The Wild Orissa has expressed serious concern over the State Government’s purported move to denotify about 159 square kilometers for forests from the Satkosia Gorge Wildlife Sanctuary and Satkosia Tiger Reserve.
“This step is not at all acceptable. In case such a proposal is approved, it would lead to decreasing the space available for the tiger and other wildlife species and adversely impact on the future prospects of the tiger in the whole State,” said Wild Orissa chief spokesperson Kulamani Deo.
He said such an apprehension arises as the Satkosia-Baisipalli forests are part of a very large forest patch covering 13,459 km in Phulbani, Ganjam, and Kalahandi districts with several pockets reporting tiger presence.
The Reserve has a significant elephant population in deciduous forests. It is also important for the natural habitat of gharials and muggers, leopards, gaurs, sambars, chowsinghas and barking deers. Besides, the 22.4-km-long Satkosia Gorge of Mahanadi River harbours a large population of varied fishes and aquatic fauna, he informed.
Deo said the smuggling of timbers and poaching of birds and animals by the people residing outside the reserve are the two threats to the reserve. There are five villages, having total population of 200 people, inside the core area of the Reserve
The management efforts obviously should be towards making the core zone fully inviolate by formally settling the rights of these villagers and providing them appropriate and attractive resettlement package outside the Tiger Reserve, he opined.
Stating that the surrounding forest areas of the Sanctuary and Reserve are equally good habitats for wild animals, Deo said if a large part of this buffer is denotified the integrity of the Reserve will be adversely affected, tigers will be compressed into a much smaller space, biotic, including pressures on the Reserve from outside, will increase causing damage to the Reserve ecosystem, the problems of poaching, timber smuggling, and encroachment will increase and connectivity within forests, necessary for the survival of the tigers, will be disrupted severely.
In view of these problems, he said the Wild Orissa demands that the resolution of Odisha Wildlife Board for denotification of the aforesaid land area of the two reserves be withdrawn immediately.
He suggested that the Government take priority measures to voluntarily relocate the villages located inside the core and critical tiger habitat. Besides, priority steps be taken for notifying the two Reserved Forest Blocks, Hatidhara RF (63.89 sq km) in Boudh District and Makarprasad RF (10.54sqkm) in Nayagarh District, as part of the Satkosia Tiger Reserve.
Similarly, urgent steps should be taken to examine the impact of presence of human habitations in the Buffer area upon wild animals, and measures be taken to acquire forest land located in the Buffer area of the tiger the Reserve for wildlife conservation.
This apart, measures should be taken to ensure the protection of tiger reserve and providing site specific habitat inputs for a viable population of tigers, co-predators and prey animals without distorting the natural prey-predator ecological cycle in the habitat, he suggested.