Anamalai, Mudumalai, and Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserves and other wildlife-rich areas of Coimbatore and Dharmapuri forest circles will receive a major portion Rs. 1.17 crore sanctioned to the Forest Department for maintenance of water holes, and for water supply to wild animals to tide over man-animal conflicts during the dry period from December to May.
Mudumalai Tiger Reserve will receive Rs. 37.5 lakh followed by Anamalai Tiger Reserve - Rs. 31 lakh, Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve - Rs. 29.44 lakh, Coimbatore Circle - Rs. 11.16 lakh, Dharmapuri Circle - Rs. 4.2 lakh and Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve - Rs. 4 lakh.
Proposal
The allotment, according to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden who had forwarded the proposal earlier this year, was a special initiative on future strategy towards control of wildlife straying into human habitation nearby for want of water. An order issued recently by the Ministry of Environment and Forests states that “it is very essential to provide drinking water facilities inside the forest areas not only to avoid man-animal conflicts, but also to prevent the wild animals from straying outside the forests.”
The funding to prevent human-animal conflicts is a major relief to the department amidst apprehensions that some instances of deaths of elephants from apparent signs of illness in the tiger reserves could have been caused by possible contamination of depleting water sources inside the forests in recent months.
Wildlife activists say creation of water sources deep inside forest areas was vital during the dry season also to eliminate scope for poaching.
