Forest Deptt’s Wildlife Wing gets unified control of NNTR

 

 

FINALLY, the Revenue and Forest Department of Maharashtra Government, has cleared proposal for handing over unified control of the Buffer Notified Area with the Navegaon Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR) management to Wildlife Wing of Forest Department. A GR to this effect, dated December 24, 2025, was issued by Uday Dhage, Special Executive Officer Revenue and Forest Department. The new system will help the NNTR management in developing the Reserve in a well planned manner, with decision being taken by one authority. NNTR is among the six tiger reserves of Maharashtra State. There are independent Field Directors to control the management of each of these tiger reserves. Soon, after its formation in December 12, 2013, need for a unified control was being felt. The proposal for the same was pending in the Mantralaya since 2018. But now the proposal has been accepted. NNTR is spread on 653.67 Sq Kms, having its boundaries from Gondia and Bhandara districts.

 

There were 185 buffer notified villages that includes 112 of Gondia and 73 of Bhandara district, beside 31 hamlets. After the transfer of 652.20 Sq kms buffer area with NNTR to the 653.67 Sq Kms of core forest, the total Reserve area extends to 1305.88 Sq Kms. The ranges in the forest too has increased from present 7 to 12. Speaking to ‘The Hitavada’, NNTR’s Deputy Field Director Pritamsingh Kodape informed that they were seven posts of Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) and equal number of Range Forest Officers (RFO), but with the rise in the number of Ranges, they will require more number of officers. Importantly couple of years back, three felines were released into NNTR under the Conservation Translocation of Tiger Project (CTTP) in two phases on May 20,2023 and on April 11, 2024, they were given the identity as NT – I , NT – II and NT – III . Of these, NT – I had moved out of the Resreve and ventured into the neighbouring Madhya Pradesh while the remaining two big cats settled in buffer area. According to Kodape, at present there is a population of around 15 to 18 tigers in NNTR and most of them were habituating in the buffer areas.

 

“The unified control will give us more power and it will help us in controlling things in much better ways , take decision faster. With more funds and more staff, we would be able to implement better schemes to help of the villagers around buffer areas. We are already planning to develop few more tourist gates, all in buffer areas, and this will help in generating employment for the local people. Enhanced tourist amenities will also attracts more number of people to reserve,” Kodape said. Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF) Ravikiran Govekar, who is presently serving in Mantralaya and Chief Wildlife Warden M S Reddy (Nagpur), who has served as the NNTR as Filed Director, played key roles in getting the nod to the unified control. It may be recall that it was under Govekar that NNTR management has worked upon removing the deficiencies to come upto the 32 parameters and had notched top position in Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE), leaving TATR behind in the year 2019.

 

Talking to ‘The Hitavada’, Govekar said that now with the transfer of the buffer notified forest lands from territorial and FDCM, the NNTR’s total area has almost doubled. The unified control will help in taking faster decisions, help in planning at the micro-level and with single policy and direct release of funds from the Government of India, things would get materialised much faster and with proper monitoring of habitat development. Altogether, it’s good for the NNTR and local people as well to get the unified control of the reserve, Govekar said.