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Showing posts from 2012

Existing ecological and urbanisation realities and the ban on night traffic inside PAs of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve

In a nutshell Banning traffic/ closing existing roads inside prime PAs and diverting the same to roads in adjoining forests is like dumping your city's garbage in surrounding villages.  Background The contiguous forest cover of interior peninsula India surrounding the junction of Eastern and Western Ghats (peninsular India's green crescent as I like to call it) from Biligiri Ranganatha Swamy Temple (BRT) (Chamarajanagar District in Karnataka) up to Kempuhole (Hassan Dist, Karnataka) and beyond has several major roads that pass through forests. On  one hand while these roads cut across wildlife corridors and habitat of big game - herbivores like elephants and gaur as well as big cats like the tiger, they also are lifelines for tens of thousands of humans, including marginal farmers who use them to transport their produce to the major markets of the region. Inside this green crescent are a string of protected areas many of which, along with some reserve forests, comprise the