T under-utilising CAMPA funds, tiger population declining: Kishan Reddy writes to CM

Hyderabad: Are the tiger populations in Kawal Tiger Reserve and Chennuru in Telangana going down? Highlighting this issue, Union Minister of Tourism, Culture, and DoNER, G Kishan Reddy, in a letter to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Monday asked for his immediate intervention.

The minister pointed out that funds have been allocated to Telangana, as per its own Annual Plan of Operations (APO) for afforestation under the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) Fund. The State government had submitted its APO, and the Centre approved it and allocated funds. But, the gap between the allocated funds and expenditure shows under-utilisation of funds as per the State government's own APO. In turn, the State failed to achieve the objectives of the conservation of forests and wildlife.

Reddy, citing the recent NTCA report, said the tiger population in Kawal Tiger Reserve and Chennur was falling. The report released recently by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) regarding the number of tigers in the country makes it clear that Telangana was one of the few States where the tiger population decreased and immediate conservation measures needed to be taken.

The NTCA report brought to light that tigers were locally moved from Kawal Tiger Reserve to Chennur in Telangana. The report stated that "if management activities like prey augmentation, habitat restoration, and protection are undertaken with serious efforts, tiger reserves and protected areas in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana still hold potential for further recovery of tiger population."

He said that the conservation of nature is an inherent part of India's civilisational ethos and culture, and forests provide habitats for many types of wildlife, and medicinal herbs, as well as livelihood opportunities for tribal communities. Against this backdrop, the Centre has created a comprehensive strategy to increase the forest area lost due to various development programmes across the country. The "Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA)" has been set up to restore the lost forest area in the respective areas by increasing the number of trees. Apart from CAMPA, the Centre has also been releasing funds under its sponsored schemes from time to time for forest and wildlife conservation and maintenance of parks and zoos. However, the State government has failed to release its share to the Tiger Conservation Project. He asked the CM to intervene and take appropriate steps for forest and wildlife conservation in Telangana.