Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary gets more area

The State government has extended the boundaries of a national park and four wildlife sanctuaries. 

The government on December 27, 2011, notified around 1,255.64 sq km of reserve forest land as national park and wildlife sanctuaries. As per the notification, the areas of four wildlife sanctuaries – Dandeli, Mookambika, Cauvery and Someshwara, and one national park – Bannerghatta, have been extended by amalgamating them with reserve forests, thereby bringing a larger area under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

The notification states that the additional reserve forests also have better wildlife habitat apart from being corridors for movement of animals. “With adequate ecological, faunal, floral, geomorphologic, natural and zoological significance, it is suited for protecting, propagating and developing wildlife or its environment. These additional areas will act as barriers to the core area and will help in better management of wildlife habitat,” the notification reads.

The decision to alter the limits and boundaries of the sanctuaries and park was taken during the State Wildlife Board meeting chaired by then chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, on July 26, 2011. 

The government’s sanction of reorganisation of the forests was seconded by the Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife, Ministry of Environment and Forests, which on October 14, 2011, approved rationalisation of boundaries of the forests.

Revenue villages, patta land and land already allotted by the government for non-forestry purpose will not be included. The rights of waters and various other rights as notified earlier for the respective reserved forests will continue, the notification adds.

Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary, Forests, Kaushik Mukherjee said: “The Board has analysed the proposal very critically, and has approved more areas to be reserved under wildlife conservation. A holistic view of sanctuaries has been taken to protect the forests better. Diversion of forest land for development projects will be very little,” said Mukherjee.

He said it would facilitate increased protection for the wildlife and the money utilised by the State for afforestation in the reserve forests would be used for the protection. 

“We have sought additional funds from both the Centre and the State,” he added. 

Forest dwellers

The officer said about 1,500 forest dwellers are in the forests of Karnataka which included the core and fringe areas. Though the boundaries are rationalised, the forest dwellers will not be evicted forcefully. 

“It is for the forest dwellers to decide whether or not they want to stay on in these areas – as the government will definitely not be building schools, colleges or hospitals in these protected areas,” he said.

The Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary was declared as sanctuary in 1998; Mookambika in 1974; Cauvery in 1984; Someshwara in 1979; while Bannerghatta was declared and notified as a national park in 1975.

An edited version of this article was published in Deccan Herald and can be read from,

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/219754/wildlife-sanctuaries-get-bigger.html

You can also get the information on above in the following link:

http://moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/mom-23-14.10.11.pdf

Notorious MP gangs are on the prowl-Dandeli Wildlife Division on High Alert

If professional hunters from outside the state are threatening the survival of tigers in Karnataka's forests, they are doing so with inside help. Arrests of poachers over the years have revealed a nexus between local tribesmen and other tribes around the country, which specialise in hunting down the big cats and smuggling their parts to Nepal and China.

The poaching network formed by tribesmen of different states came to light as far back as 2004 when the police caught a Hakki Pikki tribesman, E.P. Singh, of the Angadihalli tribal settlement in Hassan district with Rani, the wife of notorious wildlife poacher and smuggler Sansar Chand. Subsequent investigation revealed that the Hakki Pikki tribesmen from the state were in close contact with the Bhaheliya and Baweriya tribes of Haryana and other north Indian states.

The case also led to recovery of 43 otter skins, 23 leopard pelts and a tiger skin and the arrest of two tribesmen along with a forest contractor. One of the arrested, Durru, a Bhaheliya tribesman from Birahuli village of Ritchi taluk in Khatni district of Madhya Pradesh, had laid a number of jaw traps for leopards and tigers in the forests of Anshi and Dandeli in early 2000. “The notorious tiger poachers who have been in this business for over three decades continue to have contacts with the Hakki Pikki tribesmen of Pakshirajapura in Hunsur, Angadihalli in Hassan and of a colony in Shimoga. The Hakki Pikki men are expert wildlife trackers and so the Baheliya often seek their help in laying traps. We suspect that hte 23 leopards which were killed around Halyal were mostly poisned or jaw trapped,” says an investigating officer.

Wildlife conservationists contend that the tribesmen are the biggest threat to forests and not the small gangs operating outside the tiger reserves in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and strongly advocate foot patrolling in the forests to find the jaw traps laid in the mud tracks inside the jungles to ensnare tigers. But their plea has fallen on deaf ears as foot patrolling is not done as extensively as they would like in Karnataka's forests.

An edited version of this article was published in Deccan chronicle and can be read at,

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/bengaluru/tribesmen-are-biggest-threat-forests-288