Kawal reserve loses 10 tigers in a year, scrapes coffers of Rs 2,500 crore

HYDERABAD: In a little over a year, the

Kawal Tiger Reserve

(KTR) in Telangana has lost about 10 tigers. These big cats have either gone `missing', or have been poached or have `returned to Maharashtra' from where they came in the first place, as some forest department officials say.Irrespective of the reasons for their disappearance, the startling fact remains that their vanishing has resulted in a whopping `2,500 crore loss to the state in just the past one year. The loss does not stem from failing wildlife tourism, which is practically non-existent in the state, but from the economic value each tiger contributes in terms of `ecosystem services' that the forest provides.

As per a report prepared by the Indian Institute of Forest Management for the National Tiger Conservation Authority , each hectare of forest in a tiger reserve is worth anywhere between` `50,000 to `1,90,000 just in the ecosystem services such a forest provides.

For each tiger that is protected, it works out to something to the tune of `250 crore a year in accumulated benefits -which is the amount a state will need to spend to replicate the services provided by the forest, that is fully protected.

“The idea is that when the tiger is protected, the forest is protected better. For instance, a forest like Kawal can give the state economic benefits worth Rs 10,000 crore a year,“

Imran Siddiqui

of

Hyderabad Tiger Conservation Society

said.

However, in Telangana, with the entire government machinery focused on just one fo restry related activity that of planting trees as part of the Haritha Haram programme ­ it is believed to be hurting protection activity in the tiger reserves. Every forest department official has been deputed to plant saplings to meet the goal of increasing tree cover in the state.“Nowhere else in the country are staff in tiger reserves deputed for any other duty . Their only purpose is to protect the tiger and create conditions in the fo rest for them to multiply. It is only here that the staff are asked to everything else other their primary job,“ a source explained. “The approach of planting more tree so `vaanal aathe, kotul jaate' may sound interesting and may even be useful but staff in wildlife sanctuaries, especially tiger reserves, should be exempted from tree planting activity and asked to instead focus on protecting the tigers,“ another source said.