Committee to study man-animal conflict, explore tiger translocation

Nagpur: The state government has formed a committee to study options related to translocation of tigers from Chandrapur district. The 11-member committee, headed by TATR’s chief forest conservator NR Pravin, will submit its report to the government before December 31.
State forest minister Sanjay Rathod said the committee will be looking into various aspects of the man-animal conflict in the region. A rise in such cases of conflict has been a raging issue between all stakeholders. This was even discussed between chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and the forest department during a meeting on August 7. CM had directed that a detailed study be done over the issue of translocation of tigers.
The committee will analyse man-animal conflict incidents, seek feedback of locals, study previous steps taken to reduce these conflicts and suggest steps to mitigate such incidents in the future.
Sanjay Karkare from Bombay Natural History Society is one of the members of the committee. “I have not yet received the official letter, so can’t go into all the specifics yet. But definitely we will be exploring multiple options on how to handle the man-animal conflict. Translocation of tigers is one of the options,” said Karkare.