Patna, (BiharTimes): Following the decision of the Union ministry of forest and environment the Bihar government is planning to shift 28 villages from the core area of Valmikinagar Tiger Reserve under West Champaran district. This is the only Tiger Reserve in the post-Jharkhand Bihar.

The plan is to relocate the evacuees to other places. The ministry of forest and environment has decided to relocate 1,500 villages situated in the core area of the 28 Tiger Reserves of the country. The CAG report of 2005-06 reveals sharp decline in the population of tigers in the Valmikinagar Tiger Project. It said that that Valmikinagar had 56 tigers in 2002, but it came to 33 by 2005. The latest figure is still awaited. Like elsewhere there is a large-scale encroachment in the Tiger Reserve area in Valmikinagar too.

It needs to be mentioned that there were around 55,000 tigers in the country (which obviously included today’s Pakistan and Bangladesh) in 1900. The number got reduced to 1,827 by 1973, the year when the
Project Tiger was introduced in the country. The Project Tiger was launched after the enactment of Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act in 1972.

With shrinking space tigers are finding it extremely difficult to live and prey so the government has decided to shift human population away from the reserve areas.

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