Sanctuary | Campaign
The Kawal-Tadoba Tiger
Corridor in Danger!
When ecologically-
damaging projects are approved
in and around natural havens,
conditions and mitigation measures
are supposed to be applied to reduce
the negative impact. Sadly, almost
inevitably, politicians tend to dilute
such conditions to suit the profi t-
motive of contractors, rather than
make conditions more stringent to
ensure the safety of biodiversity.
Such dilutions tend to render
conditions ineff ective and even offi cial
government bodies mandated to
protect such wildlife and wildernesses
are defanged.
A case in point is the
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Pranahitha Project,
which involves the construction
of a canal that will sever the best,
possibly the only viable, forest corridor
connecting Telangana’s Kawal Tiger
Reserve to Maharashtra’s Tadoba-
Andhari Tiger Reserve. Nevertheless,
without proper consideration, the
project was approved by the State
Board for Wildlife (SBWL) and
National Board for Wildlife, ignoring
conservationists’ openly-expressed
concerns about the negative impact
on this corridor that stretches all the
way to the Indravati Tiger Reserve
in Chhattisgarh, and helps maintain
genetic diversity within the wildlife
populations of these parks. The corridor
also represents a biodiverse parcel of
contiguous tiger habitat measuring at
least 8,000 sq. km.
A proposed sanctuary in the area
directly adjacent to the corridor,
passing through Maharashtra’s Chanda
district, which has about 15 to 20
tigers, would also be severely impacted.
Quick to make promises that are not
eventually kept, the project authorities
readily agreed to construct 18
‘eco-bridges’ to off er safe passage for
wildlife across the canal. Sanctuary
now learns that the Wildlife Institute ofeco-bridges that were approved by the
SBWL and National Tiger Conservation
Authority. It is also imperative that
areas of the corridor where tigers are
being regularly sighted and monitored
should be declared as Satellite Core
of Kawal, as previously decided by
the SBWL.” tSanctuary readers often ask how they
can help protect our vanishing wildlife.
Well, here is the simplest of all ways.
Request the Honourable Minister of
Environment and Forests, Dr. Harsh
Vardhan and Mr. Debabrata Swain,
Member Secretary, National Tiger
Conservation Authority to –
Implement all original
mitigation measures.
Encourage local farmers along the
alignment of the canal to rewild their
farms to allow the natural forest
to regenerate.
Urge that the SBWL declare key
portions of the Tadoba-Kawal
corridor, as identifi ed by the Wildlife
Institute of India, as a satellite core to
the Kawal Tiger Reserve.
Write a polite letter or email:
Dr. Harsh Vardhan
Hon. Minister of Environment, Forest
and Climate Change,
Indira Paryavaran Bhavan,
Jorbagh Road,
New Delhi – 110003.
[email protected]
Shri Debabrata Swain
Member Secretary, National Tiger
Conservation Authority,
First Floor, East Tower, NBCC Place,
Bhishma Pitamah Marg,
New Delhi – 110003.
[email protected]
[email protected]
Do mark a copy to editorial@
sanctuaryasia.com so we can follow up
on your appeal.India and Maharashtra’s Chief Wildlife
Warden have been prevailed upon to
cut the number of eco-bridges down
to 10.
The Kawal Tiger Reserve
(see Sanctuary Asia Vol. XXX No. 6
December 2010) has a core area of
over 800 sq. km. and was notifi ed as
a tiger reserve as recently as 2012.
Though it encompasses vast forests,
the reserve does not have a source
population of tigers yet, but it serves
as a critical sink for transient tigers
from Tadoba. Recent monitoring
exercises have revealed the presence
of as many as 10 individual tigers
moving through the threatened
Tadoba-Kawal corridor, including a
tigress with two cubs! This clearly
indicates Kawal’s potential to become a
breeding site for tigers.
The construction of this canal, that
too with hopelessly diluted mitigation
measures, will hamper this recovery. The
construction will destroy 1,136 hectares
of forestland, of which 622 hectares
lie directly within the corridor. Further,
the canal will be 20 to 60 m. deep and
up to 1,250 m. wide, thus making it
impossible for wild animals to navigate.
According to Prerna Singh Bindra,
former member of the Standing
Committee of the National Board for
Wildlife, “The impacts of linear projects
on wildlife are well-documented, and
we have witnessed how prime habitats
have been dissected and laid to waste
following such intrusions. Ideally, the
canal should not be allowed in such
a key tiger corridor, given that the
survival of the Kawal Tiger Reserve
is dependent on Tadoba. However, in
spite of the importance of the corridor,
and presence of breeding tigresses,
the project has received all relevant
permissions. The state now needs
to at least minimise the damages
by implementing the best possible
mitigation measures – in this case, 18