Delhi teams on fact-finding mission to tiger reserves
The National Tiger Conservation Authority is despatching special teams to three tiger reserves in the Northeast to assess the parks’ poor condition.
The reserves are Manas (Assam), Dampa (Mizoram) and Namdapha (Arunachal Pradesh). The special teams have been constituted for an urgent appraisal of tiger reserves with low density of tigers and problems because of militant-engineered disturbances.
Sources said the idea behind constitution of the teams is that officials from Delhi do not come too often to visit the tiger reserves in the region thereby resulting in lack of co-ordination. A field official in Manas said they have not seen any senior official from Project Tiger, which is the earlier name of the NTCA, visiting the reserve.
“They should at least come and see at the field what is happening so that they know the real situation. A number of initiatives are being taken for recovery of the wild population,” the official told The Telegraph today.
The only delegation to have visited Manas is the monitoring-mission team from the World Heritage Committee of Unesco, which came in 2008.
The team for Manas will also be visiting the tiger reserves in Valmiki (Bihar), Palamau (Jharkhand) and Indravati (Chhattisgarh).
Similarly, the team for Dampa and Namdapha will also be visiting Buxa (West Bengal).
The team for Manas comprises R.S. Singh, Samir Sinha, R.P. Mishra, Rathin Barman and D.S. Srivastava.
The conservation authority has stated that encroachment by the Lisus tribe and militancy are the problems in Namdapha while in Dampa, poor tiger density is because of ecological problems. Manas faces problems like inadequate infrastructure, encroachment and lack of funds.
The teams will appraise status of tiger, co-predators and prey animals, protection efforts, administrative and ecological problems and managerial issues. They will also give suggestions for restoring the area and eliciting local support to strengthen protection.
The teams will have to submit their reports within 60 days. These reports will work as a guide for the conservation authority as far as taking focused steps to strengthen the management effort to better the tiger population.
The authority has also proposed translocation of tigers to allow the tiger population to build up at the reserves and protect it from poachers and other factors.
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