Red carpet for tigers migrating from Maha

PNS | Hyderabad

The Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) exercise is conducted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) once every four years in all the tiger reserves in the country to evaluate the effectiveness of management practices. The team pointed out the important observations of the NTCA team with reference to Kawal and Amrabad Tiger Reserves.

The Kawal Tiger Reserve (KTR), the pride of Telangana, will continue to be so because of the good work being taken up. The Kawal Tiger Reserve has a notified corridor connecting Kawal to other tiger reserves in Maharashtra.

The team said that for the first time in the country they have seen such good work being taken up in the corridor like habitat improvement works including the development of water sources and grasslands. It gives the impression that Telangana has laid a red carpet for tigers migrating from Maharashtra. The manpower availability at the field level in the form of FBOs and FSOs has improved since the last evaluation. But still, some vacancies exist that need to be filled up. Public participation in the management of tiger reserves can be seen in the way local communities have been involved and given responsibility in the protection and development of the tiger reserves.

Excellent work has been done in both the tiger reserves in harvesting rainwater and managing water sources for wild animals. Similarly, very good work has been done in the management of natural grasslands. The team noted that the two tiger reserves have developed a very good system for keeping the areas clean and free of plastics and other litter through the day-to-day collection of litter and its disposal. Some of the suggestions made by the MEE team are the closure of the Beedi leaf unit in KTR to reduce pressure on the habitat, timely release of matching state share funds under Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) so that the second instalment can be availed, utilizing funding under CAMPA for the relocation of villages from the core area and exploring funding from the Tribal Welfare Department as it did in Madhya Pradesh, and giving the status of the protected area to the tiger corridor in Kagaznagar and Asifabad divisions by notifying it as conservation reserve or as a sanctuary under the WLPA of 1972. A three-member team for Telangana headed by a retired Principal Chief Conservator of Forests took up an evaluation of the Kawal Tiger Reserve from November 6 to 9, 2022 and of Amrabad Tiger Reserve from November 10 to 13, 2022.

After completing the field evaluation the team had a meeting with the PCCF (HoFF) and Chief Wildlife Warden at Aranya Bhavan on November 14 in which both Field Directors and Senior Officers participated.