Both the notifications were issued by the state government on Saturday evening. Sinha, who is yet to complete his full tenure of three years as field director, will be replaced by young and energetic Virendra Tiwari. Tiwari was chief conservator of forests (CCF) with budget, planning and management at Van Bhavan. He will be replaced by Sinha.
Sinha was not available for comment. State's head of forest force (HOFF) A K Joshi confirmed to TOI that Sinha has been replaced by Tiwari. He will assume charge on Monday.
Asked whether Sinha's transfer was due to spurt in poaching in the buffer zone of Tadoba - two tigers have been poached near TATR since April 26 - Joshi admitted that there are various reasons but this is one of the reasons.
"Yet, the fact cannot be denied that Sinha took good initiatives. The transfer is not a reflection on his governance," Joshi stressed.
Meanwhile, the ambiguity over unified control of TATR buffer has come to an end. On Saturday, a separate notification issued by the government states that henceforth, the entire administrative control of buffer zone will be with the TATR field director. TOI had been frequently raising the issue that overlapping administrative control was a deterrent in tiger protection and its conservation. Read the full report here.
Source: Vijay Pinjarkar, TNN, Nagpur.
