Wildlife starts moving in vacant Ranbodi village in UPKWLS
| Date :06-Oct-2019 |
Khedi village where rehabilitated persons from Ranbodi now live. (right) Work of removing weed being taken up in Ranbodi in UPKWLS for development of grassland.
By Ramesh Marulkar :
With the works of removing weed and developing grassland at the rehabilitated Ranbodi village in Umrer-Paoni-Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary (UPKWLS), wild animals have started visiting this inviolate place. This was revealed during a tour of journalists to vacant Ranbodi village in the sanctuary organised by Forest Department on Saturday. They saw pug-marks of a tiger and some herbivores during the visit. Rahul Gavai, Divisional Forest Officer, who is In-charge of the sanctuary, said that the department had shifted the village consisting of 265 families to Khedi situated four km away from Umrer on Nagpur-Umrer Highway in December last. Then, it started undertaking the works of removal of weed and developing a meadow in 200 hectares of land divided in half hectare grids, he added.
The department plans to develop palatable and existing varieties of grass by eradicating non-palatable and weed. The grassland will take shape in the future in view of taking care continuously. Then a good habitat would be developed at the place for providing cushion to deer, sambars, wild boars, blue bulls and other herbivores. This will ultimately give scope for tigers or leopards to move frequently in search of food, Gavai pointed out. UPKWLS is spread in 189 sq km area covering Nagpur and Bhandara districts. It had become very popular among tourists two years back when the iconic Jai tiger existed there.
Now, there is presence of five tigers, including four tigresses, and leopards with considerably good prey base. There was no incident of cattle kill by carnivores around jungle though cases of crop damages by herbivores occurred, Gavai pointed out. There is also no scarcity of water as a large amount of water is available in Ranbodi tank and other waterholes. The department has a plan to install solar system at 17 wells and bore-wells in the old age in order to make available water to wildlife, he added. Gavai pointed out that the department relocated families from Ranbodi to Khedi village in a space of ten ha in protected forest in compartment no: 414 after making deforestation.
The villagers preferred Option I and received a package of Rs 10 lakh, valuation for property and agricultural lands. Some of the land holder villagers got an amount ranging from Rs 1 crore to 3 crore. The department deducted Rs two lakh from each villager and provided basic facilities like drinking water, electricity and internal roads at the new site. The work of water supply scheme is being executed by the machinery under the supervision of the Collector. On the occasion, the villagers of Khedi said that they were happy to shift to new site because of communication facility. Now, they have no sense of insecurity because of existence of wild animals nearby. The villagers have purchased over 300 ha of land for agricultural activities. Some of them are engaged in water purification, agri production, shops etc to earn their livelihood. Some of them have purchased tractors which are now engaged by the department in the work of grassland development. Their children have also got educational facilities. These views were expressed by Ramesh Rohankar, Istari Nasle, Jageshwar Nasle and Prashant Meshram during interaction with media persons at the site. Mohan Naikwade, Divisional Forest Officer, Ajit Sajane, Assistant Conservator of Forest, Ghanashyam Thombre, Range Forest Officer, and others were present.