Red alert on but it’s not like Sariska everywhere, says Raja

Two days after PM Manmohan Singh visited the Ranthambhore sanctuary and expressed concern at the depleting tiger numbers, Environment Minist...

Two days after PM Manmohan Singh visited the Ranthambhore sanctuary and expressed concern at the depleting tiger numbers, Environment Minister A Raja said today that there is no evidence to draw an inference that a ‘‘Sariska-like situation’’ prevailed in other reserves.

Raja, however, added that red alerts have been issued to all reserves, apart from regular monsoon patrolling.

The Sunday Express had first reported on the vanishing tigers in Sariska and followed up with a series of reports from various reserves, including Ranthambhore, on the dip in tiger numbers.

‘‘While the new country level census figures of tiger would be available after February 2006, the subjective opinions of some individuals based on anecdotal evidence should not lead to a conclusion that the tiger population is declining in the country as a whole,’’ he said, while addressing a meeting of field directors of tiger reserves and Chief Wildlife Wardens of states.

Raja said there is a ‘‘need to learn from the Sariska experience’’ and called for a roadmap to protect the tiger. The Wildlife Institute of India has been directed to undertake a detailed study of Sariska, he said.

The field directors and wardens are understood to have told the Minister that villages inside core areas have to be relocated first.

ADG (Wildlife) R.S. Katwal said, ‘‘We are facing a problem of regulating. Some of the villages have to be relocated. We have found that tiger breeding is not taking place. In Sariska, there were 28 villages. That is a serious problem.’’