BHUBANESWAR: The Sunabeda Tiger Reserve (TR), granted in-principle approval a decade back, (PCCF), will be notified by the State Government within a month. Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Wildlife Ajay Mohapatra on Tuesday said all the formalities in this regard have been completed.
At present, Similipal and Satkosia are the only two notified TRs in the State. The Centre had accorded in-principle approval to Sunabeda as a TR on August 21, 2008 seeking a final proposal for the project.
Lying in proximity to Chhattisgarh, the habitat had been facing Maoist menace leading to disruption and delay in enumeration and survey required for tiger reserve notification. An expert committee formed in 2010 by the Forest and Environment department couldn’t carry it out on time. After years of delay, the Wildlife Wing in 2016 completed the task and submitted the proposal to the State Government where it is still pending.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in June last year had also asked the State Government to expedite steps to issue final notification for Sunabeda Tiger Reserve at the earliest. The proposed reserve is said to be a good tiger habitat given its contiguity to Udanti-Sitanadi TR of Chhattisgarh. Besides, it also connects to Central India Tiger Landscape.
The PCCF said, “Though there is no direct evidence of tiger presence in the area, it has a huge potential to be a tiger reserve.”
The proposal submitted by Wildlife Wing had put the total notified area of the TR at 1,083.098 sq km. It comprises Sunabeda Wildlife Division at 600 sq km and Khariar Forest Division at 483.098 sq km. Its core area is pegged at 510.461 sq km while the buffer zone is measured at 572.63 sq km. The PCCF said notifying Sunabeda Tiger Reserve will strengthen the State Government’s tiger conservation activities.
State not to dispute NTCA census
Chief Wildlife Warden Ajay Mohapatra on Tuesday said the State doesn’t challenge NTCA census and is taking adequate measures for tiger conservation. He, however, felt that the State’s tiger population figure would have shown an increase had the pug mark evidence been used and more camera traps installed.
“The survey techniques need improvement as the number of camera traps in the State is limited compared to other tiger reserves,” he said, adding, “This leads to better area coverage and sampling in those reserves.” The grasslands of the existing tiger reserves for expansion of prey base of the tigers will be increased and villages from the core areas of tiger reserves relocated,” he said.