Speaking at the 'Billy Arjan Singh Memorial Convention organised by 'Tiger and Terrain', on the noted wildlife enthusiast's first death anniversary in Lucknow, Khurshid agreed with the common view that opening of core areas to tourists would go a long way in curbing the rising incidences of poaching.
He however cautioned, "but the entry to core areas must be strictly regulated and some criterion need to be laid down to allow such entries."
Wild life enthusiasts at the convention earlier sought to draw the attention of the minister to the fact that the core areas of wildlife parks had turned into a safe haven for poachers. "Since there were not enough functionaries and those that are present are inadequately equipped, the core areas remained unfrequented even by the staff, with the result that poacher gangs can easily slip in and carry out their nefarious activities uninterrupted", Tiger and Terrain secretary Kaushlendra Singh felt. His views were endorsed by most other speakers and also found favour with the minister, who is himself a wildlife enthusiast.
They also said that a number of wildlife parks in Africa practiced the system of limited entry to their respective core areas.
Padmashree awardee for wildlife conservation, Ranjit Bhargava stressed upon the need for diversion of a rail track and highway from a 25 km stretch of the Dudhwa National Park, the
second largest wildlife reserve after the world famous Corbett park in North India.
Former UP chief conservator of forests, Gian Chand Misra as well as wildlife expert Raghvendra Singh expressed deep concern over the dwindling population of different varieties of deer, that was the main food for the endangered tiger. Attributing this to the fast reducing grasslands in Dudhwa and Katarniya Ghat , that were the two key tiger reserves in Uttar Pradesh, Misra said, "there was urgent need to promote and expand the grasslands and grow other fodder for the deer , without which the tiger population was never going to grow."
Quipped Raghvendra Singh, "Fodder for the tiger's prey is extremely important, otherwise with the dwindling deer population, the tiger count was bound to go down drastically over the next few years." He called for replacement of teak by grass for fodder. Raising the issue of "teak vs fodder", he remarked, "after all one must take the final call on whether we are promoting timber or wildlife."
Most speakers felt that the official tiger count was "highly inflated". However Misra was of the view that fudging of tiger figures would come to an end once the modern counting system based on DNA matching is introduced in all the parks.
