Govt withdraws proposal for two elephant reserves

The New Indian Express, July 30, 2007

BHUBANESWAR: After sitting on Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF)'s approval for close to a year, the Orissa Government has withdrawn its proposals for creation of two new elephant reserves (ERs).

Besides going back on the new reserves, the Government has at the same time requested that proposal for expansion of the territories of two existing ERs be dropped by the Centre.

Strange as it may sound but insiders say the plan to withdraw proposals is a calculated move to eschew environmental clearance problems as the ERs will be located in crucial mining areas.

The Department of Forest and Environment of the Orissa Government on July 26 wrote a letter to IG (Forests-Wildlife) informing its decision to withdraw the proposals.

Currently, Orissa has three ERs - Mayurbhanj, Mahanadi and Sambalpur - that account for about 1000 of the jumbos. The State is home to 1640 elephants.

Earlier last year, Department of Forest and Environment submitted proposals for two new reserves - Baitarani and South Orissa - while seeking expansion of Sambalpur and Mahanadi ERs. The Directorate, Project Elephant cleared the proposals and only a formal notification by State Government declaring these two as elephant reserves was awaited.

However, the State Government sat on the notifications for a year before it arrived at the decision to withdraw the same.

While the proposed-and-cleared Baitarani ER comprised regions of Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Angul and Dhenkanal districts, South Orissa included pockets of Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Rayagada and Kalahandi districts which explains why the State Government appears reluctant to declare them reserve areas, a senior officer of the Forest and Environment Department said.

“Mines of some of the proposed mega steel and aluminium plants are located in the districts such as Keonjhar, Sundargarh and Kalahandi. Once these are part of ERs, environmental clearances will face hurdles,” sources said.

The 4216 sq km South Orissa ER comprised a crucial wildlife sancturay such as Karlapat while Baitarani, with a proposed area of 10,560 sq km, will have Keonjhar, Angul and importantly Bonai forest divisions as its components.

The State Government's decision will also cost it Central assistance which it received elephant management. Beginning 2001-02 till 2005-06, Orissa got over Rs 5.7 crore from Project Elephant for its three ERs