The Palamau Tiger Conservation Foundation has now become a trust. Under the Indian Trust Registration Act-1882 it now stands registered said the divisional forest officer core P Anand.
The registration formalities were taken care of, on March 3, in the registrar office in Daltonganj. As all the registrations require one or two witnesses, an ACF (Assistant Conservator of Forest) S Prakash Khesh, was present to observe the registration of Palamau Tiger Conservation Foundation as a trust. The Jharkhand Government had on January 20, 2014 notified the formation of the Tiger Conservation Foundation but it was kept on hold till March 3. The trust will be having 10 members — including the State Forest and Environment Minister — and four PCCFs (including the additional one).
The Palamu Tiger Reserve officials doled out Rs 1,500 for the registration and other miscellaneous expenditures, said Anand. Now the trust will be overseeing the Tiger Reserve — its territory, its habitat, its occupants, the wild life — taking all preventive and curative measures agianst poaching, fire, peddling of precious trees, anti-intrusion besides taking a broad care of its personnel right from tracker to ranger.
Funding crisis will now be considerably eased out, said the DFO Core. The Palamu Tiger Reserve — spread in 1,026 square kilometer — is manned by just half the strength of its forest guards and foresters, said Anand and this has put the pressure on the management, to move towards the hard way. As the State Government has not yet decided its domicile policy, side-by-side its recruitment policy, there has not been any appointment/recruitment of forest guards which is the most important rank for any tiger reserve.
India has a big fleet of 44 tiger reserves and Palamu Tiger Reserve, if given adequate man power, can be back to its good old days said one noted environmentalist DS Srivastava.