Staff crunch hits conservation of tigers in Adilabad

Officials are facing problems in monitoring movement of both resident and migrant tigers due to shortage of staff, considering the vast area of the forests.

Adilabad: An acute staff crunch is hitting tiger conservation efforts in erstwhile Adilabad district. Officials are facing problems in monitoring movement of both resident and migrant tigers due to shortage of staff, considering the vast area of the forests.

While the area of Kawal Tiger Reserve is 2,015 square kilometres, encompassing forests in Adilabad, Mancherial, Nirmal and Kumram Bheem Asifabad, the area of Kagaznagar tiger corridor is 9,745 hectares. The reserve is administered by a field-director level officer, while the four districts are managed by district forest officers (DFO).

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Significantly, six out of the total eight forest divisions in the Kawal Tiger Reserve are lying vacant alone. Similarly, a few divisions in the four districts are helmed by DFOs and in-charge FDOs. Mancherial DFO Shiv Aasheesh Singh has been in-charge FDO of Jannaram since the transfer of S Madhav Rao in 2023. Kumram Bheem Asifabad DFO Neeraj Kumar is in-charge of Asifabad division for nearly two years.

Mancherial FDO Sarveshwar Rao is helming Chennur division. Nizamabad’s Armoor FDO is in-charge of Khanapur division for around a year. Likewise, over 40 percent of posts of forest beat officers and range officers remained vacant with the officers getting selected for posts of Group 4 and government teachers.

Due to the shortage of the staff, the officials of the department at division, range and section-levels are allegedly unable to take precautions and to prevent human loss by effectively trailing the tigers. Some DFOs are drawing flak for making unilateral decisions without considering field-level situations and challenges.

At the same time, punishments to staff for committing silly mistakes and harassment by higher officials is demotivating the staff at the field level. Poor expertise in conservation of tigers are also attributed to lapses in tracking movement of the tigers. Involving the staff in digitalization of data and uploading information on various applications is also affecting the conservation of wildlife.

When asked, Field Director to KTR S Shantaram concurred that staff crunch was slightly leaving an adverse impact on the conservation of the tigers. He stated appropriate measures were being taken to ensure smooth passage for transit tigers, safety of resident ones and human loss in the reserve and forests of composite Adilabad district.

Area of Kawal Tiger Reserve: 2,015 square km

Area of core of the reserve: 893 sq km

Area of the buffer zone spans: 1,120 sq km

Area of Kagaznagar corridor: 9,745 hectares

Possible paths of tigers: 12

Coal mines: 18

Forest fringe habitations: 400

Resident tigers (approximately): 10

Migrant tigers: 4

Victims of man-animal conflict from 2000 to 2024: 6