State nod for ₹83-lakh plan to study tiger corridors in Dodamarg-sawantwadi belt
Eighteen months after it was first proposed, the Maharashtra forest department has issued the final approval to the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, to assess whether the Dodamarg-sawantwadi talukas of Sindhudurg are wildlife corridors that need to be conserved.
WII will also be tasked with mapping the exact boundaries of the proposed eco-sensitive area (ESA) around the 38km x 10km wildlife corridor based on a 2013 Bombay high court (HC) order that had directed the state to declare the area an ESA, where mining and red category industries are restricted. WII’S study will span 18 months, with data collection over three seasons. The corridor connects Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary in Kolhapur in Maharashtra to Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka. The corridor is currently threatened by mining projects.
The state chief wildlife warden said the total grant for the proposal was ₹83 lakh, and the study is expected to commence soon. “We have recently issued the final sanction for this project wherein WII will be identifying the potential corridors for the movement of elephants and tigers in this region,” said Nitin Kakodkar, principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife), Maharashtra. “Though the project was proposed in December 2018, issues related to funding, expanding the scope of work, and sanctioning the revised proposal led to the delay. Of the ₹83 lakh, we have already paid ₹58 lakh for the project. The recruitment process is underway but due to the lockdown, there are some more delays,” he said.
Bilal Habib, scientist, WII, said the project is expected to begin by May-end. “We will be deputing two scientists. They will map the corridor and check whether villages in these two talukas are falling within the corridor or not, and thus whether they need to be declared as a part of the ESA. We will also assess human disturbances to this corridor,” he said.
The approval comes at a time when environmentalists are upset with the state for leaving out the entire Dodamarg taluka and nine of 13 villages from Sawantwadi taluka from the final Western Ghats ESA declaration.
The 2013 HC order was based on a petition by Awaaz Foundation. “The current pandemic, which arose from unnatural proximity of humans with wildlife as a direct consequence of forest destruction , is a testimony for the need to preserve natural areas,” said Sumaira Abdulali, convener, Awaaz Foundation.
Another petition by environment group Vanashakti from 2016 seeking enforcement of the previous order across the entire Sawantwadi taluka led to an order by the HC declaring the entire belt as a ‘no tree felling zone’. However, a 2019 study by Vanashakti recorded the destruction of forests across 1,600 acres at 103 locations in the corridor.“such studies [WII’S latest proposal] serve little purpose in areas where a recorded history of wildlife exists, and the forest department is paying compensation to locals for wildlife-related damages. This expensive study will be futile as all evidence is already available,” said Stalin D, director, Vanashakti.
The forest department confirmed over the past five years, transient movement of close to 25 tigers has been observed at the corridor while an elephant family of five resides there.