Govt declares Kaniyanapura and nearby villages as reserve forest
Subhash Chandra N S Deccan Herald, Bangalore, 18-June-2012
This
is one classic example of how concerted efforts by government officials
and civil society can make a difference to conservation.
Sustained
pursuance of the case by a few bureaucrats and wildlife activists has
ensured that revenue land, over 5,000 acres, falling in a critical
wildlife corridor at Kaniyanapura is declared a reserve forest. The
efforts bring to an end the two-decade old issue of protecting the
Kaniyanapura elephant corridor - which links Bandipur Tiger Reserve and
Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu.
Kaushik Mukherjee,
former additional chief secretary, B J Hosmath, field director, Project
Tiger, Sanjay Gubbi, member, State Board for Wildlife, Basavaraju,
assistant commissioner, Kollegal and Manjunath, tahsildar, Gundlupet
have together got thousands of acres of revenue land, which had
features of forest, declared reserve forest.
“A notification
under Section 4 of Karnataka Forest Act has been issued with an
intention to provide legal status to this forest patch,” Kumar Pushkar,
Chief Conservator of Forests, Bandipur Tiger Reserve, told Deccan
Herald. The notification - dated February 2, 2012 - grants reserve
forest status to more than 5,000 acres of revenue land to ensure their
protection.
Pushkar said the corridor was very important as
far as wildlife protection is concerned as almost all animals,
including tiger and elephant, use this stretch for their movement. He
said declaring such a huge stretch of land as reserve forest was not an
easy task. Not doing so would have been a great loss to wildlife as the
notified area binds north and south ears of the corridor, he said.
“This
area had become a hub of numerous activities. We would have lost the
habitat. By declaring it reserve forest, we have secured it for
wildlife,” he said. “This is the patch which connects
Biligirirangana Hills Tiger Reserve and Satyamangala forest with
Nagarhole and Bandipur,” he added.
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