LA POLITIQUE SUICIDAIRE DE LA "PROTECTION" DES TIGRES CONTRE LES RIVERAINS EST ENCORE A L'ORDRE DU JOUR EN INDE. Source : Times of India, ce jour.
COIMBATORE: Hardly a month after Sathyamangalam wildlife sanctuary was converted as the state's fourth tiger reserve, rights activists and green groups in the
region are now at loggerheads over the future of these forests. While green groups want human settlements inside the forest to be shifted out, rights groups, which represent more than 10,000
tribals inside the forest, say tiger reserve status is illegal as it violates key provisions of Forest Rights Act and Wildlife
Protection Act.
Welcoming the tiger reserve status, Tamil Nadu green movement leader, S Jayachandran is demanding removal of more than 200 tourist resorts that came up in core areas of the reserve- Kongalli,
Hassanur, Mavanatham and Araiya Palayam. He
also said a few temples and makeshift shops came up inside the forest posing a threat to wildlife in the area. According to Jayachandran, many people gather at temples frequently, which disrupts
wildlife.
Meanwhile, K Balamurugan of Tamil Nadu
unit of People's Union for Civil Liberties
(PUCL) has openly demanded scrapping of the tiger reserve status. "The notification in this regard is fast converting the regions into a conflict area between local inhabitants and the forest
department. By doing so, the government has committed several illegalities and blatant violations of Wildlife Protection Act 1972 as amended in 2006 and the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional
Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest
Rights) Act 2006,'' he said.
"The Wildlife Protection Act was violated
through the arbitrary demarcation of the reserve. The process of recognition and determination of rights under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest
Rights) Act 2006 has not been initiated and completed in this area. The inhabitants were not consulted and their 'consent' was not obtained as mandated by the law. No consultation was held with
'an ecological and social scientist familiar with the area' to determine the area where there are no options for co-existence to be designated as Critical Tiger Habitat (CTH) and where
co-existence is possible as buffer area,'' he pointed out. "No resolution from the Gram Sabhas has been obtained as required under Forest Rights Act," he added.
Meanwhile, K Kalidasan of NGO Osai has welcomed the decision saying the tiger reserve status would help end poaching and protect rich flora and fauna of the region. "It is the culmination of a
long pending demand. Other than tigers, it has a huge number of elephants and vultures which require protection. It also functions as a link between a number of forest divisions in Kerala,
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu,'' he said.
Bhavanisagar MLA P L Sundaram said a mass agitation is in the offing as the tiger reserve status was accorded in a way affecting livelihood of traditional forest dwellers. "It is not the
tribal people but the forest department itself that is becoming enemies of the tigers,'' he said.
DANS LE MEME TEMPS, LA RESERVE DE SARISKA AU RAJASTHAN S'APPROVISIONNE AUPRES DU MADYA PRADESH VOISIN, AUX RISQUES ET PERILS DES TIGRES INTRODUITS. La région avait perdu ses tigres au début de ce siècle à l'issue d'une politique administrative ayant brisé un lien parmi les plus harmonieux au monde existant entre tigres et hommes dans l'Histoire, comme l'avait brillamment mis en lumière, quelques années auparavant, l'anthropologue Pedro Galhano Alves.
Source : Times of India, ce jour.
JABALPUR: Madhya Pradesh tigers could soon be heading for Rajasthan to repopulate the Sariska sanctuary. The decision has already been taken at a meeting of the technical committee of National
Tiger Conservation Authority on February 27 and the final shifting will commence after getting over procedural formalities and fine-tuning the plan. Confirming this to the TOI on Wednesday,
forest minister Sartaj Singh said.
"MP would not mind giving away the tigers as it has seen a major spurt in the numbers recently. Our forests are teeming with them .... so much so that it is becoming increasingly difficult for
the department to manage them. The government, therefore, would go along with the NTCA's decision".
When quizzed about the time frame and exact number of tigers to be sent across the border, the minister claimed he had no clue." It would be decided at Delhi and not by us," he said.
Interestingly, principal chief conservator of forest, wildlife, PK Shukla contradicted the minister. "The final decision has not yet been taken. We have merely received a request from Sariska,"
he said.
When confronted with the minister's statement, the official demurred and said the modalities are not finalized. "We may insist on an exchange programme," Shukla said.
After being pipped by Karnataka, MP has been trying hard to regain its status of tiger state. All its parks and sanctuaries, including the Panna Tiger Reserve, which was wiped clean by poachers
along with Sariska in 2003-04, have registered a baby boom, officials claimed. Shukla had himself claimed that the increase in numbers would not be less than 15 percent.
The figure by all India population estimate of tigers and co predators in Kanha alone, officers confide, was 60 in 2010. It has shot up to 78 in 2011-12 and this time the survey was conducted
only over the 940 square km as against 3162 earlier. Now the number of cubs is well over 17, they claimed.
In Bandhavgarh tigers are straying off to adjacent villages and have become a local menace and chief conservator forests Rajesh Singh puts the number of cubs and adults at 70. However, the move
has wildlife lovers up in arms. Questioning the veracity of official claims about a population explosion among big cats, activist Ajay Dubey said that MP has not yet recovered its lost numbers
and, therefore, was not in a position to indulge in such charity. Slamming the minister, Dubey said that Singh has failed to ensure safety of tigers and quoted the growing figures of
electrocution deaths and poaching, which has claimed lives of six tigers in last one year - the highest number in India.
