Nagpur: Ahead of the 16th state wildlife board (SWBL) meeting on December 4, over 100 wildlife lovers on Wednesday took out a bike rally to Mahendri in Warud tehsil demanding that the reserve forest be declared a wildlife sanctuary.
Forest officials are wanting to declare Mahendri a conservation reserve that has a lower legal status and lower levels of protection. The agenda of SWBL meeting has a list of 11 areas in the state proposed to be notified as conservation reserve.
The wildlife lovers and youths involved in orange farming drove 115km to Mahendri forest from Amravati-Morshi-Warud to raise the demand for sanctuary. However, the rally was stopped 8km ahead of Mahendri near Pusla by Warud police anticipating law and order problems. There was a small group of villagers on the other side against the demand.
Rajendra Mane, a youth farmer from Warud who voluntarily participated in the rally, said, “I support the sanctuary as better protection and soil conservation works in Mahendri would help improve the water table in the region in the long run and reduce man-animal conflict, which is the need of the hour.”
Wildlife lover Sagar Maidankar said, “The chief minister should turn down the proposal to declare Mahendri a conservation reserve. Under the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), 1972, a conservation reserve doesn’t matter much. It is an eyewash.”
Biodiversity expert Jayant Wadatkar said, “If Mahendri is declared a conservation reserve, there will be no strict enforcement against tree felling, illegal grazing, etc. Besides, there will be no regular fund allocation from the state and Centre.”
“This category was added to the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) later and such protected areas cannot be declared as crtical tiger habitats (CTHs) as per Section 38V of WPA even when it is a tiger habitat,” said former honorary wildlife warden Vishal Bansod.