Article by Air Cmde Pat Singh

Protected Areas (PA) in relation to nature conservation in India, includes all National Parks (NP), Wildlife Sanctuaries and Biospheres. The steady erosion of such areas and their produce is moving towards the point of no return. There is an urgent need to address this grave situation in a time bound manner.

Nature left to itself maintains it's balance. This fact dictates that our Protected Areas would thrive best with minimum human interference. However, our PAs are an economic asset and a certain amount of human activity in the form of tourism, research and protection etc. is inevitable. In respect to tourism the question that arises is, "how much should nature be interfered with for the convenience of human visitors?". In the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR), which includes the Corbett National Park and it's buffer zone, tourist accommodations, metaled roads, chaurs (grasslands), and even an artificial lake have been made for the convenience of human beings.This has been justified under the heading of "good economic management".

The net result is that although the viewing of wildlife has improved, the behaviour patterns of wild animals and the natural propagation of the bio-diversity of such areas have been adversely effected. The argument for tourism is that it brings economic benefits, hinders poaching and other illegal activities and "opens up" remote areas. However, if the implementation of the law is weak, then the development of such areas for tourism ends up by assisting those who illegally exploit such areas. Unfortunately, the implementation of law in the rural and remote areas of India is weak.

There is a need to protect PAs effectively. The rapid increase in India's population dictates that we not only protect our PAs but also expand our natural forest cover, rather than clear them for farmland. This is specially relevant in ecologically sensitive areas such as the Sivalik and Himalayan hill regions. Forest cover is the best investment against floods, enhancement of rain and supply / storage of fresh water. If there is a single most important element for human survival, then it is fresh water. It is therefore essential that we conserve and protect our forests and wildlife as they exist today and refrain from any sort of human activity, including tourism, that adversely effects them. As it stands today, our politicians view the development of forest areas only in terms of short term gains through exploitation rather than long term benefits. The lack of political will is amply illustrated by our inability to effectively protect the tiger and the rhino, the former of which is even associated with Hindu divinity.

A lot has been said for and against human habitation in and around our PAs. In this respect our forest policies have been defective for the past couple of hundred years since the key word ha been 'exploitation' and has all but excluded the participation of local communities in the management of forest areas. This has given rise to a negative attitude towards what is perceived to be government property run by inefficient and corrupt officials. Lately however, there has been talk of revising this age-old policy and one can only hope that it will be the first in many positive steps to be taken in the right direction.