Goals ahead: A road inside Valmiki Tiger Reserve

Patna, Nov. 13: National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) deputy inspector-general S.S. Negi would be arriving here on Tuesday to assess the potential of Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR). He would visit different ranges of the reserve the next day.

Negi would be the first NTCA official to visit the reserve spread over around 840sqkm. VTR officials are eagerly waiting for his visit, which can pave the way for more funds.

The VTR, director Santosh Tiwari, told The Telegraph today: “We will make a detailed presentation before the NTCA official on the steps being taken for better management of the reserve.”

Negi would be briefed on the VTR’s plan of developing grasslands to provide more congenial habitat for herbivores, the prey base of tigers.

The VTR annual plan of operation for 2011-12 talks of developing 450 hectares of land as grassland. Weeds do not allow the growth of natural vegetation at the selected site.

The NTCA official would also be apprised of the dedicated teams for patrolling the reserve, which shares boundary with the Chitwan National Park of Nepal. Local youths have been roped in for this purpose.

Besides, Negi would be taken to the deep woods during his visit. He would be visiting the Manguraha and Govardhana ranges of the reserve, the abode of several tigers.

“We will do so because Negi has a vast experience on managing tiger reserves. We want to learn from his experience the route to the betterment of the VTR,” Tiwari said.

Negi served as the field director of Kanha National Park for several years.

Tiwari said the visit of the NTCA official would also be used to showcase the potential of the reserve so that more funds could be demanded from the Centre in the future for improving its condition.

As things stand now, NTCA has approved an annual plan of operation worth Rs, 3.59 crore for the year 2011-12. Of this, Rs. 2.16 crore was released the first installment in September. After completing the formalities at the state headquarters, the money has been sent to the reserve.

Unlike yesteryears, this year the funds were released quickly to the reserve. Earlier, the VTR used to get the funds towards the end of the financial year and miss the opportunity of getting the second installment of funds because of non-utilisation of the first installment on time.

“This time, we would submit the utilisation certificate of 80 per cent of the first installment funds by December end, so that the demand for the second installment could be sent to the NTCA on time,” Tiwari said.

The officer said he was confident about timely use of the first installment of the funds because things like salary payment of contractual employees, which has not been done since April, would be done in one go”. “We will also release funds for constructing five anti-poaching camps, start work on developing grasslands and purchase management related gadgets, tenders for which were floated in the past. These would allow us to utilise the funds and raise the demand for the second installment,” added the VTR director.

This development would be a departure from the past four-year trend. Bihar could get just Rs 1.71 crore in 2010-11 out of the total fund of Rs. 2.14 crore approved by NTCA because of non-utilisation of funds in time.

The situation was no better in the 2009-10 fiscal when the NTCA had sanctioned Rs 1.34 crore for the VTR and had released the first installment of Rs. 1.08 crore.

The remaining funds never reached the resource-starved tiger reserve as utilisation certificate was not sent to the Centre on time.