Tourism in TATR has not affected tigers: Forest dept

Vivek Deshpande : Nagpur, Fri May 10 2013
Recent media reports of tourists overcrowding Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) and blocking the movement of tigers seems to have miffed nature lovers but not the forest department. The department sees the issue as increased visitor interest in wildlife.

Principal Secretary (Forest), Pravi Pardeshi, clarified that only 20 per cent of TATR area that has six tigers is open for tourists. "The remaining area has 42 tigers. So it would be a sweeping comment to say that all tigers in TATR are exposed to crowding tourists," he said.

The media reports had raised the hackles of tiger lovers and conservationists. So much so that Rural Development Minister Jayant Patil, himself a nature lover, had written to Forest Minister Patangrao Kadam expressing his anguish.

Asked if these six tigers have to face tourist menace, Pardeshi said, "Not at all. The fact that tigers merrily walk through the crammed tourist vehicles means that the animals are not bothered by their presence. Else it would have shied away from people like most wild tigers in deep interiors do," Pardeshi said. He said these tigers and other wildlife have got used to human beings.

Stressing the importance of tourism, Pardeshi said, "The most important takeaway of tourism ist that tourists are converted into harcore non-systemic conservationists, who plea the tiger's case to outside world."

He said tourists crowding places of tiger sighting is commonplace in all tiger reserves. "In reserves like Pench (MP), Kahna and Bandhavgarh, they had even used elephants to track down tigers and corner it for the tourists to see. In Maharashtra, we never used that method," he said.

He said the earnings from tourist visits are useful for conservation and habitat development. "TATR tourist revenue went up from Rs 48 lakh to Rs 3 crore in the last one year. We have a fixed number of vehicles going in every day. All our days are generally fully booked. The revenue is also used to develop 79 villages in the buffer zone," he said.

However, he averred that unruly or overenthusiastic tourists are always present in the crowd. "We have instructed the guides who are local tribal boys not to stop at the sighting place for than five minutes. Their livelihood depends on making their clients happy," Pardeshi said.

He said in view of problems from tourists, the waterholes for wildlife have been shifted from the roadside to a little inside.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/tourism-in-tatr-has-not-affected-tigers-forest-dept/1113908/0

Making space for the tiger a reality

PRAVEEN BHARGAV

WAY OUT: A participatory community-based tourism plan can help reduce pressure on core areas.
Photo: Special Arrangement

Promoters of development projects in forest areas can be made to compensate by creating buffer zones around sanctuaries through minor modifications to the Forest Conservation Act guidelines
The contentious issue of notifying buffer areas around tiger reserves came under sharp debate when the Supreme Court issued interim directions to stop tourism in core or Critical Tiger Habitats (CTHs) and notify buffer areas. However, after the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) filed comprehensive guidelines on tiger conservation and tourism on October 15, 2012, the Supreme Court permitted the reopening of tourism strictly in accordance with the guidelines. Visitation is now permissible in existing tourism zones subject to a maximum of 20 per cent of core areas being used. But the important issue of creating viable buffers around a core area lost focus even though the NTCA guidelines harp on its importance to sustain tiger populations.

In most tiger reserves, core areas comprise notified sanctuaries and/or national parks, which are to be managed as areas free of incompatible human activity. Reserved forests, deemed forests and other unencumbered government land with some vegetation immediately abutting the CTHs are to be notified as buffer areas, which can act as “shock absorbers” for core areas.

Viable buffers

While notifying such contiguous forests as buffer areas may be relatively easy, the real challenge is in creating viable buffers wherever private agricultural lands abut core areas. Merely notifying such areas as buffer or peripheral areas without any viable habitat, as is being done now, may not only fail to deliver the imagined benefits for tiger conservation but also lead to hostility and loss of support from the local community.

Yet, acquiring large extent of private land abutting tiger reserves, to insulate the entire core area with a complete “wrap around” buffer that can support wildlife might be impractical. So is there a way forward to resolve this important issue?

