By IANS
Jaipur : Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Wednesday directed forest officials to speed up the plan to bring tigers to the Sariska reserve.
In a meeting with forest department officials, Raje said all issues raised by the union government on re-introduction of the big cats in Sariska should be addressed as soon as possible.
“Speed up the process,” she said.
After tigers in the reserve were wiped out two years ago, the central government decided to reintroduce them provided the state government created a revived and ecologically secure habitat.
The chief minister said the officials must take steps to ban the movement of heavy vehicles, especially at night, on the road that runs through the Sariska reserve, spread over 866 sq km and located around 110 km from here.
There have been instances of wild animals being hit by speeding vehicles. Recently a panther was reported killed in an accident.
The government plans to bring in tigers from the Ranthambore National Park to Sariska.
To begin with, forest officials are planning to introduce a tiger couple from Ranthambore into Sariska after shifting residents of Sariska out of the forest reserve.
In October last year Bhagani village in Tehla forest range in the heart of the reserve was relocated to an alternative site near Behor in Alwar district, about 100 km from Sariska.
While there are 11 villages in the core area of the reserve, four of the villages have been marked for early relocation.
An official census conducted in 2004 had indicated that between 16 and 18 tigers lived in Sariska, but from the middle of that year no tiger could be spotted.
A report by the Wildlife Institute of India in 2005 confirmed that there was no tiger left in the reserve.