Scars and Stripes

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/153477/industry-prowl-brt-tiger-reserve.html

Just the other day, there came good news in the form of the Madras High Court having cleared the path for the TN govt. to notify the elephant corridor in the Nilgiris (http://flashnewstoday.com/index.php/hc-says-state-fully-empowered-to-notify-elephant-corridor/). As seems to be the game, Karnataka, which happens to hold land to the extent of 1527.4 km² in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site no less, has recently decided to hand over agricultural land that falls in the elephant corridor along this ancient migratory route. Although, these particular land tracts don’t belong to the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, it neighbours the BR Tiger Reserve. As much as 400 acres of land has been allotted to a sugar company and this land is about a km away from the tiger sanctuary by way of radius and also part of the elephant corridor.

The question is, if one state allows a corridor to be made, does the other state block the corridor and therefore expect animals to know physical state boundaries? The ancient migratory routes have been far and long documented in that they are everlasting, and that any deviation on these routes comes with their fair share of troubles to man and animal. It sure seems that the intelligence on wildlife management across different states too depends on the receding hairline of the government.

Even to a layman, this is ridiculous, given that such a landmark and historical judgement by a high court appears to have had no bearing on the whole wildlife management scene as such and it bears home the fact that even with rapidly diminishing tiger numbers, we are still doing this state by state and department by department.

There is hope, however, in that the project needs to be approved by the National Wildlife Board (NWB) and with the esteemed officials on this board, we can hope to see the balance of power restored, at least a little.