An innovative mechanism can be created within the current legal framework with some very minor modifications to the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 Guidelines. This could greatly contribute to creating additional areas as viable forested buffers around tiger reserves.

Presently, most development project promoters seeking diversion of forest land for a non-forestry purpose have to identify an equivalent area of non-forest land. This has to be transferred and mutated in favour of the forest department for declaration as reserved forest/Protected Forest (PF). The project must also deposit funds for taking up compensatory afforestation in such lands. Stage II clearance under the Forest Act is to be granted only after compliance of this important condition. As far as possible, such areas should be contiguous with reserved forests for effective management. This is mandated under Chapter 3 of the Act’s guidelines.

Legal loophole

Unfortunately, in most cases, this important condition is relaxed based on certification by the State that sufficient/appropriate non-forest land is not available. In such cases a simpler condition of compensatory afforestation in degraded forest land twice the area diverted is insisted upon. This legal loophole has meant the loss of an excellent opportunity to create viable buffer areas as State governments routinely provide this exemption to most projects.

To facilitate the creation of viable forested buffers, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) must first revise the current guidelines appropriately to plug this loophole. A new mechanism must then be created whereby the Tiger Reserve Authority in each tiger reserve State identifies private (non-forest) land immediately abutting a reserve, based on scientific and objective criteria, to be developed as ecologically viable buffers.

Private enclosures within contiguous reserve forests can also be identified. This data must be shared with development project promoters to explore the possibility of them privately acquiring the lands to comply with the Forest Act guidelines.

There could be two possible scenarios under which this idea could be enabled:

1. The owner(s) of such identified farm land may be willing to sell the land at prevailing market prices (which the project proponent /owner mutually agree upon as in any private land transaction). The project promoter has to then transfer and mutate the land in favour of the Forest Department for notification as a reserve forest/PF, as mandated by existing guidelines or even as a conservation reserve under Section 36-A of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 under the proposed new mechanism or;
2. The owner(s) may not be willing to sell but may be agreeable — with suitable benefits — to develop it as a private/community reserve based on an appropriate management plan. There are enabling provisions in the Wildlife Act, which allow for any individual/group of individuals or community volunteering to conserve wildlife and its habitat to approach the government for a notification. While the land will continue to be owned by the individual/community, the land use will be agreed upon jointly with the Forest Department based on a management plan.

Participatory plan

This will enable appropriate development of the private/community reserve or the land mutated in favour of the Forest Department, by creating suitable vegetation with mixed plantation/bamboo/grassy patches/salt licks, etc to attract wildlife. The funding for this can come from money deposited by the project promoter for compensatory afforestation. The individual or community could then be encouraged and assisted to develop a participatory community-based tourism plan with benefit sharing as envisaged in the new NTCA guidelines. The tourism pressure on core areas can thus be reduced progressively.

All that is required are some minor modifications in the Forest Act Guidelines to include the terms “Core or Critical Tiger Habitat,” “Protected Area” and “Community Reserve” to enable identification and transfer of lands adjacent to these areas to the Forest Department by the project promoter. But for this idea to work, the MoEF must issue a proper clarification to States that, henceforth, transfer of non-forest land will not ordinarily be condoned.

This innovative mechanism, which is within the framework of existing laws, could open up tremendous opportunities for increasing viable buffers and creating additional habitats for wildlife where it is most needed — around tiger reserves/protected areas. It will not only help in achieving the true objective of compensatory afforestation, but also deliver benefits to local communities from the increasing economic opportunities of non-consumptive tourism outside core areas.

(Praveen Bhargav is a trustee of Wildlife First and has served on the National Board for Wildlife.)

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/making-space-for-the-tiger-a-reality/article4630903.ece

Mudumalai Tiger Reserve reels under drought

D. RADHAKRISHNAN
Unprecedented drought is keeping Forest Department officials on their toes in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) near here.

Threatened by drought: A sambar in the extremely dry
Moyar part of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve
near Udhagamandalam. -Photo: Special Arrangement

Enquiries made by The Hindu revealed that hitherto, only certain pockets would be affected during the dry months, but this year, practically the entire Reserve extending to over 321 square kilometres wears a parched look.

