Times of India Mumbai; Date:2008 Jan 01; Section:Times Nation; Page Number 11 HEARD THE GOOD NEWS?
*Tiger parks now critical habitat* Designation To Help Curb People's Rights Under Forest Act In Reserves Nitin Sethi | TNN New Delhi: The Centre has demarcated the 28 existing tiger reserves and eight new proposed tiger reserves as critical tiger habitats under the amended Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The declaration of the existing national parks and sanctuaries (that make up the tiger reserves) as critical habitats comes just ahead of the operationalisation of the Forest Rights Act. TOI had earlier reported that the Centre was working to fasttrack the proposal to declare tiger habitats as critical to wildlife as that would keep them out of the purview of the Forest Rights Act. This move had been made after the Congress accepted the tiger lobby's logic that the Act would overrun existing reserves, national parks and sanctuaries by giving rights to people in these 'inviolate areas' and put the Forest Rights Act on hold. The stalled Act envisages formal recognition of the rights of the people already living in such parks before they can be evicted if found scientifically necessary. The tiger lobby believed it would become difficult to remove people if the Act comes into place. Concurring with the conservationists, the Congress high command put the Act on hold and asked the government to instead preemptively declare critical tiger habitats and critical wildlife habitats (for areas not bearing tigers). While the term 'critical wildlife habitat' is recognized only under the yet to be operationalised Forest Rights Act, the term 'critical tiger habitat' gets its legal backing from the existing Wildlife Protection Act. The Centre believes that now that existing tiger-bearing areas have been declared as critical habitats under the existing law, it would be able to carry on with the recently cleared enhanced rehabilitation and resettlement programme (totalling Rs 4,000 crore) for over 270 villages in these areas without the encumbrance of the Act. It was also easier for the Centre to move on the tiger areas first in 'saving' them from the Forest Rights Act as the scientific studies needed to justify such spaces were already well in place. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
