BHOPAL: Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia met environment minister Bhupender Yadav to discuss the much-awaited translocation of cheetahs from South Africa and submitted a proposal for reintroduction of tigers in Madhav National Park in Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh.
Yadav directed officials to take prompt action on Scindia’s proposal for resettlement of tigers in Madhav. A joint team of central and state officers will visit the park to study this proposal.
The cheetah relocation project was also discussed at length. A dozen cheetahs are supposed to be brought to Kuno National Park in MP by November but the political situation in South Africa and floods in the Chambal region of MP have slowed down the project.
The two also discussed ways to develop world-class eco-wildlife tourism in Madhya Pradesh and other parts of the country.
“Madhav National Park has sustained a tiger population for over 200 years. This area used to be the Reserve Park of the erstwhile Gwalior royal family and boasted of a robust tiger population,” Scindia has written in his proposal.
According to forest department census data, there were four tigers in 1980 and only one each in 1981 and 1987. The next time a tiger was spotted in Madhav was on February 26, 1996 – a ‘very healthy adult, 8.5 feet in length’.
ln the early 1990s, tigers were introduced in a restricted enclosure inside the park and a safari with 10-15 tigers was created. The population increased over the years.
“Due to negligence, however, this safari was closed down and the tigers had to be relocated. ln 1999, the MP government decided to find ways to improve the habitat of Madhav National Park and make it suitable for wild tigers,” Scindia says in his proposal.
“The possibility of dispersing tigers from neighbouring protected areas settling down in Madhav National Park seemed to be the best possible solution. A survey was carried out by Wildlife Protection Society of lndia in 1999 on this, and in 2005, the MP government constituted a high level committee to review the proposal for reintroduction of tigers in Madhav National Park,” he adds. This committee gave its recommendation in November 2006.
Scindia points out in his letter that the park director prepared a proposal in this regard and sent it to the principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) on August 9 this year.
“This action plan involves a capital outlay of Rs 106 crore. You are requested to kindly sanction the reintroduction of tigers in Madhav National Park from any national park and the funds for developing the necessary infrastructure,” he has written.