The situation has become a cause for concern to the Forest Department and environmentalists as the conditions could trigger an outbreak of bushfires. Migration of animals in search of water and fresh vegetation has begun.

Conservationist P.J.Vasanthan said that he was seeing the MTR in such a state for the first time.

Some of the animals he saw were conspicuously emaciated. Many from the Moyar part of the Reserve are coming to the Channel to quench their thirst which flows from Maravakandy to the Moyar Dam. Pointing out that sighting of wild animals in the area has become frequent, he regretted that unscrupulous tour operators were exploiting the situation. In the process, they are disturbing the animals. The prevailing weather conditions have made the surroundings extremely dry and leafless.

Since the situation in the Sigur and Gudalur forests adjoining the MTR was also equally bad, the human-wild animal conflict has escalated and instances of elephants damaging houses are being frequently reported.

Stating that earlier, only about five per cent of the total area were badly affected during the dry season, the Deputy Director, MTR

A.Ameer Haja lamented that this year, even perennial water sources have dried up.

In view of the prevailing situation, a plan of action to deal with any exigency has been put in place.

Officials, including 100 fire watchers, have been instructed to be in a state of alert round the clock. Since the fringe areas along the road which cuts through the reserve are highly vulnerable to bushfires, highway patrol has been intensified.

Five vehicles have been permanently stationed in the Theppakadu, Kargudi, Masinagudy, Mudumalai and Nellakotai ranges of the Reserve to enable the officials to respond quickly to emergencies.

Water tankers have also been stationed at convenient places. In addition to the fire fighting equipment in the MTR, special tools to control fires have been procured from Kerala. Fire lines have been extended. In February, four bushfires had broken out but all of them had been put out before they could cause much damage.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/mudumalai-tiger-reserve-reels-under-drought/article4520805.ece

Elephant Pongal at Mudumalai Tiger Reserve draws tourists

D.RADHAKRISHNAN | January 16, 2013

Most of the hotels in the region reported good occupancy during the Pongal holidays this year

Festival mood:Elephant Pongal being celebrated at
the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve on Tuesday

• Tourists, including a good number of foreigners flocked to scenic spots
• Local people made a beeline to various temples in the hill-station

With thousands of tourists thronging this holiday destination, thanks to the Pongal holidays, was celebrated with considerable enthusiasm notwithstanding the abnormally warm weather (that is, by local standards) during the day and the bitter chill experienced after dusk.

Tourists including a good number of foreigners flocked to scenic spots while the local people made a beeline to various temples.

Speaking to The Hindu , V.Ramsundar, Assistant Director of Horticulture, said that from Friday itself the number of tourists visiting the Government Botanical Garden (GBG) had been steadily rising.

Tourists

While it was 3,270 on January 11, it had gone up to 6,800 the following day. On January 13 it was 7,900 and on Pongal day 9,600. On Tuesday the total number of visitors was about 10,000 according to sources here.

The Secretary, Nilgiri Hotels and Restaurants Association (NHRA), N.Chandra- shekar, said that most of the hotels had reported good occupancy during the Pongal weekend.

At the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) near here many tourists celebrated Elephant Pongal on Tuesday. About 22 camp elephants participated. A few of them performed puja at the local temple.

A special puja was also performed for Ranga, an abandoned elephant calf which has been ailing for the past few weeks.

The Deputy Director, MTR, A.Ameer Haja, served Pongal to the visitors.

Interacting with them, he explained the significance of the occasion.

The tourists were informed that they were lucky to celebrate Pongal at one of the best known wildlife reserves in the country.

Along with their regular food, pongal, jaggery and sugarcane were served by Mr.Haja and some tourists to the pachyderms.

The curtain will be brought down on the Pongal celebrations on Wednesday with a Tourist Pongal Festival at the Boat House here.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/elephant-pongal-at-mudumalai-tiger-reserve-draws-tourists/article4311341.ece