inviolate is defined by approved lexicographers to mean 'unhurt', unpolluted and unbroken.
However, Dubey says the word 'inviolate' has to be read in toto i.e. after notification of the core or CTH by the government, the areas should kept as inviolate for tiger conservation. 'Inviolate' means without any disturbance by human beings. Tourism activity in such areas would mean violation of the NTCA guidelines.
The necessity for filing the writ petition had arisen because Madhya Pradesh, which is home to two-third of tiger population of the country, has in recent years, witnessed an unfortunate and sudden decline of tigers with the government succumbing to private and commercial interests.
Dubey had filed a PIL on banning tourism in core areas on September 8, 2010. Supreme Court has now brightened hope.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/SC-notice-to-NTCA-on-banning-tourism-in-core-area/articleshow/9434424.cms
Monday, August 1, 2011
Tigers' number in VTR down by two Abhay Singh , TNN
PATNA: Wildlife lovers in Bihar have some reason for concern. For, the tiger population in the state's only tiger sanctuary, Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) project area, has declined to eight in 2010 compared to 10 in the last tiger census done in 2006.
The pug-mark based 2006 count of the tigers in the state had put the figure at 10, with the lower and UP)per limits between seven and 13, respectively.
Overall, the number of tigers in the country has increased to 1,706 - an increase of around 20% over the 2006 figure of 1,411 tigers.
The current status of the tigers in the VTR project area has been brought out in the latest report called `Status of Tigers, Co-Predators And Preys In India, 2010' of the Union ministry of forest and environment released a few days ago. The 2010 census of the tigers in the country was done by applying a new technique called `photo camera strapping'.
The 2010 report, however, has not qualified the fall in the number of tigers over the four years in VTR as alarming. On the contrary, it has called the status of tigers as "stable". This report has also noted that the total "tiger km" in VTR has increased to 750 square km from 510 square km in 2006.
Significantly, the VTR forms geographically harmonious ensemble with what in the wildlife lingua is called `Shivalik-Gangetic Plain Landscape Complex'. It includes tiger reserves of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh (UP). Besides, the VTR is also contiguous with Chitwan National Park in Nepal.
Since as many as 142 villages are situated on the periphery of the VTR, the 2010 status report on tigers in the country has noted, "Despite the high human pressure, this area is able to sustain tiger population due to its proximity and connectivity to the source population of tigers in the Chitwan National Park in Nepal."
Even as the 2010 report has qualified the status of tigers in the VTR as "stable", there is need to conserve both the tigers and their habitat. Incidentally, deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, who reviewed the status of the VTR early this year, had announced to develop the VTR as a tourist spot. The slide in the count of tigers in the VTR has sprung a new situation that defies complacency.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Tigers-number-in-VTR-down-by-two/articleshow/9435751.cms
The pug-mark based 2006 count of the tigers in the state had put the figure at 10, with the lower and UP)per limits between seven and 13, respectively.
Overall, the number of tigers in the country has increased to 1,706 - an increase of around 20% over the 2006 figure of 1,411 tigers.
The current status of the tigers in the VTR project area has been brought out in the latest report called `Status of Tigers, Co-Predators And Preys In India, 2010' of the Union ministry of forest and environment released a few days ago. The 2010 census of the tigers in the country was done by applying a new technique called `photo camera strapping'.
The 2010 report, however, has not qualified the fall in the number of tigers over the four years in VTR as alarming. On the contrary, it has called the status of tigers as "stable". This report has also noted that the total "tiger km" in VTR has increased to 750 square km from 510 square km in 2006.
Significantly, the VTR forms geographically harmonious ensemble with what in the wildlife lingua is called `Shivalik-Gangetic Plain Landscape Complex'. It includes tiger reserves of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh (UP). Besides, the VTR is also contiguous with Chitwan National Park in Nepal.
Since as many as 142 villages are situated on the periphery of the VTR, the 2010 status report on tigers in the country has noted, "Despite the high human pressure, this area is able to sustain tiger population due to its proximity and connectivity to the source population of tigers in the Chitwan National Park in Nepal."
Even as the 2010 report has qualified the status of tigers in the VTR as "stable", there is need to conserve both the tigers and their habitat. Incidentally, deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, who reviewed the status of the VTR early this year, had announced to develop the VTR as a tourist spot. The slide in the count of tigers in the VTR has sprung a new situation that defies complacency.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Tigers-number-in-VTR-down-by-two/articleshow/9435751.cms
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