Nagpur: Despite repeated reminders and deadlines, Maharashtra territorial forest divisions have failed to shape data on All India Tiger Estimation (AITE) 2018.
“Barring parks under tiger reserves, where the Phase IV exercise is carried out annually, all the forest circles, including Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (FDCM), have failed to submit data on AITE,” wildlife wing officials said.
The data has not been submitted despite National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) officials are in the city to review the progress report on compilation of AITE data.
The lack of seriousness by territorial officials also exposes their indifference in tiger estimation work. “On Thursday, progress reports of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were reviewed. On Friday, data from Maharashtra and Odisha will be reviewed,” said sources.
Till Thursday evening, information regarding transect line and camera trap layout, number of beats and ranges was submitted by only Navegaon-Nagzira, Tadoba, Melghat, Pench, Bor, Sahyadri, Tipeshwar, Umred-Karhandla, Painganga, and Nagpur division.
Shockingly, despite laying of transect lines and presence of tigers, no information has not been submitted by all parks under the jurisdiction of additional principal chief conservator of forests (APCCF) for wildlife western region.
The Gondia, Bhandara and Wardha divisions where there is tiger presence did not submit any information. “In Wardha division, there were 187 transects and data was collected from February 15-20, but no information has been submitted,” said sources.
The territorial officials from Chandrapur, Yavatmal, Amravati, Gadchiroli, Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Thane, Kolhapur and Dhule Circles have failed to furnish any information.
Among all these circles, status of AITE 2018 in Maharashtra shows that data was not collected in tiger bearing Amravati, Yavatmal and Chandrapur Circles. While in Gadchiroli though data collection was done, it has not been submitted.
The apathy by forest officials has been exposed despite PCCF (wildlife) AK Misra sending repeated reminders and deadlines to respective chief conservators of forests (CCFs). “Under such circumstances, no state level report can be complied,” admitted senior wildlife officials.
As per the last tiger estimation, there are 200 plus tigers in Maharashtra, but lack of information from territorial areas like Chandrapur, Bramhapuri, Yawal, Wadsa, Amravati and Yavatmal will affect the tiger numbers. Earlier, while talking to TOI, Misra had said the six-day exercise was conducted from January 20-25, in around 6,000 beats in the state including tiger reserves, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks and tiger bearing territorial forest areas. However, as per the position on May 17, 2018, the estimation has been conducted in 2,124 beats in 151 ranges only.
A senior wildlife officials admitted that Maharashtra Forest Guards, Foresters Sanghatana boycott of use of technical gadgets had hit the tiger estimation work. The exercise was again conducted from February 15-20. “Those who have not submitted the data are facing software problems,” he said. The official admitted that this happened despite training to staff.