Tiger death: Sariska caught in translocation,relocation tussle

The death of a translocated tiger from the Ranthambore National Park (RNP) to the Sariska Tiger Sanctuary,which lost all its tigers in 2005,has brought to the fore the tug-of-war between the two sanctuaries and the need to fast-track relocation of villagers residing in the vicinity.

The death of a translocated tiger from the Ranthambore National Park (RNP) to the Sariska Tiger Sanctuary,which lost all its tigers in 2005,has brought to the fore the tug-of-war between the two sanctuaries and the need to fast-track relocation of villagers residing in the vicinity.

Senior forest officials maintain that a lobby,primarily made up of hoteliers and travel operators based in the RNP,were against the translocation process from the beginning. Sariska is only around 190 km from New Delhi while RNP is close to 400 km. There is a lobby which believes that increasing the tiger population in Sariska will mean the decline of tourists to the RNP. Incidentally,ST-1,the translocated tiger which died,was the most visible tiger when tourists visited Sariska, said a senior official,adding that such issues were never discussed earlier.

However,Union Minister Jairam Ramesh has vowed to go ahead with the translocation process,and announced a Rs 30-crore package to Sariska to aid the relocation of villagers in the tiger habitat area. Though the first tiger was translocated to Sariska in June 2008,the Rajasthan Forest Department began the process of rehabilitating villages in 2006. But since then only one complete hamlet has been shifted while four others are in various stages of completion.

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The Forest Department insists that the relocation process is complex. The Forest Department has been negotiating with villagers for years now,but it is a slow and complex process since we are not using an enforcement approach,but rather a voluntary one, said Chief Conservator of Forests,wildlife,P S Somashekhar.

He added that there were 28 villages in the tiger habitat area and that 11 villages were slated for relocation,giving Sariska an uninhabited 500 to 600 sq km of area.

Villagers have been given two options while relocating. Under the first option,the Forest Department pays Rs 7 lakh along with land for the construction of a house and Rs 3 lakh in a fixed deposit locked for three years,and under the second option,relocated families are given six bhigas of agricultural land along with money for the construction of a house.

But with increasing demands,vote bank politics,illegal demands,consent issues from the gram panchayat and then the gram sabha and a slow bargaining process,the relocation process is progressing slowly,say forest officials.

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