The decision of the state forest department to declare the wild buffalo area in Gadchiroli district as a conservation reserve has invited ire from environmentalists as formation of conservation reserve will not serve the purpose to conserve wild buffalos.
The Kamlapur range in Alapalli division and Asarali range in Sironcha division in Gadchiroli district would be converted into conservation reserve.
“We have been demanding a wildlife sanctuary in the area to conserve wild buffalos. But formation of a conservation reserve will defeat the purpose and the third largest mammal on the earth will get extinct,” said Kishor Rithe, president of Satpuda Foundation, an NGO working for forest conservation in central India.
“The wild buffaloes, third biggest mammal on land, are facing extinction in India and are a step away from the point of no return. The entire milk industry of India is at stake as domestic breed of buffaloes have only come from the wild and it is urgent to save the wild breed of buffaloes for survival of Indian milk industry. There are only six wild buffalo males and one disputed female left in Udanti Tiger Reserve of Chattisgarh. Another home of wild buffalo is Indravati Tiger Reserve in Chattisgarh. However the wild buffaloes of Indravati have no legal and physical protection towards Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district.
Satpuda Foundation and BNHS had done the extensive survey from 2000 to 2003 and helped Maharashtra Wildlife department to prepare the sanctuary proposal in Gadchiroli district. However Government is sitting on the proposal since then saying “there is nuxal problem”.
Kishor Rithe who had worked for preparing the sanctuary proposal and President of Satpuda Foundation is upset on the stand of PCCF (WL) office. He stated that the Government has diverted 374.90 ha of good wildlife potential forest from Gadchiroli district to Mining Iron Ore company and also not peaking a word against several dams coming on the border of Gadchiroli district(including Inchampalli), taking away your fragile forests, even when nuxals are there. But PCCF’s (WL) office is annoyed of creating a sanctuary because of “nuxal presence”.
If it is the case then we should withdraw the forest staff serving in this forest and drawing the salary for forest protection, Rithe commented. It is to be noted that earlier Wildlife Institute of India, state Wildlife Board of Maharashtra and recently WWF International had also recommended this area to be declared as sanctuary. Satpuda Foundation today issued a press release to open up the issue
before sensible readers. SF said that on one hand we have the example of having Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra (Nagpur district) and Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh (Seoni district) so that the wildlife should enjoy similar legal and physical protection from both states. Same time how can CWLW of Maharashtra justify his denial of making a sanctuary and later on Tiger Reserve to the area in Gadchiroli district which is bordering Indravati tiger Reserve.
Bivash Pandav, programme leader, tiger and other big cats, WWF-International, Nepal, had given a stress on declaring the area as sanctuary during his visit in Winter 2008. Mr. Pandav said that the species like wild buffalo, listed under the Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, needs to be protected at any cost as these are ancestors of all domestic buffaloes and are must to maintain gene pool 100 years down the line. There are enough highly important catchments and watersheds of high conservation values in Maharashtra which can be declared as
conservation reserves, if CWLW’s office is so interested in creating conservation reserves. But the wildlife potential area which supports highly threatened and endangered species like Wild buffalo should be brought only under “Sanctuary” status, Rithe reiterated his demand.
No comments:
Post a Comment