Mizoram min hopes wages to Dampa staff will be cleared soon

AIZAWL: Mizoram environment, forests and climate change minister TJ Lalnuntluanga has expressed hope that wages of the Tiger Protection Force (TPF) staff guarding the Dampa Tiger Reserve pending for the last six months will be paid soon.
Lalnuntluanga, according to an official statement, met director general of forests and special secretary to the ministry of environment, forests and climate change CP Goyal on Friday in Delhi. The statement said the repeated delay in sanctioning of fund for wages of TPF was due to snags in the financial system, especially for Mizoram and Maharashtra.
Goyal was quoted as saying that officials of the National Tiger Conservation Authority would take up the matter to ensure payment of unpaid wages to the TPF before the end of the current financial year. The TPF began an indefinite strike to demand unpaid wages from March 1.
The strike could not have come at a worse time from the conservation point of view because it leaves one of the most bio-diverse patches of tropical rainforests south of the Brahmaputra unguarded just as the dry season climaxes. The dry season means wildlife will congregate in large numbers in the few watering holes just when dry, sparse foliage offers poachers clearer lines of sight. A forest fire had already consumed a portion of the Dampa Tiger Reserve during the first week of March.
Added to this is the start of the season for collecting 'anchiri' (Paris polyphylla), a native flowering plant, widely used for medicinal purposes, to sell to traders from elsewhere.