BHOPAL: Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has given instructions to officials to take care that the Master Plan of Bhopal is prepared in a manner that doesn’t encourage human animal conflict. He gave the instructions during a meeting of the State Wildlife Board on Thursday.
Chouhan said that conservation of forest and wildlife should be done in a manner that important development works like building of roads and other infrastructure takes place without harming wildlife and forests. Board member Abhilash Khandekar had raised the issue in reference to a letter written by the NTCA to chief secretary after complaints on the new proposed Bhopal master plan.
Around 40 tigers are present in close vicinity of Bhopal and inclusion of areas around Kaliasot and Kerwa in the new master plan could harm the tigers and its habitat.
CM has also agreed to conserve state fish mahaseer that was found in abundance in river Narmada but is now in grave danger. CEO of WWF Delhi, Ravi Singh who participated in the meeting through video conferencing offered help in conservation of state fish.
The wildlife board also approved de-notification of about 318 sq km of land from Sardarpur Kharmore (Lesser Florican) Sanctuary in Dhar district. This would leave the bird sanctuary with about 16.8 sq km of land area only. Earlier, 216 sq km of area of Karera Bird Sanctuary was de-notified. The extent of area denotified has now been added to the Palpur Kuno National Park.
Cheetah reintroduction within six months
Senior scientist of Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, YV Jhala said in the meeting that if everything goes well then Madhya Pradesh can reintroduce cheetahs within six months in Palpur Kuno National Park.
Kuno and Nauradehi National Parks have been found apt for reintroduction of African cheetahs. It was told in the meeting that Kuno National Park has about 750 sq km of area where only one village is present and the process of its rehabilitation is in progress.
Progress is also on in Nauradehi National Park where 13 out of total 63 villages in the national park have been shifted while the process for other villages is on.
Proposal to trans-locate 500 cheetals from Narsinghgarh sanctuary to Gandhisagar was also given in the meeting.
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