Nagpur: Maharashtra Chief Minister
Prithiviraj Chavan on Tuesday announced a rehabilitation package
of Rs 50 crore for tribals in tiger reserves of Tadoba and
Melghat in Vidarbha region of the state.
Chavan, who kicked off a whirlwind tour of Vidarbha
from today, visited Lekha-Mendha village in Gadchiroli
district, along with union minister for environment and
forests Jairam Ramesh, and handed over transit passes to
tribals there thus offering them right of harvesting and
managing Bamboo as a forest produce.
Chavan said that "The state government has decided to
denotify 32,230 hectares of land and will prepare a draft
proposal accordingly and it would be sent to Centre for
necessary process."
"A large number of irrigation, infrastructure, roads
and other projects were held up because of Zudpi-Jangal act
which prohibited any activities in the forested areas. The
state government will take up the issue with the Centrally
Empowered Committee (CEC) before approaching the Supreme Court
to denotify the Zudpi-Jangals," he said.
Chavan announced that the state Government will
allocate Rs 10 lakh each to the families in Kolsa village in
Tadoba forest area. Out of Rs 50 crore, Rs 10 crore would be
spent on Tadoba and Rs 40 crore on Melghat, Chavan said.
Ramesh, who along with Chavan inaugurated the regional
office of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), said
since a number of tiger projects are located near Nagpur, the
government would shortly be preparing a master plan for
developing it as an gateway to nearby tiger reserves.
PTI
