Society's intolerance towards wildlife is growing

Mysore, June 24: Society's growing intolerance towards wildlife is not a good augury for conservation as the authorities are hard pressed to balance conservation imperatives with human exigency.

The incidents of man-animal conflict was on the rise and the number of elephants killed in Kollegal range in Chamarajanagara forests during the last few weeks had crossed 16, a majority of them due to illegal electrocution. Scores of elephants were killed in Gundlupet, Yelandur and Chamarajanagara taluks as the herds had raided the agricultural fields in search of fodder and water, forest department sources told UNI.

The man-animal conflict was confined hither to elephants, only as the pachyderms strayed from jungles due to paucity of food and water. But of late even leopards and tigers had started wandering into human habitats.

Recently two incidents of tigers attacking villagers were reported and in one of them a tiger was shot dead. Tigers had never strayed out of their natural habitat in Bandipur and Nagarahole National parks and the new development could have major implications on wildlife conservation.

Bandipur attracted more than 60,000 visitors every year and officials pointed out that the carrying capacity of the park had reached its upper limit and it could take no more. But little could be done to restrict the number of tourists visiting the park which was conveniently located on the Mysore-Ooty highway.

The State Government had submitted a proposal to the Centre to declare and notify a ten km wide areas eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) around Bandipur and Nagarahole national parks and other protected areas in the state. The need for ESZ around national parks was felt way back in 2002-2003 and the Supreme Court issued a directive to the State Governments to formulate plans to the effect.

This was an effort to reduce negative environmental impact and habitat degradation induced by human activity. Once the ESZ was identified and implemented, there would be restrictions on developmental activity that was detrimental to the environment and wildlife habitat in the region.

Bandipur, spread over 860 sq km, was among the first project tiger parks in the country. It was contiguous to Madhumalai, Wynad and Nagarahole and was part of the Nilgiri Biosphere reserve -the first Biosphere reserve of India, and the combined area was the single largest contiguous wildlife habitat in the country.

It was home to a variety of animals including elephants, tigers, leopards, gaur, spotted deer and over 300 species of birds and had the highest denstity of elephant population in Asia.

The landscape was spread across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

But the human habitation around these areas was on the rise and consequently the habitat was not only disturbed and was increasingly being degraded, the animals are distressed and stray into human habitat only to meet with a grisly death , either due to electrocution or poisoning. Hence the concept of ESZ might help reverse the process and save wildlife.

The ESZ had already been introduced in Matheran in Maharastrha, around Kaziranga in Assam and Doon Valley in Uttaranchal and was being perceived as imperative to mitigate environmental degradation and habitat destruction due to anthropogenic pressure, and the reports are encouraging.

The sources said ESZ was implemented all industrial activity including tourism would be classified under red, orange and green category as enunciated by the pollution control board and there would be total restriction on mining, manufacturing and hazardous industries for which there was a great demand from areas around MM Hills and BR Hills hills in Chamarajanagara District, the forest department sources added.

Industries under red category would be strictly banned while those under orange would require the clearance of the state pollution control board and subsequently the centre while the industries under green category would be allowed by the state without referring to the centre or the pollution control board.

The sources said that in the long run too much of tourism related activity could boomerang and hence the perceived need for regulations and declaration of ESZ. This would give the authorities legal backing to implement conservation measures that would check further degradation of wildlife habitat.

UNI