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The Inter-Linking of Rivers and Biodiversity Conservation: A Study of Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India


Affiliations
1 Department of Wildlife Sciences, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202 133, India
 

The Panna tiger reserve is one of the best examples of the most successful tiger re-introduction programme from zero tiger in 2009 to 54 in 2019. The Government of India has approved the proposal of interlinking of the two rivers, viz. Ken in Madhya Pradesh and Betwa in Uttar Pradesh, to provide surplus water to the local population of drought prone areas of Bundelkhand, UP. This river interlinking will be submerging around 58.03 sq. km of the Critical Tiger Habitat. Our study on vegetation and major prey species of tiger shows higher densities in submerged areas. The NITI Ayog report of 2019 provided one of the best example of the locals of Jakhni village of Banda district of Bundelkhand which managed the severe water crisis. The sensitivity of tiger reserve that project involves need a close attention, which this essay attempts at arguing.

Keywords

River Linking, Submerged Area, Tiger Reserve, Ungulates Density, Water Crises.
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  • The Inter-Linking of Rivers and Biodiversity Conservation: A Study of Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India

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Authors

Talat Parveen
Department of Wildlife Sciences, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202 133, India
Orus Ilyas
Department of Wildlife Sciences, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202 133, India

Abstract


The Panna tiger reserve is one of the best examples of the most successful tiger re-introduction programme from zero tiger in 2009 to 54 in 2019. The Government of India has approved the proposal of interlinking of the two rivers, viz. Ken in Madhya Pradesh and Betwa in Uttar Pradesh, to provide surplus water to the local population of drought prone areas of Bundelkhand, UP. This river interlinking will be submerging around 58.03 sq. km of the Critical Tiger Habitat. Our study on vegetation and major prey species of tiger shows higher densities in submerged areas. The NITI Ayog report of 2019 provided one of the best example of the locals of Jakhni village of Banda district of Bundelkhand which managed the severe water crisis. The sensitivity of tiger reserve that project involves need a close attention, which this essay attempts at arguing.

Keywords


River Linking, Submerged Area, Tiger Reserve, Ungulates Density, Water Crises.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv121%2Fi12%2F1572-1583