The report presented to the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) by conservation scientist Raman Sukumar rejecting a proposal to reduce size of the Kolleru Wildlife Sanctuary (KWLS), has stirred up a hornets’ nest with conservationists demanding that the State and Central governments clearly mark the boundaries of the sanctuary before deleting land from it.

Prof. Sukumar has recommended that the first thing the Department of Forests should do was to compile “reliable data on the actual boundary of KWLS”.

While recommending that ‘ziroyati’ (private) lands in the north east corner of the KWLS be “deleted” from the sanctuary, Prof. Sukumar stipulated that a few tasks be undertaken prior to it.

Former Assistant Conservator of Forests and an authority on avian fauna of Kolleru, P. Gracious, told The Hindu that as per Prof. Sukumar’s recommendation the private land should be deleted from the sanctuary only after marking of the actual boundary of sanctuary. Prof. Sukumar explained that the delineation of the boundary of the wetland based on contours was not practical as the lines were subject to change over a period of time.

Prof. Sukumar also referred to the discrepancies in the boundary of the land in the records of the Revenue and Forest departments that was highlighted by the Azeez Committee.

Mr. Gracious pointed out that Prof. Sukumar also recommended to the Forest Department to prepare integrated management plans for the lake before deletion of ‘ziroyati’ lands.

Prof. Sukumar also made a special mention that the land assigned to genuine D-Patta Cooperative Societies, SC and BC beneficiaries adjacent to the deleted ‘ziroyati’ lands also be removed from the sanctuary.

Thorough survey

Unless a thorough survey of the entire sanctuary was done, the “deletion” of the ‘ziroyati’ lands could not be undertaken, Mr. Gracious said.Prof. Sukumar recommended that care should be taken to ensure that the process of rehabilitation should ensure that the assigned lands “do not fall into the hands of benami owners”, Mr. Gracious pointed out.

Eco-tourism

Conservationists and former Honorary Wildlife Warden K. Mruthumjaya Rao said that there was a huge potential for the development of eco-tourism at Kolleru. Best practices from the BharathpurKeoladev National Park could be implemented at Kolleru to regenerate jobs in the sanctuary. He said there was a competition between birds and man for the fish of the lake. Therefore, water spread area should necessarily maintained at 5+ contour. So deletion of land from the KWLS was not an option.

Conservationists working for the protection of the Kolleru lake are ready to file public interest litigation (PIL) in the appropriate court taking Prof. Sukumar’s recommendations as support if ‘ziroyati’ land was removed without a proper survey, sources said.