22nd November 2018


Nagpur: Even as the 79th session of the Indian Road Congress (IRC) is set to kick off from Thursday without any discussions on mitigation measures for wildlife, the new road development projects in Tadoba landscape is set to post a big threat to Maharashtra’s tiger population.

On November 11, Union highways minister Nitin Gadkari laid the foundation stone for several road development and repair works for 576km worth Rs5,356 crores in Chandrapur district alone, where Tadoba is located. Of these, roughly over 100km will cut through tiger corridors making their dispersal a huge problem.

As per latest WII report released in June, there is presence of at least 200 tigers in the Eastern Vidarbha Landscape in Chandrapur, Gondia, Bhandara, Gadchiroli, Nagpur and Yavatmal districts. In some stretches road development is already going on while on others it is proposed, all sans any mitigation steps. Wildlife experts say Tadoba landscape will be most vulnerable as 60% of the state’s tiger population is present there.

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