Ecologically fragile zone to protect wildlife habitat

Mysore, Apr 23 (UNI) The Forest Department proposed to create an ecologically fragile zone around 10 km radius of the Bandipur National Park, 80 km from here, to minimise disturbance to wildlife habitat, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Bandipur, Venkatesh said today.

Talking to UNI, he said a proposal to this effect had been submitted to the state government for approval. This was akin to identifying forests abutting the park as enviornmentally sensitive areas as stipulated by the Enviornment Protection Act and introducing stringent land use pattern that was in conformity with the surroundings.

Once it was declared as ecologically fragile area, it would help the forest department regulate tourism and movement of people within the forest areas. ''We will not stop or curb all torusim related activities, but will regulate the flow so that it does not exceed our capacity to handle them.'' he explained.

The popularity of the Bandipur National Park is growing day by day and it is receiving nearly 60,000 tourists every year. It churned out a revenue of Rs 82 lakh during 2005-06.

As part of its tourism promotion activities, the department had built cottages in the Park to accommodate 72 people at a time.

Though the revenue earnings owing to the surge in tourist inflow had increased over the years, a section of the department officials felt that the habitat had been disturbed and called for regulating tourists visit to the Park.

Bandipur is located on the highway to Udhagamandalam, 80 km from Mysore. It was common for tourists to take time off at the Park and proceed to Udhagamandalam after a wildlife safari.

Mr Venkatesh said several private resorts had come up in the vicinity of the park to cater to tourists, which had put more pressure on the habitat. However, once the concept of ecologically fragile zone was in place, the revenue authorities would be legally bound to seek no objection certificate for all applications submitted to them for constructing resorts, he added.

The Bandipur National Park, spread across 880 sq km, is flanked by the Nagarahole National Park in northwest, Tamil Nadu's Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary in South and Kerala's Wyanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Southwest. These four protected areas constitute part of the Niligiri Biosphere Reserve (5,500 sq km).

In 1973, Bandipur National Park was declared one of the country's first tiger reserves, comprising a 523 sq km core zone, 274 sq km of buffer zone, 82 sq km tourism zone and one km administrative zone.

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