NO time for Tigers

[sidmis]

NO time for Tigers
as reported by Yogesh Naik3 Sep 2008, 0506 hrs IST, ,TNN

MUMBAI /NAGPUR /AMRAVATI: Field directors, as head of the state's tiger reserves, are supposed to be staying inside the jungles but three IFS officers heading the Melghat, Tadoba and Pench Tiger Reserves spend most of their time in urban areas and just about a day every week in the forest.

TOI invoked the Right To Information Act to find out how much time the field directors spent on the field and found out that, on an average , they spent just about 50 days a year inside forests. This has had a disastrous effect on wildlife management , say former forest officials and environmentalists, and may be one of the reasons that have led to the dwindling number of tigers in Maharashtra's forests. "There is no check on juniors when field directors themselves desert their posts,'' a former forest official said.

But principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) Bimal Majumdar strongly defended his men.

Much of the field officers' time was taken away in meetings with district officers like collectors, divisional commissioners and police, he said. "Besides, children of conservator-rank officers do not have good schools or colleges near forest areas and so are compelled to stay in urban areas,'' he said.

But he admitted that forest management of tiger reserves had suffered in the last few years. "Lack of political support is one of the reasons and stakes for not supporting our cause are very high. There is a lot of misuse of forest land for agriculture , irrigation projects and forests are the last item on the agenda ,'' Majumdar said.

The facts speak for themselves. The field director of Melghat visited the jungle on 59 occasions between June 2007 and May 2008, the field director of Tadoba National Park visited the jungle 50 times during the same period and the field director of Pench National Park visited his work area just 41 times.

The Melghat Tiger Reserve office used to be in Paratwada but it was shifted to Amravati in 1994, officials said. It has continued to remain there as successive field directors wanted to stay in urban areas.

So, when the forest was on fire in May this year, the then field director took hours to reach it, officials said. "If the field director cannot stay here, how can one expect the juniors to work with zeal when temperatures hit 44 degrees Celsius?'' a range forest officer asked.

Even deputy conservators of the Melghat Tiger Reserve stay in Paratwada and Akot, away from the forest . Environmentalist Bittu Sehgal said: "Foot-patrolling by officers is the exception now and not the rule.''

Key tiger conservation activist Valmik Thapar, too, feels that younger officers of the deputy conservator rank must be posted in the forests. A range forest officer, earlier posted in the Pench Tiger Reserve, cited instances of how top political honchos came to his area and hunted deer and wild boar for meat. "How can junior officer like the RFO stop top politicians? It would have been better if we had got the backing of an IFS officer but field directors want to stay in Nagpur,'' he said.

This correspondent found, during his visit to the Melghat Tiger Reserve , forest guards only at main checkposts. No patrolling was seen inside the forests.

THE SCENE IN MUMBAI
The residence and office of field director P N Munde is located inside the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. But the court cases related to eviction of hutments take away most of his time leaving very less time for visits.
The scene is no better in surrounding areas like Tansa and Karnala. Tansa, controlled by the wildlife division in Thane, had an officer who rarely visited forests. His afternoon-to-dusk visits to Tansa ended up chiefly at the loghut. This officer was napping in the rest house on Holi while tribals set the forest on fire. The officer was finally transferred.

ANGUISH
Tiger activists express their concern over the declining tiger population in country's many sanctuaries and National Parks

NO time for Tigers -Mumbai-Cities-The Times of India