“We will take a decision on the protection ring after we receive a proposal from Maharashtra. We will also provide scope for expansion of the [national] park,” Mr. Javadekar said at a function at SGNP on World Environment Day, which fell on Sunday. The ministry also plans to nurture forests in urban areas by protecting forest land in cities. “Urban forestry is the new thrust area and we will be taking up massive tree plantation drives in as many as 200 cities and towns across the country,” he said.

Calling for a boycott of items made from parts of wild animals, Mr. Javadekar consigned confiscated articles such as skins of snake and other reptiles to flames on the sidelines of the function. He said in the last two years, there have been 40 to 45 poaching attempts on the one-horned rhino and around 24 poachers have been killed in encounters with forest rangers. Pointing to “unimaginable” levels of wildlife trade, forest officials called for a crackdown on poaching and illegal trade.

Sensitisation initiatives for residents have resulted in a drastic fall in human-leopard conflict, SGNP’s chief conservator of forests said. The Park currently has 35 ‘free-roaming’ leopards. Officials now plan to make the national park a no-traffic zone except for battery-operated cars to bring down pollution levels.

Maharashtra has 20 per cent forest cover, six national parks, 48 wildlife sanctuaries and six tiger reserves. Driving home the link between droughts and forests, state forest secretary Vikas Kharge said Gadchiroli, which has forest cover of 77 per cent, did not face water scarcity like Marathwada, which has a forest cover of less than four per cent. Drought-hit Latur district has only 0.7 per cent of forested land.

BJP MP Gopal Shetty suggested notifying an area inside SNGP as a recreation area for visitors and to increase footfall.

The writer is a freelance journalist