Final decision over notification of Ratapani Tiger Reserve delayed
| Date :15-Dec-2019 |
Staff Reporter :
The proposal of notifying Ratapani as a Tiger Reserve is facing continuous burden as final notification for the same could not be released yet. The proposal has been redrafted for three to four times but final decision is yet to be taken. A step to develop the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary as tiger reserve was started during year 2007-8 and at the time, ‘in-principal approval’ of NTCA was given for creation of tiger reserve at Ratapani in year 2008 but the State Government did not send final proposal to the Center. The proposal of tiger reserve remained pending for several reasons since year 2008.
After regaining the tag of ‘Tiger State’ during July 2019, authorities restarted efforts to finalise the proposal. Committee was also formed by forest department to send final proposal. Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary has specialities like world famous Kanha and Pench National Park. Concerned over the rich flora and fauna of area along with movement of higher number of tigers, Forest Department is making efforts to notify the area as tiger reserve. The project has been already given in-principle approval of Central Forest, Environment and Climate Change Ministry during year 2010. In past ten months, Government has sought proposal for four times. Three times proposals were submitted for the Ratapani Wildlife division. Annoyed over the issue, ministers formed committee to redraft the proposal but it could not fulfill the aim.
In recent drafted proposal, committee recommended to keep the core and buffer area separated. The committee also included two kilometre of revenue land in the proposal. As per Wildlife Conservation Act 1972 Section -66 (4), only reserved forest land can be notified as tiger reserve. Sources said, in fresh proposal core committee included 760 square kilometre of area from Sehore and Raisen and 480 square kilometre of Obedullaganj, Sehore and Bhopal forest circle in buffer zone. This includes conserved and non conserved areas. In the proposal about two kilo meter of area from Bhopal circle has been included which is revenue land. Sources said that the committee forwarded its report to wildlife and forest head office for final approval but officials did not cross check the fact.
The second proposal included notification of area in two different phases. In second phase, a separate proposal was made for notification of the buffer zone and decision was taken to notify core area first. The proposal redrafted by forest officials for second time included to add notifies area in the tiger reserve which would be 823 square kilometre of region.
Talking to ‘The Hitavada’, Alok Kumar, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (APCCF) said, “The proposal of notifying Ratapani as tiger reserve is being re-drafted. We have planned to notify the core area in first phase and then a separate proposal will be made for the buffer zone. However, final decision will be taken by authorities after checking the detailed plan.” The current position of Ratapani includes 910 square kilometre of sanctuary area, 4 ranges, 40 adult tigers, 29 villages, 15 villages are the boundary of sanctuary, 8 villages inside the sanctuary, relocated village one (Datkhoh), village relocation in process are 3 and total beats are 70.