Manas National Park

Guwahati, Aug. 7: The Centre is contemplating the transfer of funds to Manas National Park through the Bodoland Territorial Council instead of routing it through Dispur, as it was causing crucial delays.

The issue of the delay in Project Tiger funds reaching Manas was discussed at a meeting at Sariska last month.

It was decided to try an alternative channel of sending the money through the BTC to help the tiger reserve get the money at the earliest.

“The issue was discussed at the Sariska meeting and the idea of routing the money through the BTC was deliberated upon. A note is now being sent to the BTC to explain the Centre’s viewpoint so that guidelines can be framed for transfer of the money directly to the council,” said A. Swargiari, the field director of Manas National Park, who was present at the meeting.

A source said forest and environment minister (independent charge) Jairam Ramesh had asked the head of Project Tiger, Rajesh Gopal, about the delay.

Gopal said there was a delay on the part of state government to send the money.

Swargiari said he was confident that the new route of sending the funds would help it to reach the destination faster.

The tiger reserve authorities had been complaining that the money reached them quite late and by that time, the allocated money remained unutilised.

The World Heritage Committee of Unesco also expressed its concern at a recent meeting at Seville in Spain.

It said though the report submitted by the Centre said the situation was improving, no information was provided regarding whether the funds provided by the national authorities were released on time.

Manas had already been classified “poor” because of its poor tiger density.

The state government has still not set up a tiger conservation foundation and the matter is now pending with the cabinet.

The setting up of the tiger conservation foundation has been made mandatory by the National Tiger Conservation Authority to facilitate and support the management through the involvement of people in the process.

Under the new tripartite memorandum of understanding between the Centre, state and authorities of tiger reserves, the money released under Project Tiger shall be made available to the tiger reserve within two weeks of its receipt in the state.