Periyar tiger reserve wins NTCA award

Meena Menon
NEW DELHI,  
The Hindu, January 20, 2015 

The Periyar Tiger Reserve, spread over 925 sq.km. in Kerala, bagged the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) biennial award on Tuesday for encouraging local public participation in managing the reserve.

There are 75 communities living around the reserve, including tribal people who are dependent on eco-development programmes, said field director of the reserve Amit Mallick on Tuesday. The reserve set up the Periyar Foundation in 2006 which was a model for other reserves in biodiversity conservation and community participation in managing natural resources.

After this, the Wildlife Protection Act was amended so that each reserve would set up a Foundation, he told The Hindu. Earlier, the India Eco-Development project (IEDP), which was started in the reserve in December 1996, continued up to June 2004. The community-based eco-tourism activities helped visitors and there were night scouting programmes with the help of expert trackers as well. Tourism was supplemented by pepper growing and marketing which was a value addition.

Now self-help groups were involved in honey processing and other income-generating activities, Dr. Mallick said. Of the 75 eco development committees, 15 were tribal and each had about 150 to 200 members. There were 19 different eco-tourism programmes apart from village eco-development programmes like bee-keeping.

The committees also played a major role during the Sabarimala pilgrimage which involved a 23-km trek in the dense forests. Small shops were set up along the way and people helped in regulating the pilgrims and in waste management, removing 40 to 50 tonnes each season.

 

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No move to declare Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary a tiger reserve: officials

E. M. Manoj
KALPETTA,  
The Hindu, August 29, 2014 

Senior forest officials have denied a report on the alleged move of the State government to submit a proposal to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to declare the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) a tiger reserve.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Chief Wildlife Warden G. Harikumar told The Hindu on Thursday that the news was ‘fabricated and misleading.’

The Forest Department was yet to submit such a proposal to the NTCA or the Ministry of Forest, Environment, and Climate Change, he said.

Some leading news channels reported that the Union Ministry had taken measures to declare the WWS a tiger reserve and it created apprehension among villagers, especially those living on the forest fringes.

It was also reported that Union Minister for Environment, Forests, and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar had responded positively to the proposal.

Benefits of plan

However, N. Badusha, president of Wayanad Prakrithi Samrakshana Samiti, said this was the time to sensitise the public to the significance of setting up a tiger reserve, and its benefits.

Some vested interest groups had already misled the public that if a reserve was set up, a lot of restrictions would be enforced on them, he said.

Same norms

The Wildlife Protection Act applied equally to a sanctuary and tiger reserve. So, no new norms would be imposed.

On the other hand, setting up of a tiger reserve would be beneficial to the villagers as a huge fund would be allotted to the reserve for the conservation of tigers.

It would also help expedite the ongoing voluntary relocation project for settlers inside the sanctuary, he added. Moreover, projects would be initiated to tackle the escalating man-animal conflict, he said.

A camera-trap programme undertaken by the Forest Department in 2012 concluded that the sanctuary harboured at least 67 adult tigers and 11 cubs, an impressive number for a sanctuary spread over just 344.44 km.

 

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