Pench - The Heart of India

Posted by ks 08 May

Pench - The Heart of India

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 thatwould 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 witha desire for upward social mobility is driving the Gondi youth away from their forest-ingrainedculture 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 spreadsin 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 thecorridor.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 villagementions “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. NeenuSomraj, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Mangrove Cell-Mumbai who has earlier served as theDeputy 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.