Click to play videoNew Delhi: Poaching is not the only threat to tigers. One of the biggest threats is infrastructure expansion.
Tigers need habitats to breed and live in and without the forest their future is precarious.
With big infrastructure projects being planned in or adjacent to tiger reserves the problem of saving tigers is getting compounded.
Some of the major infrastructure projects being planned inside or near the tiger reserves include:
- Nagarjuna Sagar - 50 sq kms denotified for uranium plant.
- In Madhya Pradesh's Pench and Kanha 86 hectares of forest will be used for the expansion of National Highway No. 7.
- In Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh National Highway No. 6 will cut through Indravati Tiger Reserve and the corridor between Nagzira and Navegaon sanctuaries.
- In Maharashtra 1700 hectares of forestland are planned to be used for Adani cement plant on the border of Tadoba Tiger Reserve.
- In Uttaranchal's Corbett Tiger Reserve plans are afoot to cut down thousands of trees on the border of the tiger reserve to build a highway through the park to connect Dehradun with Nainital.
- In Arunachal Pradesh Kameng Hydroelectric project is being built on the border of Pakke Tiger Reserve that will submerge 700 hectares of forest land.
Between 2006 and 2008 of the 1,000 odd projects that came to the Ministry of Environment and Forests for clearance not one was rejected.
Now the question is with a new minister in place will he be able to say no to infrastructure projects in tiger reserves?
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