New Telangana projects threaten wildlife

Hyderabad: Telangana’s State Board for Wildlife met for the first time after the formation of the new state and cleared several major proposals.

The meeting on Tuesday cleared the proposal for a uranium exploration survey over 83 sq. km in the Amrabad Tiger Reserve and lifted the ban on movement of heavy vehicles in the Kawal Tiger Reserve.

TS Chief Wildlife Warden P K Jha said, “We have accepted the proposal for a non-invasive survey of uranium exploration in Amrabad Tiger Reserve that falls in Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda districts. We also accepted 11 diversions of land for the Bhagiratha project. One important decision was to notify the nesting and breeding area of the Long Billed Vulture in the Bejjur range of the Kagaznagar division as a Conservation Reserve under the Wildlife Protection Act. It will get almost similar legal status as that of a wild life sanctuary.”

The forest area in Murliguda in the Bejjur range of Kagaznagar division is the only known habitat of the Long Billed Vulture in Telangana state. The nesting and breeding site of the vultures is located in Pala Tapu Gutta, a 150-metre-high hillock with a width of 250 metres at the base. The hillock has steep cliffs and ledges which provide the perfect nesting site for the vulture.

Mr Jha said that the vulture population has increased in the last three years from 10 to 30 because of conservation measures. Around 120 sq. km surrounding the hillock is a Conservation Reserve.

Wildlife activists angry with project clearances
Telangana’s State Board for Wildlife meeting on Tuesday cleared the proposal for a uranium exploration survey over 83 sq. km in the Amrabad tiger reserve and lifted the ban on movement of heavy vehicles in the Kawal tiger reserve.

TS Chief Wildlife Warden P.K. Jha said the ban on heavy vehicles during the day on Jinnaram road in Kawal sanctuary has been lifted but a toll tax will be collected to discourage heavy vehicles.

A patch of land in Mahavir Vanasthali Park in the city has been given to HMDA for road widening. For Kawal tiger reserve a condition was imposed that compensatory afforestation land has to be given in the tiger corridor.

Wildlife activists are unhappy at all these clearances, especially the diversion of forest land in the notified corridor area of Kawal tiger reserve for Mission Bhagiratha.

The diversion of land in Kawal reserve and Eturunagram sanctuary will lead to legal tangles and with the National Green Tribunal if a petition is filed.

A member of the Wildlife Board said, “Amrabad is the best tiger habitat and Chen-chus live here. Though the uranium exploration claims to be non-invasive it will have a huge impact as the area is 85 square kilometres.”

He said the Bejjur vulture area should have been declared a sanctuary instead of a conservation reserve as the legal sanctity would then have been strong.