New Delhi: With 30 per cent of the
country's tiger habitat under their control, Naxals pose a
threat to their existence as they hamper wildlife protection
activities, an international conservation organisation said.
"India is facing increasing insurgency problems,
especially as disaffected tribes have turned against the
government and have been supporting groups such as the Maoist
guerrillas known as Naxalites," notes a book published by
International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Titled, "Conservation for a New Era", the book
released recently outlines critical issues facing the world in
the 21st century, developed from the results of last year’s
World Conservation Congress in Barcelona.
Drawing the attention of the global community to save
the dwindling population of the striped cats, it said the
Naxalites are a threat to the recovery of tigers in the Asian
sub-continent as they "control vast areas of remote forest in
central and eastern India –- areas that serve as prime tiger
habitat."
The book, prepared by the leading global environment
network, says while they (extremists) may not be intentionally
targeting tigers, they are preventing conservation activities
in the regions they control, which may be as much as 30 per
cent of the country's tiger range.
Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in its latest tiger
census report said that reserves in areas with heavy Naxalite
presence and influence were the country's worst and the
reasons for the fall in the number of tigers in these
reserves can be anything — from poaching to loss of habitat.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, September 24, 2009, 18:39