The Hindu : `Forest officials neglecting core duties'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 28, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

`Forest officials neglecting core duties'

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE Feb. 27. Wildlife conservation groups that have long felt that World Bank funding or any financial aid for forest conservation and protection is no solution are now saying this is the very lesson to be learned from the recent Nagarahole National Park episode.

After Lokayukta raids on the officials at Nagarahole a fortnight ago, Bangalore-based Wildlife First has said that working on the World Bank-aided Eco-Development Project has "totally distracted the park officials from their core responsibilities of protecting wildlife and forests".

Fearing an attempt to suppress the truth of elephant deaths, timber smuggling, and other omissions and commissions unearthed by the Lokayukta, Wildlife First has urged the Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, to order the stoppage of the Eco-Development Project, on which Rs. 14 crore is yet to be spent.

Investigations by Wildlife First and the facts that emerged from the Lokayukta raids have shown that around Rs. 24 crore passed through the hands of the park officials in the past five years under the Eco-Development Project.

"How can the Forest Department justify spending Rs. 8 million on bamboo hoeing, which is a highly destructive activity, while a huge expanse of natural vegetation was being looted or burned down by forest fires?" is what the Lokayukta and groups such as Wildlife First are asking.

As the Wildlife First president, K.M. Chinnappa says, "Spending crores of rupees on WB loans on rural development is not the job of foresters."

He says it is sad that greed for money is turning what was once the jewel in the crown of all wildlife reserves in Karnataka into a death trap for elephants, tiger, and other wildlife.

Among the gruesome evidence that the Lokayukta's visit threw up was that 77 elephants had died in the national park between January 2000 and October 2002. And 44 of these were tuskers whose numbers are already dwindling all over Asia due to poaching for ivory.

The wildlife scientist, K. Ullas Karanth, who heads the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society's India programme, says, "Such a high proportion of deaths resulting from intra-specific aggression — the official reason for the deaths — is unlikely." Unlike carnivores, he points out, elephants are sociable, and fights-to-the-death are rare.

Mr. Chinnappa, an old Nagarahole hand who quit the Forest Department to work independently over 20 years ago, adds, "The official explanations sound hollow and, in one particular case, the claim that a tusker died of starvation because its tusks were crossed, and it could not feed, is downright absurd."

This is just one of the ominous signs of wildlife destruction in Nagarahole, and the implementation of the Eco-Development Project from 1997-98 has only accelerated the pace of destruction.

Reports of trappers from Madhya Pradesh roaming the park freely, setting up jaw traps which snared one tiger last May, and other wildlife poaching sprees have continued against the backdrop of reports of timber smuggling and habitat destruction.

Wildlife First and other groups have documented the destruction well and, together with the Lokayukta's interest in the goings-on, the so-called "departmental inquiries have turned out to be nothing but a whitewashing of the truth", according to Mr. Chinnappa.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

`Forest officials neglecting core duties'

Somayaji on Centre's Sanskrit panel

`Exit policy, a draconian move'

Cong. eyeing Deputy Chairman's post in Council

Opposition dubs Governor's address insipid

`Appoint more TTEs for passengers' safety'

KHSDP completion by March

`Drought-relief aid inadequate'

10 lakh farmers get health cover

Govt. target: 80 p.c. literacy by 2005