In Chhattisgarh park, Project Tiger left to Naxals

Indravati: For 3 yrs, tiger reserve has been off-limits for forest staff; SDO says: We’re happy Naxals are doing our job

14 March, 2005

In Chhattisgarh’s Indravati National Park, nobody has time for the tigers. And you can’t blame them.Imagine a Tiger Reserve that no forest guard has entered — not on their own, at any rate — in last three years. Imagine 56 revenue villages surviving virtually outside the government in a jungle where the People’s War Group (PWG) claims to run its own ‘‘government’’. Imagine a forest management that wanted to move the field director’s office to Raipur, more than 500 km from the National Park.
Now, consider these:
= Since 2002, says Field Director K Murugan, PWG has been clear: Forest staff is not welcome inside the Park. Coming after the director’s office was shifted 200 km away to Jagdalpur in 1996, after then CF P M Tiwari was beaten up by the Naxalites, nobody took the ban lightly
= The situation even prompted a move to denotify the Park till the state put its foot down. ‘‘The proposal has been put on hold. The Park will be orphaned if we denotify it now,’’ says Dr Rajesh Gopal, director, Project Tiger
= Villagers are unanimous that they have not seen any forest staff inside the Park for years. As such, they are supposed to inform the PWG if they spot an outsider
= Denied access, officials take solace from the complete stop to hunting and tree-felling inside Indravati following a Naxal ban a few years ago. Even the month-long annual hunting fest of the local tribals — paradh — has been under check. ‘‘Thanks to the PWG ban, animals and the jungle are safe. We are happy that Naxals are doing our job,’’ says SDO S G Parulkar. There is no way to ascertain the tiger status before the Naxal ban
= The Naxalite threat notwithstanding, tiger census reports are filed every year. Parulkar claims 31 tigers were counted in the 2005 census, the highest since the Park came under Project Tiger in 1984 with 38 tigers
Lakhshminath Nag is the lone beat guard manning the chowki at Farsegarh, a village on the Park boundary. He says others posted there avoid staying overnight and only make short visits. Nag sometimes ventures inside the Park on foot. ‘‘That’s the best I can do,’’ he says. He hasn’t forgotten how badly he was beaten up inside the forest by the Naxals before he sought this ‘‘safer’’ posting.
Mid-90s onwards, forest staff became wary of serving at Indravati and the department employed locals who have no choice as they can’t leave their villages.
Says Field Director K Murugan who took charge a few months back: ‘‘It’s a conflict situation. Naxalites don’t allow road maintenance so the Park is inaccessible by car. Our men try to go in on two-wheelers and foot. Our chowkis inside have been dismantled. But it’s wrong to say there is no access. It is limited but our staff does go in...Villagers may not see us as we avoid them unless necessary. There is no funds problem. No major vacancies either.’’
But admits Dr Rajesh Gopal, Director, Project Tiger: ‘‘Indravati is not in good shape. I had to stop the move to shift the HQ to Raipur by stopping funds. But Murugan is trying to improve the situation.’’
But how are PT funds spent in the absence of proper access to the Park? While villagers allege corruption — ‘‘forest officials spend it on paper’’ — Murugan laughs it off: ‘‘What corruption? We do some developmental work that the Naxalites don’t object to. Anyway the fund is too small. So spending it is not a problem.’’
Valmik Thapar, member of Central Empowered Committee formed by the SC, is not impressed: ‘‘Indravati is a failure. It is understood that all project Parks can’t succeed. But why can’t they be honest and declare it a failure? If tigers are safe with Naxals, let Project Tiger spend that money elsewhere.’’
‘‘Naxalite ban on hunting is great logic,’’ says P K Sen, ex-director, Project Tiger, and chief of WWF Tiger Programme, ‘‘but if villagers can’t flout PWG ban on hunting, do you think forest staff would defy Naxals and enter the Park to conduct tiger census? Then, how do these numbers come up every year?’’