Most tiger reserves violate norms: CAG

The Statesman , Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Correspondent : Staff Reporter
Press Trust of India

NEW DELHI, Aug. 29: The ambitious Project Tiger programme of the Centre has come in for sharp criticism from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which found that many tiger reserves do not even adhere to the prescribed norms for a core area or protected zone of a sanctuary.

While the norms for tiger reserves prescribe an average area of 1,500 sq km with at least 300 sq km as the core area, the CAG report for 2005 found that 15 of the 28 tiger reserves spanned less than 720 sq km.

Six of these 15 tiger reserves had a core area of less than the prescribed 300 sq km, it said, noting that such discrepancies existed despite the knowledge that tiger population grows rapidly in protected areas.

The CAG found that human settlements existed in the core areas in half of the tiger reserves, including Ranthambore, Sariska, Panna and Pench. The result has been an increase of just 20 tigers in 18 years in 15 tiger reserves created till 1984.

The Project Tiger Directorate (PTD) admitted that human settlements disturb tigers but said the areas were brought under the project considering the threat to the tiger population there. The CAG also pulled up the PTD and state governments for the delay in notifying the tiger reserves as National Parks, which would provide a legal basis for ensuring protection.

“In many tiger reserves the final declaration procedures of National Park, core and buffer, were pending as of March 2006 even though the amended Wildlife (Protection) Act, 2003, set a time limit for completion of acquisition proceedings,” it said. The final notification declaring the area as a National Park was not issued in Indravati, Kanha, Pench, Palamau, Bandhavgarh, Panna, Simlipal and Kakkad Mundanthurai till March this year despite these being declared as tiger reserves in 1973-75. “This depicts (a) lack of commitment on the part of state governments while denying legal backing to the boundaries of the reserves,” the CAG report stated.

The state governments have also drawn the ire of the CAG for the lack of any special anti-poaching drive or any stringent action in cases of tiger killings. A test check in the audit revealed that out of the 46 cases of poaching registered during 2000-05 in the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, 13 were tiger cases. The PTD drew criticism for the absence of a communication network in as many as nine reserves and deficiencies in creation of strike forces and provision of arms and ammunition to forest staff to check poaching. Several tiger reserves reported shortage of weapons, with Nagarhole and Bandipur having 21 and 31 weapons against a requirement of 191 and 123 respectively.

The CAG report said the implementation of Project Tiger was severely hampered by under-staffing. And, the personnel employed were under-trained and under-equipped. The CAG has also suggested that all Tiger Reserves should have a well-formulated management plan for appropriate allocation of resources.

 
SOURCE : The Statesman, Wednesday, August 30, 2006
 


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