Stop tiger safari in 'Mowgli land': Centre to MP govt

Central Zoo Authority (CZA) has asked Madhya Pradesh forest department to stop tiger safari in the state's Pench National Park citing alleged violation of wildlife norms.
Pench national Park is famous as home to 'Mowgli'-- the protagonist of Rudyard Kipling's 'The Jungle Book'.
In a letter to the State's Chief Wildlife Warden, the CZA said that no safari shall be established without its prior approval.
"As per records of the CZA, no approval has been granted for creation of safari at Pench tiger reserve or Bandhavgarh tiger reserve. Therefore, no construction work should be carried out," the communique said.
The move assumes significance as many wildlife activists have been objecting to the creation of tiger safari in Pench and in Bandhavgarh national parks claiming it harmful for the big cats.

Earlier, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had found alleged violation of laws in construction of tiger safaris in these two national parks.

The NTCA, a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, had also written to the state government saying the ongoing construction of tiger safari inside Pench "is detrimental to tiger dispersal" and "exposes them to poaching".
The Madhya Pradesh forest department has failed to take "prior approval" from the CZA before construction of tiger safari in Pench and Bandhavgarh.
"It is a welcome decision by the CZA. We want the state government to immediately stop construction works inside the tiger reserve," claimed wildlife activist Ajay Dubey.

There are six tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh--Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Panna, Bori-Satpura, Sanjay-Dubri and Pench-- which have at least 257 big cats.
The report found that areas outside the core zone have a
good population of tigers that are breeding well.
Five cubs were also spotted by the cameras but were not taken into account as only adults are counted in population estimates as a rule.
Threatening tiger habitat and its prey base, mangrove forests in the Sundarbans delta are hit hard by constant land erosion and salinity due to rising sea levels.
According to a study by the School of Oceanography Studies in Jadavpur University, the rate of coastal erosion was measured to be about 5.50 sq km per year.

Another report prepared by a group of ecologists led by Dr M Zafar-ul Islam had estimated that if the sea level rises by one meter, the Sundarbans will lose more than half of its area.
"In the long-term sea level rise will be an issue for the tiger population as substantial area is being lost to the sea," Saha said.
Divided by a complex network of streams, rivers, tidal creeks and channels, the UNESCO World Heritage site is also home to 40 lakh people often leading to cases of man-animal conflict.