Rajasthan looks for more tiger habitats

[Mrudul Godbole]

News about more tiger habitats for Rajasthan.

Rajasthan looks for more tiger habitats
TNN, Aug 25, 2010, 03.23am IST

RANTHAMBORE: With instructions from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the state forest department has begun search for alternative tiger habitats in the state for a Sariska repeat. The instructions came during the recent visit of the director NTCA Rajesh Gopal following four instances of man-animal conflict in and around Ranthambore in the past four months.

The strategy is to disperse an ever growing tiger population on the overburdened national park so as to stop instances of man-animal conflicts mostly along the periphery of the park.

The Darrah (Kota) and Ramgarh Bishdoi (Bundi) sanctuaries have already been earmarked as potential places to house transient tigers from Ranthambore.


The article can be read at -http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Rajasthan-looks-for-more-tiger-habitats/articleshow/6429462.cms#ixzz0xhL1rOc0

[Lakshminarayanan Nataraja]

Shri. Kailash Sankhala - first director of project tiger and fierce conservationist was initially posted as a forester in Bundi and later he worked in Kota also.

He referred Bundi and Kota as wildlife deserts as the large mammals were completely wiped off. Even the peafowls were reported to be rare. All these observations were made during early 60s of the last century.

50 years have passed since Sankhala made these observations and Bundi's woes aggrevated steadily with rampant mining and emergence of townships.

It is really strange to note that those places are now identified as potential tiger habitats...These notifications really raises doubts on the habitat assesments our specialists are doing. Perhaps compromise prevails at an unacceptable levels or there is complete ignorance.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I wont be surprised if the average forest department official in the Rajasthan won't be aware of Kailash Sankhala or about his studies.

When Shri Rajesh Pilot was alive, he was agreeable to the proposal of re-connecting the Sariska and Ranthambhore reserves by creating a wildlife corridor. He knew that his own village falls on the corridor, despite that he was agreeable. We don't find such politicians. Unfortunately, God has got a habit of segregating the good and leaving the trash behind. I don't think anyone has got the vision or the political will to talk about reconnecting these two reserves. That would be a far better bet than wandering aimlessly in search of wildlife areas.