Masinagudi residents are apprehensive of
what Mudumalai tiger reserve holds for them.
On July 15, inside the core of Mudumalai tiger reserve in Tamil Nadu, a
group of workers waited for a jeep to take them to Masinagudi — a small
town with a contiguous village — few kilometres away. After hours when
the jeep did not turn up, it was rumoured that the drivers were on
strike. The rumours were not totally unfounded. The panchayat of
Masinagudi in Nilgiri district has dug its heels against the
notification of a buffer zone of the tiger reserve.
The
confrontation
has its roots in a Tamil Nadu government notification of December 2007.
The entire 321 sq km of the Mudumalai protected area was designated a
critical wildlife area or core of tiger reserve — parts of it was
earlier formed a national park and parts a wildlife sanctuary, each
with different implications for people living in its vicinity. On the
anvil is also a proposal to declare 500 sq km of contiguous area as a
buffer zone. Forest officials in Tamil Nadu say that all procedures for
the buffer zone notification are over, and it’s only a matter of time
before the buffer zone to be formally declared. The impending
declaration is causing much heartburn in Masinagudi.
Although no relocation has been proposed, people in Masinagudi fear
that a buffer zone notification will prevent them from grazing cattle
and that they will not be able to take tourists in jeeps to the tiger
reserve.
Masinagudi has a total population of 15,000.
It was originally a tribal area. But hydroelectricity projects in
Singara and Moya hamlets brought a lot of immigrant labour who stayed
back. Today there are just 600 tribals in the area.
About a fifth of the people in the village rear cattle, most of the
bovines are scrub cattle that are valued only for their dung. The
cattle are also sold for meat in neighbouring Kerala.
The 500-odd families in Moyar are particularly dependent on cattle
rearing. Linge Gowda of the village who has about 1.2 hectares, 20
goats and 5 cows fears movement inside the forest will be restricted.
Sangeeta Binu, president of the Masinagudi panchayat, who refused to
sign the gram sabha resolution giving consent to the buffer zone
notification, agrees: “It will be impossible for us to keep cattle, and
it will be difficult for us to live here.’’
Five hundred families in Masinagudi dependant on jeep safaris that are
often taken out at night are peeved that two checkposts outside the
core area are closed from 8 pm to 6 am.
The drivers’ association, cattle owners, migrant coolie workers have
got together against the impending notification.
They have demanded that villagers be given grazing permits for their
cattle. People of Moyar want to take water from the Avarhalla Canal.
Forest officials in Tamil Nadu have a different version. The National
Tiger Conservation Authority will provide funds which will be used for
livelihood activities in the buffer zone, they say. Rajeev Kumar
Srivatsav, Field Director, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, elaborates on the
official plans. "All procedures for declaring a buffer zone are over.
We are sorting out the concerns of people in Masinagudi. I am trying to
coordinate with the electricity, water, horticulture, agriculture
departments to form eco development councils to enhance livelihood
options for those in the periphery,'' he says. Eco tourism will be
routed through the councils and local youth trained as forest guides.
Anand Patil, district collector of Nilgiris, talks of other plans.
“Sand and stone mining will not be allowed in a protected area, but the
other demands of Masinagudi are being sorted,” he says. The
administration has agreed to build a check dam for people of Moyar and
has also agreed not to interfere with the collection of minor forest
produce 400-500 sq metres outside the sanctuary. “In case of emergency
villagers will be allowed to go past checkposts at night,” he says.
The issue of grazing rights has also not been sorted out. “We will
discuss the matter with the government,” says Patil.
“There are vested interests behind the opposition to the declaration of
the buffer zone. Every day people trek into forest illegally. If a
village forest committee with forest officer is made in charge of
tourism, this will stop. At present resort owners control trekking and
tourist jeeps. They are those who stand to lose once a buffer zone is
declared,” contends N Mohanraj, Coordinator for Nilgiris and Eastern
Ghats Landscape of the World Wildlife Fund, Masinagudi. He has a point.
There are 50 resorts in Masinagudi and the adjoining villages of
Bokapuram, Mavanhalla, Vazhaithotam and Chokanhalli. In Bokapuram
buildings erected by outsiders have come up too close to the protected
forest.
Tourism has its downside. Nilgiris Biosphere Fading Glory, the report
of a study conducted by the Bangalore based NGO Equations, notes that
prostitution is rampant in the resorts. Local people are employed in
only menial jobs, the study shows.
Mohanraj believes that channelling tourism through eco-development
councils will take care of a lot of problems. Once the councils are
formed in the buffer all tourism benefits will go the local people. “If
only people begin to see the benefits they will protect the forest
because they alone can protect it. The government has spent Rs 1 crore
per tiger, if the majority of this amount was spent on people living
around tiger reserves then they would want to save the tiger,’’ he says.
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Sep92008/environmet2008090888855.asp
