Officials mull plan to bifurcate mangement of Tipeshwar wildlife sanctuary

Vijay Pinjarkar, TNN | Jan 18, 2012, 12.45AM IST NAGPUR: The Pench Tiger Reserve officials are working on a proposal to bifurcate management of Tipeshwar wildlife sanctuary in Yavatmal district from Pench. Being 180 km from Nagpur, the biggest problem of 148sqkm Tipeshwar sanctuary is its management. At present, Pench looks after the management of 61sqkm Bor wildlife sanctuary and 257sqkm Pench reserve and yet-to-start 183sqkm Mansinghdeo sanctuary. Except Tipeshwar, all these protected areas (PAs) are within reach. Due to its long distance from Nagpur, Tipeshwar is invariably being neglected. Of late, it is in the news for wrong reasons. On November 20 last year, a full grown male tiger was poached at Bodhbahattar village on the outskirts of Tipeshwar. In January first week, a tigress with two cubs killed a farmer Prahlad Madavi (55) near the sanctuary. On January 13, the same tigress with two cubs was sighted by passengers of a bus crossing the state highway to enter Tipeshwar sanctuary. The sanctuary in Pandharkawda has a forest division looked after by a divisional forest officer (DFO) but he has no control over the sanctuary. Four years ago, a proposal was prepared to hand over the sanctuary to Yavatmal Forest Circle by appointing ACF (Territorial), Pandharkawda, to wildlife and attaching the post to Pench field director. "This would have helped in better and independent monitoring of Tipeshwar. However, no steps were taken to take the proposal to its logical end," sources said. However, in a fresh move, a proposal is being worked out to put Tipeshwar and Painganga sanctuaries, both in Yavatmal, under Akola wildlife division by shifting the post at Pandharkawda or Yavatmal. Similarly, sanctuaries like Katepurna in Akola and Danyanganga in neighbouring Buldhana district, both looked after by Akola division, can be handed over to Akot wildlife division which already looks after Narnala, Wan and Ambabarwa sanctuaries in Melghat. All can be put under the control of Melghat chief conservator of forests (CCF). Sources said by doing this, the district of both the wildlife divisions will not change and it will be convenient for forest officials to deal with one district collector in case of issues like relocation and other management problems. From Yavatmal or Pandharkawda, Painganga and Tipeshwar sanctuaries will be around 100km and 60km respectively. Similar will be the case with sanctuaries under Akot division. "It will strengthen wildlife management and ensure better control," a section of conservationists felt. Meanwhile, state wildlife board member Kishor Rithe has written to principal secretary (forests) Praveen Pardeshi to deploy 24X7 monitoring teams for Tipeshwar tigers. He demanded the post of ACF (territorial) be handed over to wildlife and attach it to Pench field director. "We urgently need to design and implement an action plan for habitat improvement works in and around the sanctuary to increase the prey base," Rithe said. To explore the possibility of extending sanctuary area, considering the rationalisation of boundaries committee proposal, buffer should be created around Tipeshwar to implement eco-development programme (EDP) in surrounding villages. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Officials-mull-plan-to-bifurcate-mangement-of-Tipeshwar-wildlife-sanctuary/articleshow/11529566.cms