Maharashtra reserves forest to conserve tigers, elephants and leopards

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday declared 2953 square kilometre area in Dodamarg taluka of Sindhudurg district as Tillari conservation reserve The area comprising 10 villages has rich biodiversity and breeding population of tigers leopards elephants and other wildlife speciesThe decision has been welcomed by wildlife conservationists Talking to midday V Clement Ben chief conservator of forest of Kolhapur said This is great news for wildlife lovers and the ten villages of Dodamarg taluka as wildlife corridor is being protected and sustainable livelihood model for the villages will be ensured Also the ecotourism will find a fillip in the coming days The Tilari ecosystem has breeding tiger population and acts as a source population for Sahyadri Tiger ReserveThank you CMOMaharashtra MahaForest AUThackeray AjitPawarSpeaksfr declaring 2953 sq Km area across 10 villages in Dodamarg taluka of Sindhudurg as a Conservation Reserve CR Area is home to rich biodiversity breeding population of tigers leopards and elephants pictwittercomI34p1KTxcomdash Ranjeet Jadhav ranjeetnature June 23 2020In November 2014 a rapid assessment of biodiversity was done in 25 villages of SawantwadiDodamarg region by renowned researchers Varad Giri Raman Kulkarni Girish Arjun Punjabi Farukh Mehtar Dhananjay Joshi Rohan Korgaonkar Akshay Khandekar and Ninad Gosavi They had submitted a report about their research to the forest departmentAccording to the report ldquoThe 25 villages in Sawantwadi and Dodamarg tehsils comprise a mixeduse landscape with naturally forested areas interspersed among private forests and horticultural plantations The Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra Government to forward a proposal based on groundlevel information for declaration of SawantwadiDodamarg region as an ecologically sensitive region We conducted this survey on the request of Chief Conservator of Forests Territorial Kolhapur division for groundlevel informationThe survey recorded at least 19 species of mammals 12 species of amphibians 71 species of birds 60 species of butterflies 2 species of damselflies 16 species of reptiles 4 species of scorpions 4 species of spiders and 5 species of other invertebrates for over six daysHere are the camera trap images of the tiger from the same forest during the study done by MahaForest ben_ifs jayotibanerjee jituramgaokar CMOMaharashtra varad_giri pictwittercomhqlOWaGzPImdash Ranjeet Jadhav ranjeetnature June 23 2020Maharashtras Minister for Tourism Environment amp Climate Change Aaditya Thackeray tweeted ldquoToday the Government of Maharashtra declared the establishment of Tillari Conservation Reserve today in the Reserve Forest of the Forest Range of Dodamarg Sawantwadi The 2953 Sq Km adds a small pug mark in the effort to protect wildlife biodiversity and the tiger I thank CMOMaharashtra Uddhav Thackeray ji OfficeofUT for his crucial push to this project Also a big thank you to the Minister for Forest Sanjay Rathod ji This area is home to the tiger elephants leopards and more UNEP World_Wildlife MahaForest UNBiodiversityToday the Government of Maharashtra declared the establishment of ldquoTillari Conservation Reserve todayrdquo in the Reserve Forest of the Forest Range of Dodamarg Sawantwadi The 2953 Sq Km adds a small pug mark in the effort to protect wildlife biodiversity and the tiger 1nmdash Aaditya Thackeray AUThackeray June 23 2020What experts sayRenowned Herpetologist and Researcher Dr Varad Giri said ldquoThis forest is a bottleneck between northern and middle Western Ghats This decision will ensure that the Western Ghats is entirely accessible Else the northern Western Ghats would have been disconnected This is a major decisionrdquoStalin D from NGO Vanashakti said ldquoIt is a welcome move and will help boost community participation to conserve wildlife habitats and the wildlife will get a breatherrdquoWildlife Researcher Akshay Khandekar said ldquoIts a crucial decision taken by the Maharashtra government to save large mammals in the northern Western ghats as it is the only corridor that supports the movement of large mammals across the ghats I would suggest that the government should also take suggestions from experts who have done extensive research in this areardquoWildlife Conservationist Kedar Gore from NGO The Corbett Foundation said I appreciate this move by the Government to protect this high biodiversity area of Maharashtra However looking at Tillaris ecological importance and habitat connectivity with Sahyadri Tiger Reserve and the forests of Western Ghats in Goa and Karanataka it should have been declared as a Wildlife Sanctuary instead of a Conservation Reserve In the longterm this increased protection for a much bigger area would be essential so that it supports viable tiger populationsSumaira Abdulali convener of Awaaz Foundation said The Bombay High Court Order ofSeptember 2013in Awaaz Foundations PIL is clear that Sawantwadi Dodamarg is to be declared Environmentally Sensitive AreaZone by the MoEF and only the modalities of declaration are left to be implemented No decision to notify the area as Community Reserve can be taken by the Government of Maharashtra which would be in contravention of the existing order The Notification also leaves out many villages of Dodamarg which are included in Orders of the Court which are currently threatened by mining projects However the decision to recognize biodiversity and notify villages beyond the proposed ESA as a Community Reserve is welcome and I thank the Government of Maharashtra for protecting these biodiverse areasCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesMidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news