Planning pvt wildlife reserves: state to SC

The Karnataka government has told the Supreme Court it was contemplating formulating special rules for encouraging private landholders around the elephant corridors and the protected areas to declare their land as “private conservancies”. This would help in securing wider corridors for the long-ranging mammals like elephants, gaurs, tigers, leopards, sambars etc, it said.

The state government submitted its action-taken-report following the apex court’s order seeking information about 27 high priority elephant corridors across the country. Of these, a few are in Karnataka.

The forest department, along with Wildlife Trust of India, has secured Edearahalli-Doddasampige Elephant Corridor by purchasing 25.37 acres of land during 2003. This corridor connects Male Mahadeshwara Wildlife Sanctuary with BRT Tiger Reserve.

“The land was transferred and registered in the name of the forest department during 2009. The process of declaring the area of 25.37 acres as a part of the Male Mahadeshwara Wildlife Sanctuary is under progress,” it said.

The state government further pointed out that the forest department and the Wildlife Trust of India are pursuing to secure Chamarajnagar–Talamalai Elephant Corridor, which connects the Talawadi range of Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu and Punjur range of Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve in Karnataka.

“It has been observed that tigers and elephants from Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve move to Bilgiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve of Karnataka along a corridor between Goramadu Doddi and Dodda Muddahalli villages. The corridor is about 1.5 km long and varies in width from 200 to 300 metres,” it said.

“The Karnataka forest department in collaboration with Wildlife Trust of India is in the process of securing the corridor to increase the width between Muddahalli and Goramadu Doddi village areas to ensure proper connectivity between Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve of Karnataka and Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve of Tamil Nadu by obtaining about 38 acres of land,” it added.

The state government’s report was filed on a PIL by A Rangarajan and others, pending in the top court since 1996 for the preservation of elephant corridors. In a recent hearing, the top
courtpulleduptheTamilNadu governmentforneglectingthe national heritage and directed closure of 27 resorts raised in the Nilgiris. In a separate PIL filed by conservationist Prerna Singh
Bindraandothersforchecking elephant deaths and curbing human-animalconflict,thetop court hadrestrained thestates from using spikes and fireballs to drive them away.