Simlipal ranks 7th best Tiger reserve in India

Baripada, Sep 15 (UNI) The Simlipal Tiger Reserve (STR), home to 101 Royal Bengal Tigers (RBT) and 127 leopards, has been ranked as the country's seventh best tiger reserves by the Asia Regional Office of the World Conservation Union.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural resources (IUCN) had prepared the assessment report for all the 28 tiger reserves in the country at the request of the Ministry of Forests and Environment (MOFE), Government of India.

Out of total 185 marks, the STR scored 140 and ranked the country's seventh best tiger reserves. Kanha with 163 marks had occupied the top slot followed by Dudhwa, Corbett, Sundarbans, Pench, and Palamau.

The IUCN review report on tiger reserves said the assessment was based on the Management Effectiveness Assessment Framework (MEAF) developed by IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.

A total of 45 parameters were used to arrive at an aggregated score for evaluating the management effectiveness of each Tiger Reserve.'' ''The IUCN was asked by the Government of India to use its in-house expertise as well as its network of international experts to undertake a peer review of the Tiger Reserves assessments done by the monitors,'' the report further said.

According to STR Field Director Debabrata Swain two evaluators in their report paid rich accolades to the reserve's Field Director for effectively controlling tribals' ritual ''Mass hunting excursions'' or the ''Akhand Shikar'' in Simlipal by organising local tribal youths under the umbrella of several ''Green Brigades'' (Sabuja Vahinees).

There were no incidences of ''Akhand Shikar'' since 2003-04, the evaluators said and praised the Park's managers in successfully controlling the forest ground fires in Simlipal.

The evaluators said that the large network of roads spanning over 863 kilometers between Core and buffer acted as the fire control lines and lauded the wildlife estimation and research works done by the founder Field Director Padmashree Sarojraj Choudhury, which was later strengthened by the Senior Research Officer Lala Aswini Kumar Singh.

The evaluators, however, gave zero mark to the reserve's management for their failure in defusing the human pressure in the ''Core Area''.''Four villages with an estimated population of about 377 still remain to be shifted though efforts are continuing since 1994''.

UNI XC-DP KK AB 1655