NAGPUR: At a time when tigers and wildlife are crying for inviolate spaces in the country, the ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC) as well as the state government have failed to initiate the process to declare protected areas as critical wildlife habitats.
Critical wildlife habitats (CWHs) are areas of national parks and sanctuaries that are required to be kept inviolate for wildlife conservation as determined and notified by the MoEFCC, after open process of consultations by an expert committee.
On February 8, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court (HC) had disposed off a writ petition rejecting claims of a group of farmers from Nagbhid and Kuhi in Chandrapur and Nagpur districts, demanding pattas on forest land under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006. The claims were rejected as the petitioners lacked relevant documents to show they were in possession of land for three generations.
The HC had asked Centre to complete the procedure for recognizing protected areas (PAs) as CWH in six months so that necessary steps for wildlife protection are taken. No doubt, while doing so, the state will have to take care of traditional forest dwellers' rights. However, nine months have gone by and no steps are being taken to declare PAs as CWH by the Centre and state.
Wildlife spokesperson & DFO GK Vashishtha said, "We are awaiting fresh guidelines from the Centre. In 2011, the forest department had initiated the process and even set up region-wise committees which identified several PAs as CWH. However, the guidelines were modified twice by the Centre and the entire process has been stalled for the past 4-5 years."
KishorRithe, member of state committee on CWH in Maharashtra, the panel gave a go-ahead to 19 national parks and sanctuaries to complete consultations with stakeholders. Accordingly, Navegoan and Tipeshwar were the first to complete consultations. However, since December 2011, the entire process on CWH has stopped.
The MoEF had issued clear instructions to states that no resettlement can be undertaken without completing the FRA process. It has categorically stated that "rights need to be recognized first in national parks and sanctuaries before undertaking any process for resettlement, and that there is no provision in the FRA to defer the process of vesting of forest rights till CWHs are determined and notified".
However, Rithesai notifying CWHs is vital as a minimum inviolate space of 800-1000 sq km should be maintained to support a viable population of big cats in tiger landscapes, based on their life history parameters, territory sizes and population viability analysis.
