UP has reservations in granting tiger reserve status to Pilibhit

Govt says management issue, activists say it's all about money

The Uttar Pradesh government is in no mood to declare Pilibhit forest a tiger reserve, despite the Centre's in-principle approval for it.

The proposed tiger reserve, spread over more than 1,000 sq km, was given in-principle approval by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2008. Later, the state government sent the necessary proposal in 2010, but it was returned by the Centre seeking clear demarcation of core and buffer areas. Since then, the state government has failed to work out the precise details.

Forest Secretary R K Singh said the declaration of the tiger reserve will curtail movement of locals inside the forest, most of whom are dependent on the forest for many things like fodder. It will become a management problem to stop them from entering the reserve and implementing the restrictions of a tiger reserve, he said.

Singh added that without declaring it a tiger reserve, the department was running many conservation initiatives.

However, Parvez Habib, a Pilibhit-based wildlife activist, said the state government also did not want to lose the revenue which it gets by selling old trees and fodder and by auctioning several ponds inside the forest for fish trade. Besides, if the forest was declared a reserve, it will also have to allocate a budget for the reserve.

Lately, problems of man-animal conflict have been rising in Pilibhit. The deaths of three tigers have been reported in the last four months from the Pilibhit forests. One tiger was found killed in Puranpur area of the Pilibhit division on August 12. The bodies of two tigers were found in Pilibhit forest in May. They were found to have been poisoned by the villagers to avenge the killing of their animals by the tigers. The autopsy report of the tiger killed in August is awaited.

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