Tourism must be seen in the context of the rights of all stakeholders. More and reliable data is needed to understand whether tourism is harmful to tigers or that people living in the forests have caused the decline in the tigers' population. The more central issue of the implementation of the Forest Rights Act and the rights of adivasis and forest dwellers is being lost in the battle about tourism.
Simlipal Tiger Reserve, the fourth biggest tiger reserve in the country, may soon go the Sariska way with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) pointing out an “alarmingly low prey base”
In a bid to ensure greater accountability, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has decided to conduct an annual tiger census from 2012 in all 39 tiger reserves of the country.
With the aim of ensuring safe movement of tigers into different landscapes, the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) is re-establishing tiger corridors.
Unhappy with the latest census that robbed Madhya Pradesh of its ‘tiger state’ status, the state has decided to carry out a fresh ‘sign survey’ in Kanha tiger reserve that has lost several wild cats over the past four years.
Five gaurs, which have been shifted from Kanha to the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, will be released in the wild in March. For the time being, the park administration is monitoring their movement with the help of radio collars.
