Last month, members of the state Assembly from the main Opposition Congress, posed a grave question before the ruling party minister Sartaj Singh who holds forest portfolio, “Is Madhya Pradesh likely to lose its tiger state status?” Though the minister could not satisfy the MLAs, Madhya Pradesh is in dire need of protecting its tigers in Kanha, Pench and Bandhavgarh. A “Tiger Strike Force” plan conceptualised in 2008 has yet to be implemented as the state urgently needs funds from the Centre to protect the majestic animal, vanishing fast.
Of the total 25 sanctuaries, at least three of them Kanha, Pench and Bandhavgarh urgently require funds, staff and force if the extinction of the protected animal be stopped. Constituted in December 2008 the Tiger Strike Force has yet to begin its tasks of recruitment by calling applications.
The state government officials say efforts are being made to protect tigers and Tiger Strike Force is a part of it. “We have demanded a considerable fund from the Centre to constitute the force with a contingent of 1,100. Earlier there were some issues with the Centre but now we have resolved them and a proposal has been forwarded to the Centre. We will primarily recruit ex-servicemen on one-year contract and later recruit permanent staff through open vacancies,” additional chief secretary, department of forest MK Rai said.
Headquartered at Bhopal, the state-level Tiger Strike Force will cover Indore, Jabalpur, Itarsi, Sagar and Satna forest ranges. It will coordinate with various other agencies including the wild life crime bureau and develop its own intelligence. Similarly a regional-level Tiger Strike Force will cover micro-level problems and coordinate with the forest staff at regional areas.
If sources are to be believed, lack of intensive medical care and scarcity of water in sanctuaries and national parks are more responsible for dwindling populations of the biggest cat. “The forest department has no super specialist who can tackle any emergency if any unknown disease grips the wild cat and during the last few years more tigers died of diseases than poaching,” a source told BS adding, “the state urgently need a special medical care unit near the tiger population. A task force had been constituted to find out reasons for missing tigers of Panna national park but where are the findings?”
According to the 2006 census, there were 1,411 tigers in the state of which 89 were in Kanha, 47 in Bandhavgarh and 33 in Pench. The data collection for 2009-10 tiger census has been completed and the results are expected in October-November this year. Spending on Project Tiger has also reached Rs 1,524.68 lakh in 2009-10 from Rs 94.89 lakh in 2006-07 besides central-aided schemes spending of Rs 399 lakh during 2009-10.
Meanwhile in absence of adequate funding and force tigers keep on disappearing from the state.