Nagpur | Sept 05, 2017: Already faced with shrinking habitat, wild animals are in more trouble. Manganese Ore India Ltd (MOIL) has sought diversion of 24.37 hectares protected forest land in Lanjhera in Pench-Navegaon-Nagzira tiger reserve corridor for manganese mining.
Lanjhera in Nakadongri range of Bhandara division falls in the tiger corridor connecting Pench with Navegaon-Nagzira. There are studies by the forest department and wildlife NGOs about tiger presence here. As per the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, the area also falls in the corridor of Eastern Vidarbha Landscape (EVL).
According to forest department sources, though the proposal for land diversion under the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 was moved in 2016, files are moving fast now. MOIL is a major manganese dioxide ore producer in the country.
MOIL's senior manager (geology) Sanjay Sarkar said permission has first been sought for drilling 39 bores in 2.18 hectares forest land. "If they show presence of ore, then land diversion will be sought. We are still in process of complying with conditions," he added.
The 24.37 hectares (60.21 acres) is equivalent to almost 80 football fields. The land is in Deulgaon-II beat of Jamkandri. The corridor connecting Pench and NNTR is popularly known as Bawanthadi forest block and is one of the crucial linkages among the protected areas of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
As per Phase IV monitoring exercise conducted by the forest department & Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) in 2015, the Bawanthadi forest block has resident breeding tiger population. At least nine adult tigers and 17 adult leopards were camera-trapped in this block. This 550 sqkm forest block has a density of almost 2 tigers and over 3 leopards per 100 sqkm.
"Apart from supporting resident tigers, Bawanthadi corridor facilitates gene flow and movement of dispersing animals between Pench & NNTR. Several dispersal records have been reported over the last couple of years between these two reserves," says wildlife biologist Aditya Joshi, who conducted the joint study.
"A similar study in 2014-15 on tigers conducted jointly by Bhandara forest division and our NGO Save Ecosystem and Tiger (SEAT) revealed dispersal of four tigers from MP Pench. The surplus population of Pench reserves (MP & Maharashtra) disperse in Bawanthadi block," said Shahid Parvez Khan, secretary of SEAT, Bhandara. Khan added Lanjhera also fell in grid number 23 of the Pench-NNTR tiger corridor report on EVL by WII.
Bhandara deputy conservator (DyCF) Vivek Hoshing confirmed MOIL had sought permission for drilling. "The diversion of 24.37 hectares forest land will depend on availability of ore and feasibility. For this, the corporation will have to submit a fresh proposal under FCA," he said.
Interestingly, even as studies were conducted in 2014 and 2015 about ecological and wildlife importance of the area, then Bhandara DyCF recommended drilling permission on the basis of which state's nodal officer wrote to state government on August 1, 2016 allowing drilling permission on 2.18 hectares which is part of proposed 24.37 hectares.
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)