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View Full Version : New Ranthambhore road spells trouble for tigers



Mrudul Godbole
19-12-2009, 06:02 PM
The Ranthambhore National Park and Tiger Reserve is back on news again. On the one hand, the Rajasthan Government has submitted a proposal to the Centre for a tiger reserve at Darrah, but on the other, it is going to destroy a vital and only forest corridor between Ranthambhore National Park and Keladevi sanctuary (both fall under the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve) by building a new road between Sawata and Hadoti. This is a major threat to tiger conservation.

Wildlife experts and agencies like National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) have been stressing the importance of maintaining this vital forest corridor intact. The Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve comprises of three protected areas — Keladevi Sanctuary (about 600 sqkm) in the northeastern side, the Ranthambhore National Park in the middle (393 sqkm), and the Sawai Mansingh Sanctuary in the southern side.

Most of the tiger population is found in the Ranthambhore National Park but the surplus population (mostly young tigers in search of individual territories) migrates to Keladevi or Sawai Mansingh. The connectivity to these three protected areas is very important.

Unfortunately, this is not up to the desired level. A number of big and small villages dot the stretch between Ranthambhore and Sawai Mansingh sanctuaries.

Moreover, the highway passing through the corridor also adds to the problem. However, there is an unhindered corridor that exists between the parks and that passes through the Banas river. But this is going to be destroyed by the new road project. Heavy sand mining in the river spells trouble for the fragile ecosystem here. This part of the river, besides being a very important source of water for wildlife, serves the purpose of a crucial corridor for migration of wild animals vital for a healthy gene pool.

The proposed tiger reserve at the Darrah National Park, also called the Rajiv Gandhi National Park, consists of three wildlife sanctuaries — Darrah, Chambal and Jaswant Sagar. It was declared a national park in 2004 and is spread over an area of 250 km. It is also separated from Ranthambhore National Park by a 250-sqkm stretch of Ramgarh Vishdhari Wildlife Sanctuary.

Link - http://www.dailypioneer.com/222949/New-Ranthambhore-road-spells-trouble-for-tigers.html

Sabyasachi Patra
19-12-2009, 07:46 PM
Unfortunate.

Roads cut open our vital wilderness areas. Once roads are built, the traffic increases, the land grabbing starts. Constructions come up all along the road. The trees, bushes etc are cut for use as fire wood, timber etc. Along with people come cattle, and they compete with the herbivores for food....

Our wilderness areas are like our lungs. The forests release lot of moisture into the atmosphere. If moisture released is less, then it would impact the rainfall. Once there is less of rainfall then there would be increased desiccation and the few trees left would die.

We need to create alternate alignments for our highways. The commuting time these days have been reduced due to the better quality of roads. So longer distance should not be used a justification for cutting open our wilderness areas.

At one point of time, when Shri Rajesh Pilot was alive, he had talked about creating a corridor between Sariska and Ranthambhore, even though he knew that his constituency Dausa will get affected. Unfortunately, God take our good men sooner than we expect.

I hope better senses prevail and the present administration scrap this project.

You may please write to the present Chief Minister of Rajasthan Shri Ashok Gehlot at cm-ri@nic.in
Address for Letter:
Chief Minister’s Office,
Secretariat,
Jaipur 302005 (Raj.)
INDIA
Phone : +91(141)2227656, 2227716
Fax : +91(141)2227687
Email :cmraj@rajasthan.gov.in
cmo-rj@nic.in