BHUBANESWAR: Amid widespread criticism over Odisha’s failure in execution of country’s first tiger translocation project in Satkosia, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Wildlife and Chief Wildlife Warden (CWW) HS Upadhyay on Friday said the State Forest department alone cannot be blamed as other institutions were also involved in its implementation.
“Many officials at field level as well as national-level agencies, including the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Wildlife Institute of India (WII), were involved in the project. It won’t be appropriate to say that only Odisha Forest department has failed in executing the project,” Upadhyay said.
Upadhyay’s response came a day after it was learnt that NTCA has decided to put the big cat relocation project on hold for an indefinite period and ordered restoration of tigress Sundari back to Madhya Pradesh.
The Chief Wildlife Warden said it would also be too early to say anything about the success of any project that had been at an experimental stage. Odisha was carrying out such a project for the first time in its history which also was India’s first inter-state tiger relocation programme.
He felt NTCA’s decision to hold the project came as a surprise as a meeting was planned by the Wildlife Wing at Satkosia with all stakeholders, including villagers in the fringe area, for taking forward the project. “Now that NTCA has already taken a decision, the proposed meeting will be cancelled,” he said.