Government amps up wildlife conservation efforts; maps out 32 'tiger corridors' across country

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has decided to amp up conservation efforts for the tiger population in the country, which has been seeing positive results for a while now. To this purpose, the National Tiger Conservation Authority in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India has mapped out major 'tiger corridors' across the country for the ease of conservation efforts, Minister of State (MoS) of Environment, Forest & Climate Change Babul Supriyo stated in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

The corridors, as provided by a Press Information Bureau (PIB) release, are as follows:

Sl. No.	Landscape	Corridor	States/ Country
1.	Shivalik Hills & Gangetic Plains	Rajaji-Corbett	Uttarakhand
		(ii) Corbett-Dudhwa	Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Nepal
		(iii) Dudhwa-Kishanpur-Katerniaghat	Uttar Pradesh, Nepal
2.	Central India & Eastern Ghats	(i) Ranthambhore-Kuno-Madhav	Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan
		(ii) Bandhavgarh-Achanakmar	Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh
		(iii) Bandhavgarh-Sanjay Dubri-Guru Ghasidas	Madhya Pradesh
		(iv) Guru Ghasidas-Palamau-Lawalong	Chhattisgarh & Jharkhand
		(v) Kanha-Achanakmar	Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh
		(vi) Kanha-Pench	Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra
		(vii) Pench-Satpura-Melghat	Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra
		(viii) Kanha-Navegaon Nagzira-Tadoba-Indravati	Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh
		(ix) Indravati-Udanti Sitanadi-Sunabeda	Chhattisgarh, Odisha
		(x) Similipal-Satkosia	Odisha
		(xi) Nagarjunasagar-Sri Venkateshwara National Park	Andhra Pradesh
3.	Western Ghats	(i) Sahyadri-Radhanagari-Goa	Maharashtra, Goa
		(ii) Dandeli Anshi-Shravathi Valley	Karnataka
		(iii) Kudremukh-Bhadra	Karnataka
		(iv) Nagarahole-Pusphagiri-Talakavery	Karnataka
		(v) Nagarahole-Bandipur-Mudumalai-Wayanad	Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu
		(vi) Nagarahole-Mudumalai-Wayanad	Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu
		(vii) Parambikulam-Eranikulam-Indira Gandhi	Kerala, Tamil Nadu
		(viii) Kalakad Mundanthurai-Periyar	Kerala, Tamil Nadu
4.	North East	(i) Kaziranga-Itanagar WLS	Assam, Arunachal Pradesh
		(ii) Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong	Assam
		(iii) Kaziranga-Nameri	Assam
		(iv) Kaziranga-Orang	Assam
		(v) Kaziranga-Papum Pane	Assam
		(vi) Manas-Buxa	Assam, West Bengal, Bhutan
		(vii) Pakke-Nameri-Sonai Rupai-Manas	Arunachal Pradesh, Assam
		(viii) Dibru Saikhowa-D’Ering-Mehaong	Assam, Arunachal Pradesh
		(ix) Kamlang-Kane-Tale Valley	Arunachal Pradesh
		(x) Buxa-Jaldapara	West Bengal

 

According to MoS Supriyo, the government is also set to fund support for conservation initiatives taken by these tiger reserves, in the form of periodic awareness campaigns to sensitize, guide and advise the general populace on man-animal conflict, dissemination of information through various forms of media, procurement of immobilization equipment, drugs, training and capacity building of forest staff to deal with conflict events.

Another measure is restricting habitat interventions. This will be done by limiting human interaction even in buffer areas around tiger reserves, thereby minimalizing man-animal conflict and excessive spillover of wildlife, including tigers.

In addition to these, the National Tiger Conservation Authority has also authorised official training to deal with emergency arising due to tigers straying into human-dominated landscapes, tiger depredation on livestock, and to work towards active rehabilitation of tigers.

Most importantly, the Ministry, in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India and the National Tiger Conservation Authority, is also taking steps to safeguard these corridors from linear infrastructure development, since a lot of fauna is killed every year due to railways activity, highways development projects, etc.

An amount of Rs 350 crores has been allocated for the current financial year under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger, the Minister of State said.