NAGPUR: Former minister and BJP MLC Chandrashekhar Bawankule has written to Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav to de-reserve part of the Totladoh reservoir on Maharashtra and on Madhya Pradesh sides for fishing by locals.
Bawankule confirmed to TOI that he had received 40-50 applications from local tribals who want legal sanction for fishing as a source of employment. They want part of the Totladoh reservoir in Nagalwadi and Sillari ranges to be opened for fishing.
However, Bawankule’s communication to the MoEFCC minister on June 14 is a reference to a representation from Ramtek Congress leader Udaysingh aka Gajju Yadav, a staunch supporter of Pench fishermen.
Bawankule said locals are dependent on fishing for their livelihood and the ban has put a question mark on the survival of these families living on the fringes of the Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR).
“These tribals can be allowed to do fishing after dereserving part of the Totladoh reservoir under the vigilance of the forest staff manning the protection huts. The forest department can also collect revenue from them,” says the letter to Yadav.
However, wildlife experts termed the demand by Bawankule as absurd. They said first the former minister should understand that there is a Supreme Court ban on fishing inside tiger reserves.
Secondly, the small villages that have been settled on the fringes of Pench were basically labourers who were brought for the construction of the Totladoh dam. They continued to stay in Pench even after the dam work was completed in 1990.
These villagers had moved the high court against their evacuation by the forest department. In 2002, the court rejected their claim and directed them to be removed from Pench.
These people were later resettled at Wadamba by the administration in 2002. The villagers’ claim on fishing rights under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) has already been rejected by the district-level committee (DLC).
As reported and documented earlier, fishermen from nearby villages enter the reserve, move through the core tiger habitat, and are involved in all sorts of illegal activities like igniting forest fires, attacking patrolling staff with weapons, poaching wild animals, etc.
