Dead tigers fail to draw PC's notice

Times Of India , Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Correspondent : Surojit Mahalanobis
NEW DELHI: Dead tigers of Sariska failed to evoke any sympathy from FM Chidambaram. Those who had been looking for provisions in the budget for ecology and environment were left shell-shocked on Monday.

According to the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) sources, the department had "suggested a number of incentives and disincentives but these were evidently overlooked".

Tight-lipped MoEF mandarins are avoiding press fearing a leak of their "troubled" mind, but the "strengthening by the government of the departmentwise project proposals" are "not encouraging enough". Asked of the ratio of growth in budgetary provision for "strengthening" MoEF projects, a high official said, "It is hardly one per cent".

This year too the forests and wildlife didn't get anything. For all developmental projects and guarding they will again have to look up to the Planning Commission.

But NGOs claim giving good service to replace "the government's disservice".

Sample one: Wildlife Trust of India, a "non-profit non-governmental organisation" says it helps the country's forest guards with "Equipment Kit containing nine such items as jackets, sleeping bags, torches, water bottles, shoes (when asked for) and raincoats which the state governments should have supplied them with; Medical Insurance against permanent disability and/ or death of Rs 1,00,000 every year, and Training in anti-poaching tacticks, Wildlife Protection Act and how to prepare chargesheets when seizures are made".

Asked, do they also provide guns to the guards, as the poachers are reportedly heavily armed with sophisticated weaponry, WTI director Ashok Kumar said, "We don't provide them guns. That's the government's job."

The NGO attends all international events including those organised by IUCN, CITES, MIKE. It claims equipping about 16,000 forest guards in 59 protected forests every year and allocates over Rs 4 lakh for the service.

There are also high-budget NGOs such as Wonrock International which provides sun-caps, sunglasses, boots and vehicles to forest guards, teach villagers forestry, educate tribals about social forestry and responsible sharing the forest protection duties and also appoint van shramiks.

If Sariska has hurt you, the call of Nature must goad you. Consider a statement by Delhi University pro-vice chancellor botanist CR Babu, "One exotic plant, brought from Mexico by the British Raj in the desert Delhi of pristine times, is now taking all saps from underground. The plant is prosiperus juliflora. It's an invader plant that has a green top but no canopy, strong stem that reaches aquifers and draws nutrients from there, dries up sub-soil moisture killing most plants, but the government never once pondered what actualy ails Delhi's environment."

Babu's team of scientists are looking forward to funds to run many projects to remove the invader plant that has covered most forest lands in the state and reintroduce Delhi's pristine flora which will draw natural fauna. "Sariskas will continue to happen, if we continue to remain ignorant about environmental sciences," said Vilas Gogte, Babu's deputy and a naturalist retired from the MoEF a few years back.

 
SOURCE : Times of India, Wednesday, March 02, 2005
 


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