The Soul of Pench forest extends beyond its boundary
Pench Tiger Reserve
As the Indian landmass converges into the geographical
centre of the nation at Zero Point in Nagpur, the centrally located city stakes
its claim to another lofty title as the tiger capital of the world. With six
prominent tiger reserves surrounding the growing metropolis, it is a forested
valley just north of the city that holds the key in our fight to save India’s wildlife.
The beautiful, relatively small, fragmented and conflict-ridden forest in one of
the poorest regions of the country is affectionately known as Pench Tiger
Reserve, so called after the meandering Pench river that flows languidly
through the verdant forest laden valleys.
What Rudyard Kipling imagined of Pench a hundred years ago
must have been surreal - dense forests, ecosystem-centric indigenous people and
plenty of wildlife that would have soothed his soul, perhaps inspiring him
enough to create an abiding fictional character - Mowgli. However, Pench is not
just about soothing the soul of a distant traveller. The forests form the
catchment of the rapidly growing water and energy needs of parched regions of
Vidarbha. More significantly, it serves a critical role as a living bridge, providing
vital corridor connectivity to the forests of Melghat, Bor, Satpura, Kanha,
Navegaon-Nagzira and Tadoba Tiger Reserves. Like a heart that pumps out blood
to all vital organs in the body, the existence of Pench becomes critical in
providing protection to the tiger and other crucial wildlife as they move from one
park to another.
However, Pench, like most old growth forests in India is
saddled with enormous pressures from all sides. As Sumit Kar, who till recently
worked with a wildlife NGO in the Madhya Pradesh portion of the park explains,
“The peculiar feature of state boundaries dividing the park into two management
entities means, there is a Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh and another Pench
Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra. Funding for schemes related to conservation is
higher in the Maharashtra side such as the state funding for Shyama Prasad Jan
Van Yojna. Illegal fishing especially in Khamarpani region of Madhya Pradesh
continues to this day”. Local villagers like Divyam Walke whose family has
lived in Pipariya village in the buffer of Pench Maharashtra add that, “these forests have always been grand as far
as my forefathers can remember. It was only after the creation of the Totaladoh
dam over a previously pristine valley that the ecological stability of the park
was disturbed. The dam destroyed the connectivity between the Maharashtra and
the Madhya Pradesh portions. Additionally, influx of new migrants and
irrigation staff into the area disturbed the social fabric of the region’.
Hiralal Uikey, a villager from Turiya village pointed out
that “ the presence of more than 250 villages surrounding the forest leads to
high incidences of human-animal conflict. Fields in buffer villages which
mostly consist of paddy, tur and cotton are often raided by wild pig, chital
and sambar among other herbivores. Cattle that wander inside the forest are
sometimes predated by the tiger or the leopard. These factors along with a
desire for upward social mobility is driving the Gondi youth away from their
forest-ingrained culture towards urbanization and commercial tiger-centric tourism.
Although there is an increased monetary benefit to the communities living in
close proximity to the tourism gates, the social impact of tourism can have
harmful repercussions in the future”. Divyam adds “Tourism only benefits a few
families from Pipariya and Sillari villages and that too, to just a few families,
while the rest of the villages do not really benefit. People need more awareness
towards conservation as most see wildlife as a rival in the best case, as an
enemy in the worst”.
It requires a cursory look at google maps to understand the
importance of the park’s central location and the effect that linear intrusions like new
roads are having on animal movement and habitat connectivity.
Moving north from Nagpur where the NH 44 cuts a gaping wound
through the green foliage, the forests spreads in all directions. These
tentacles underscore the role of Pench as the source forest for various
critical habitats. From the South-West where a highly degraded corridor
connects Pench with Bor Sanctuary, to the west where Melghat meets Pench, to
the north west where the massive Satpuda Tiger Reserve connects, to the
north-east where Kanha forms a critical corridor, to the south east where the
degraded yet critical corridor of Navegaon-Nagzira that further connects to
Umred-Kharandla and Tadoba Tiger reserve, Pench serves as the central focal
source of animal re-distribution.
