Ranchi, Sept. 18: The state forest department is working on a plan to rejuvenate Palamau Tiger Reserve that has seen a steady decline in the number of big cats from around two dozen to a mere half a dozen because of a host of factors ranging from bad management to anti-naxalite operations that have taken a toll on its animal population.
Addressing newspersons today, forest secretary Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi said the department was planning to initiate a scientific study to gauge the present health of PTR, which includes the Betla National Park, so that correctives could be initiated.
Additionally, work like grassland development, creation of new watering holes for animals, desilting of check dams, which had not been taken up for decades, had already been started, said Chaturvedi, who was accompanied by principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) Sanjay Kumar, chief wildlife warden L.R. Singh and others.
Set up in 1974 as a part of Project Tiger, PTR is spread over 1,129.93 sqkm. However, over the years the park has seen a decline in the number of tig-ers as well its ecology because of inadequate monitoring, manpower crunch and frequent operations against left wing extremists by security forces.
PTR director M.P. Singh said they would be roping in Wildlife Institute of India to conduct a study of the forest ecosystem and the tiger prey base, ie to find out if adequate food was available in the forest for big cats and other animals.
'We have sent a proposal on this for cabinet approval. The moment the nod is given, we will initiate the study, which will be completed in 12 months,' he told The Telegraph from Daltonganj.
The study would also look at the feasibility of translocating tigers and other wild animals to PTR to increase animal count. 'To improve the tiger count, we aim to introduce tiger/s in our park. But there are various aspects that have to be considered before doing so. The study will tell us whether we can go ahead with that plan or not,' he said.
Principal chief conservator of forests Kumar said to improve monitoring, they were focusing on use of GPS technology. 'Compared to earlier times when GPS monitoring coverage was 800km/-month, we have now touched 20,000km/month. Slowly we will expanded the coverage further,' he said.
Apart from PTR, Jharkhand has 11 other sanctuaries and national parks, but most of them are without concrete management plans. Chief wild-life warden Singh admitted the lacunae, but promised that five sanctuaries would have a wild-life management plan soon.
'Dalma Elephant Sanctuary, Udhwa Bird Sanctuary (Sahebganj), Topchanchi Wi-ldlife Sanctuary (Dhanbad), Hazaribagh National Park and Mahuadanr Wolf Sanctuary (Latehar) will have management plans in few months. Officials have conducted field studies and are now drafting them,' he said.' Citing other achievements, Kumar said in the last three years, the forest department had planted 8 crore saplings, worth Rs 718.88 crore, to boost tree cover.
This apart, the state government launched Chief Minister's Jan Van Yojana scheme last year under which expenses of those taking up plantation on private land would be subsidised, the ban on plastic carry bags had been notified, e-auction of kendu leaves was okayed and 1,500 hectare encroached forest land was cleared.
