The 32-year-old founder president of Eco-Pro, an ecology protection NGO here, says that measures taken by the government to protect tigers are confined to only reserve forest areas, while the buffer and territorial forests in the state continue to be the hotbeds of poaching activities.
"The recent spurt in tiger poaching cases is alarming. Over 100 volunteers of Eco-Pro work closely with the forest department and we feel that only the tigers in the forest reserve of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) are getting protection from poachers," Dhotre told IANS.
"There are many more tigers in the unprotected buffer and territorial forests and that is where the poachers get a free hand to kill them," he added.
The core area of TATR is spread over 624 sq km, while the buffer and the territorial forests have an area of 1,100 sq km.
Dhotre, who begins his fast at the Van Bhavan office, the state's forest headquarters in Nagpur, says Maharshtra was not doing enough to conserve tiger population and that his fast aims at making the government realise of its failure in saving the animal from extinction. Read the full report here.
Source: Times of India, Chandrapur.
