Centre, T'gana blame each other for not doing enough for tiger conservation

Hyderabad, April 8: As India celebrates the golden jubilee of Project Tiger, the two tiger reserves in Telangana are struggling to find funds, facing numerous challenges to protect the big cats and their habitat.

Though the tiger numbers are going up, the authorities are finding it difficult to carry out normal activities in the absence of flow of funds.

Interestingly, the state and the Central governments are blaming each other for not doing their bit for tiger conservation in the reserves.

Despite doing well in tiger conservation leading to an increase in population of big cats in recent years, Telangana is facing several challenges.

Telangana, one of the tiger range states in the country, has two tiger reserves and they are considered one of the largest in the country by area.

The Kawal Tiger Reserve spans an area of 2,015 sq km covering four districts, while Amarabad spans 2,611 sq km covering two districts. Apart from this, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh share the Nagarjuna Sagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve of 3,296 sq km.

As per All India Tiger Estimation 2018, Telangana has a population of 26 tigers. Last year, 21 individual tigers, including about five females, were identified in the Amrabad Tiger Reserve while about six tigers were spotted in the Kawal Tiger Reserve.

The officials, however, are hopeful that the numbers could be more than 26.

Kawal sees a constant movement of tigers that come in from Maharashtra's forests, and mostly go back. The reserve has a notified way connecting Kawal to other tiger reserves in Maharashtra.

The forest department claims that tiger conservation measures during the last five years yielded good results.

Habitat improvement works, increased green cover and prey base has not only led to an increase in tiger population in the state, but it is also attracting big cats from neighbouring Maharashtra.

There has been increased movement of tigers from Maharashtra into Telangana in recent years.

Union Minister for Tourism and Culture, G. Kishan Reddy, recently complained that the state is not releasing funds for Project Tiger.

Under Project Tiger, while the Centre provided Rs 2.2 crore to Telangana, the state allegedly failed to provide matching funds.

"Though the state government boasts of a budget of Rs 2.75 lakh crore, it does not even have Rs 2.2 crore to pay for the state's share of Project Tiger," said Kishan Reddy.

The state's share of funds for 2021-22 was released in 2022-23, while no money has been released for 2022-23.

The state has to release its funds within a month of getting the Central share, but this is not happening. This is said to be hindering even simple activities like weeding and is likely to impact more challenging activities like fire-fighting operations.

It was on April 1, 1973 that Project Tiger was launched to promote tiger conservation in India. India has over 70 per cent of the global wild tiger population. The Centre claims to be working on a mission mode to protect, preserve and nurture the tiger population and the habitat associated with the big cats. Project Tiger is being implemented in 18 tiger range states.

The Central government through the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) implements the ongoing Project Tiger which is a component of the overarching scheme, Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats.

Kishan Reddy claimed that since 2014, the Centre has been supporting various schemes in Telangana like Project Tiger, Forest Fire Prevention and Management Scheme (FPM) and Development of Wildlife Habitat Scheme.

The state government, on the other hand, complains that the Centre is not extending the required help in tiger conservation. In 2015, the state had sent a proposal to constitute a Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF) but the same was rejected by the Centre, citing Left wing extremism activities in the state and the possibility of weapons and machinery being snatched by the Maoists.

Since Maoist activities have come down to a major extent, the state forest department feels that the STPF should be set up.

The Centre is also coming under criticism from states for amending the rules with regard to STPF. Initially, the Centre used to bear the cost for setting up STPF in the tiger reserves and the operational expenditure incurred, but now it is insisting on sharing the STPF non-recurring expenditure on a 60:40 share basis and the recurring expenditure on a 50:50 basis.

The formation of two STPF units in Telangana was also recommended by the National Tiger Conservation Authority's (NTCA) team after inspecting the Amrabad and Kawal tiger reserves in November last year.

The experts have called for STPF in view of the threat of poaching. Earlier this month, the police in Maharashtra's Chandrapur had seized a tiger hide and arrested six persons. The big cat was reportedly killed in Telangana's Komaram Bheem Asifabad district. The tiger was believed to have come from Maharashtra.

Last month, a partial tiger skeleton was also discovered in the Bellampalli forests.

At least three tigers have been killed in separate incidents in Telangana close to the Maharashtra border since 2016.

Spillover population of tigers from Tipeshwar and Tadoba reserves in Maharashtra are migrating into the wildlife areas of Telangana due to better green cover and prey base. The movement was particularly noticed in the Kagaznagar forest division in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.

A few of the big cats are also making Telangana forests their home.

The NTCA team, during its recent inspection, had appreciated the good work taken up in Kawal Tiger Reserve like habitat improvement works, including development of water sources and grasslands.

However, challenges remain for tiger conservation in the state. Relocation of tigers from Maharashtra to Telangana forests is leading to human-animal conflict in some pockets.

The forest department also faces problems in preventing grazers from venturing into the forest areas. Laying of roads and some other development activities in the forests pose a challenge to conservation efforts.

The forest authorities also face the challenge from podu land farmers. Podu lands are shifting agricultural lands and many tribal and even non-tribals are claiming rights over these in the forests. This has led to skirmishes between podu farmers and forest officials.

The Telangana government has initiated the process to find a solution by granting rights to podu cultivators, but the forest officials say the number of applications outweigh the amount of land available for allotment.