Eight villages to be removed from Palamu Tiger Reserve: PCCF

Ranchi, Jul 29: Principal Conservator of Forest Sanjay Kumar said that eight villages will be removed from the Palamu Tiger Reserve and the villagers will be rehabilitated.

Addressing a wokshop organized on the occasion of World Tiger Day here he said that in the meeting which was chaired by Chief Secretary the rehabilitation policy has been approved and soon the proposal will be passed by the cabinet after which people of these eight villages will be removed as the rehabilitation policy of the state was better than others therefore people will be adequately compensated.

The PCCF also expressed his concern over presence of 189 villages in the buffer area and also accepted that keeping in mind the changing climate and wildlife challenges it was difficult to make PTR adaptable for the tigers. Earlier the experts who spoke on the occasion said that if the tigers have to be saved that dependency of the villagers and cattle on the forest will have to be reduced.

Former director of Indian Wildlife Institute Dehradoon PR Sinha said that if the tigers have to be kept permanently in the PTR than villages have to be removed from the core area and the pressure of the domestic animals on the forest will have to be reduced. He also stressed on the need to improve the internal departmental coordination. He also said that tigers can not leave under stress and called on the need to frame long term vision for increasing the population of the tigers.

PTR was declared was declared a national park for Tiger conservation in 1973. The tiger population continued to flourish in the reserve till 1989 but since than has been on a decline with sighting of the big cat becoming rare and rare with each passing year.

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