The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) — the apex body tasked with tiger conservation-has asked 19 States to “prioritise” the removal of villagers who are residents in the core tiger zones.
- The letter has drawn the ire of several organisations and activists. They have written to Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav protesting these directions.
- The activists letter alleges that NTCA’s relocation orders were in “complete violation” of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, the Forest Rights Act, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act (LARR), and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
- The ‘core zone’ refers to the portion in a tiger reserve where tribals cannot live and activities such as hunting and collecting forest produce is banned.
- There is a concentric circle outside the ‘core zone’ called the buffer zone where these restrictions are eased but regulated.
- The Wildlife Act says that core zones are to be ‘inviolate’ and these must be made so by coaxing residents to “voluntarily relocate” on “mutually agreed terms and conditions”.
- There are 53 tiger reserves in India across 19 States with 848 villages comprising 89,808 families in the core zone. Since 1973, 257 of these villages comprising 25,007 families have been relocated.
