Highways play spoilsport in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh

Visakhapatnam: Though there are three Tiger reserves in Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh, all of them have problems of human habitations and vehicles passing through them. The forest departments of both states are finding it difficult to overcome these problems.

Telangana state has Kawal and Amrabad tiger reserves, while Andhra Pradesh has Nagarjunasagar—Srisailam tiger reserve, the largest tiger reserve in the country, spread across 3296.31 square kilometres. The Amrabad and Kawal reserves are around 2611 square kilometres and 2015 square kilometres respectively.

Unfortunately, there are highways passing through all the three tiger reserves, which disturbs the tiger habitat. The Hyderabad–Nagpur National Highway cuts through Kawal and the Hyderabad–Srisailam road passes though the other two.

As there is no way the highways can be shut down at night, vehicles pose a very definite threat to the wildlife.

Human encroachments into wildlife reserves is another threat. Villages are located in and around the tiger reserves.  TS is all set to relocate villages that are inside the tiger reserves.

Cattle grazing is also a major challenge for the forest department, as this depletes the food and water for the herbivores that are prey for the tigers.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle PCCF Andhra Pradesh Mohammad Ilyas Rizvi said, “We are happy that Andhra Pradesh has a growth of 12 per cent in the tiger population. The state now has about 10 tiger cubs. We went into a positive trend this time and are expecting a huge increase in the number of tigers by the next census. It is true that the forest department is facing some issues and we are trying to overcome them.”