Wildlife and Nature Conservation - Centre for Ecological Sciences

Departments. Similarly the BNHS has coordinated the Important Bird Area programmein India. The Bio-geographic report by Rodgers and Panwar 1 mentioned above alsorecommends the conservation of numerous identified corridors.Once identified, prioritized and agreed to, respective State Governments must declarethem and either make them part of existing protected areas, or declare them asEcologically Sensitive Areas under the EPA. If extension of existing PAs – either aNational Park or Sanctuary – is not possible then corridors could be covered under aConservation Reserve and on private land under a Community Reserve. Agro/farmforestry and afforestation under the Lok Vaniki can also be encouraged and activelysupported to provide forest cover on private lands.Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESAs) are declared under the provisions of theEnvironment (Protection) Act, 1986 and the E.P Rules of 1986. The power to declare thesame is vested in the Central Government. Declaration of ESA is a centralized processand aims at addressing specific environmental threats such as mining, industrialization,construction etc in ecologically sensitive areas.9.7 Improved Management of Protected AreasIt is regrettable that despite conclusive evidence that the nation’s incalculable naturalwealth vests in our effectively managed protected areas and indeed, have a long-termfuture mainly in these entities, the forest departments of the States continue to regardthem and the wildlife wings in whose charge they are or should be, as unimportant oreven extraneous. Protected areas are viewed not as the regulators of water and the lasthavens of hope of our virgin and climax forests and biotic communities both faunal andfloral, but as wasted resources. This mindset prevails despite the change in priorities fromthe National Forest Policy of 1952 to the current one of 1988 and despite the fact thatexperience has taught that usage once allowed, cannot be effectively regulated and thatthe nation’s needs cannot be fulfilled by exploiting the less than 2% of the area that isinviolate today. The PAs and the parent wildlife wings, therefore, are today “suffered” bythe State Governments, not supported for what they are and what they mean to the nation.This attitude is reflected in the lack of importance that is accorded to them, and which inturn manifests itself in financial allocations, allotment of personnel and lack of support tofulfill management pre-requisites and implementation of law.Firstly, the Wildlife Wings and the PAs are treated as “dumping” grounds of unwantedofficers and staff of the forest departments. Such personnel neither have the interest andaptitude for, nor training in wildlife management and once posted, would makeendeavours to get away from their postings. It is significant that the few officers in theStates trained in the WII are not given wildlife postings, and the few officers interested innature conservation and committed to it, are persuaded to go elsewhere. The officer corpswhich mans the PA system and the Wildlife Wings, therefore, are mostly unprofessional,disinterested and even disgruntled.Protection is the very basis of conservation, especially in a poor and populous countrylike India, with its mounting demographic impact. It is ironic, therefore, that the inverse1 Rodgers, W. A., Panwar, H. S. and Mathur V. B. 2000. Wildlife protected area network in India. – Areview. Dehradun, Wildlife Institute of India.126