With delay in constituting a special tiger protection force (STPF) the threat to the safety of endangered species, particularly tiger in Corbett Tiger Reserve and adjacent areas from poachers of Bawaria, Kanjar and other tribal communities, has grown.

The concerns of the Government and wildlife conservators are high in view of China’s Tiger year --- 2010 to be held next year, though a special combing operation has been launched in the area to trace any suspected movements of poachers.

Although there has been no case of poaching in protected zone since the inception of the State of Uttarakhand, threat to the life of the endangered species still exists outside the CTR zone. The incidents of poaching confirm this belief. But the fact is that despite repeated requests from the CTR administration, the measures taken to ensure safety of the protected animals have rather taken a back seat.

Certain rules formulated by the State Government for recruiting a forest guard seems now to be one of the major reasons causing delay in setting up of the dedicated tiger protection force. According to the CTR sources, as per the State Government’s rules the age of a forest guard is 35 years. But as the STPF is a Central Government project so it wants relaxation in lower age limit. Even if a person aged 35 year is recruited, he has to retire from the forest guard service at the age of 40 as per the state government’s rule. So what is the use of appointing people only for a period of four of five years when one year or two will be spent on training of new recruits.

Talking about the composition of the STPF, the CTR sources revealed that there could be about 112 men, including 90 tiger protection guards, 18 foresters, three rangers and one SDO to lead the team. But certain clauses in the existing forests service rules shave only delayed the process.

All the formalities have been completed. We are now waiting for the Government’s nod to go ahead with this proposal. There are 241 tigers in the State i.e 165 in reserved zones and rest 76 in outside the protected zones.