Maharashtra: Corridor identified only after tiger spotted crossing Umred highway

NAGPUR: ‘Once broken, gone forever’ has come true for the tiger corridor between Umred-Karhandla-Paoni Wildlife Sanctuary and Muniya Conservation Reserve which has been cut due to the four-laning of NH353D between Nagpur and Umred by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
On November 18, a tiger was seen crossing the 100-feet-wide highway in daylight near the chakrighat turning at Ukarwahi ahead of Umred. On Tuesday afternoon, passers-by spotted the tiger moving through the edge of a damaged hillock. The big cat seems to be finding it difficult to cross the highway.
Though there is a rich presence of wildlife in the area on both sides of the turning, while giving a preliminary go-ahead in 2018, the deputy conservator of forest had mentioned there is no wildlife found in the area.
The forest officials learned about the corridor only now when the tiger was spotted. This forest area is also shown in the Eastern Vidarbha Landscape (EVL) corridor atlas at Grids 122 and 123.
With no solution in sight, Nagpur deputy conservator (DyCF) Bharat Singh Hada said, “We had raised the issue in the district tiger cell meeting on Tuesday. Two project directors Arvind Kale and Vilas Bramhankar from the region attended. The corridor must not have been identified when forest clearance was given for the Umred highway.”
“We have sought NHAI’s compliance on what has been done at vulnerable spots where animal deaths have been occurring frequently. We also discussed what can be done at such spots and ones like Ukarwahi on Umred road. Once permissions are granted under Forest Conservation Act (FCA), it is difficult to stop work unless there are violations,” said Hada.
Environmental activist Anasuya-Kale Chhabrani says, “It is clear that availability of data and field scientists is no longer a limitation. However, coordination, communication and utilization of scientific resources are lacking. This has repeatedly led to irreversible damage to wildlife habitats since the forest authorities have short changed wildlife for development clearances.”
“It is essential to rethink the constitution of committees for such forest clearances. Forest officials are unable to highlight wildlife corridors and have restricted themselves to protected areas (PAs). A high-level committee with the inclusion of local wildlife groups and scientists is essential to overcome this issue,” says green activist Shrikant Deshpande.
“Our study has shown that in absence of corridor connectivity in the long-term, the probability of local extinction of tigers from Umred-Karhandla sanctuary is 40-60%. Given this, it is critical to safeguard these lesser-known corridors connecting protected areas in this landscape,” said wildlife biologist Aditya Joshi.