The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, mandated every state to notify core and buffer zone in each wildlife area. Despite the specific clause in the law, the state governments had refused to implement it for political and socio-economic reasons.
India's tiger state Madhya Pradesh had refused to notify the buffer or peripheral zone in Panna tiger reserve citing political constraint. State chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had gone on record against notification of buffer zones and local BJP leaders have threatened agitation if the buffer - home for diamond mining - is demarcated.
In Rajasthan, the buffer in both Sariska and Ramthambore has not been notified as number of resorts and state highways fall in the buffer zone. Similar is the case with Dudhwa tiger reserve in Uttar Pradesh and Sahyadari in Maharashtra.
Of the 41 tiger reserves in India, 15 have not notified the buffer area. Except, Valmiki tiger reserve in Bihar, all others tiger reserves have notified a core-critical or inviolate (safe tiger areas) tiger areas. An area of 800-1,000 sq km should be core area and remaining forest land should be notified as buffer. Read the full report here.
Source: Chetan Chauhan, Hindustan Times, New Delhi.