The Pench-Bor corridor follows a L shaped direction, moving
westward from Pench cutting through NH 6 and skipping the bustling city of Nagpur
by only 40 km before finally meeting the Bor forest at Adegaon. Virtually cut
off from the other forests of Vidarbha, Bor continues to be stressed from
development activities on all sides. The tigers at Bor have only one good
corridor for genetic dispersal and even this Pench corridor is not safe for
animals as evidenced by the death of Bajirao, the dominant male of Bor who was
crossing over to Pench near Bajargaon in the year 2017.[1]
The Pench-Melghat corridor is under severe stress today. The
patch is good between Malni-Warud to Pandhurna after which it is highly
fragmented till Sausar-Savner as a result of farming and development activities.
The area is prone to petty wildlife crimes like hunting of smaller animals and
birds by locals.
The Satpura-Pench corridor is plagued by manganese and coal
mining, growing modernization and threatened by the expansion of the
Nagpur-Chhindwara railway line that will eat up into the corridor. Sumit
mentions that this corridor is in a zig-zag pattern with isolated pockets of
forests and surrounded by farmlands. Chhindwara is an agricultural zone with good
markets and most people do not associate protecting animals with any viable
returns. As a result, conflict is high in these areas resulting in high mortality
amongst animals as a result of wire traps illegally set up in farmlands.
The Kanha-Pench corridor, arguably the most researched wildlife
corridor in India, though fairly undisturbed, is witnessing potential
disruption due to the doubling of the Gondia-Jabalpur railway line and widening
of the NH44. The highway, which though being converted into a four lane
effectively translates to about eight lanes as a result of service roads and
trenches on both sides. Suresh Matre from Karwahi village mentions “When the
road was only two lane, there were regular sightings of wild animals during the
night, but with new roads, these sightings have dwindled to a large extent”.
The Pench-Nagzira corridor connects to Kanha through Balaghat
and also to Umred through Nagzira and eventually to Tadoba, Gadchiroli and
Indravati. Mukund Durve, who is the honorary wildlife warden of Gondia district
mentions that “The Pench-Nagzira corridor passes through the beautiful
Bhandar-Mogarkassa forests which has very frequent wildlife sightings. However,
a vast portion of this forest was submerged under the newly built Bawanthadi
dam. Villages inside this forest like Rongha-Mangerli are expanding day by day
due to unchecked development, eating up into the corridor. The corridor is
highly degraded in the Chicholi-Tumsar-Tirora area due to mining and power
plants”.
Of late, the Pench administration has been trying its best
to curb illegal activities like poaching and fishing. It is also investing
heavily in nature education activities for local school children and livelihood
activities for local youth and women as the park authorities acknowledge the desire
of the people living in these forests to coexist with the wildlife.
In contrast to many forests where the tiger and other
animals live in isolation surrounded by human dominated landscapes, the
geographical uniqueness of the larger Pench landscape provides an opportunity
to sustain the historically connected habitats. It is essential for small-sized
tiger reserves that are currently unable to support growing tiger populations
to be connected to forest patches in order to encourage genetic diversity and
provide space for territorial animals like the tiger, especially to reduce
conflict in the region.
Innovative
solutions are the call of the hour. Neenu Somraj, Deputy Conservator of
Forests, Mangrove Cell-Mumbai who has earlier served as the Deputy Director,
Pench Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra and in Melghat said, “Having managed protected
areas properly and achieving good tiger numbers, we have to think of managing
corridors. It has to be a collective effort of the Forest Department, NGOs,
politicians and the communities. Pench with a high concentration of Tigers
outside the National Park requires specific wildlife corridor management plans.
Awareness of the masses and sensitization of Forest Department staff towards
wildlife will play a crucial role.” She opined that we cannot have same
strategies for protected areas and corridors as earlier we managed some parts
of these corridors as production forests. Additionally, the stakeholder numbers
are much higher in a corridor than in a protected area. Now wildlife has to be
given a push and the government must think of schemes of voluntary land
acquisition in private lands in corridors similar to the voluntary
rehabilitation scheme in tiger reserves”.
Organisations
working to restore corridors need to be actively engaged and all options
explored so that the corridors are secured. There has also been regular
suggestions to declare corridors as “A specially categorized protected area”,
but with consent and active participation of the local people. It is essential
that coming decade reinforces the intent and desire of the decision makers so
that the fragile strips of corridor land are secured for posterity.
[1] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/bor-tiger-reserves-dominant-male-bajirao-killed-in-hit-and-run-on-nh-6/articleshow/62300662.cms
