Effort to relocate Lisus from Namdapha Tiger Reserve–Comment

This post links to Behind the Scenes for the Relocation Efforts in 2011 and Yobin/Lisu and Namdapha: news reviews of Sep and Oct 2011.

Comments

The news coverage of a meeting on 31 March 2010, made the way for ten of our representatives to write a memorandum, without getting consensus from our general public. Few observations:

• Reading the news now, it seems the dignitaries like the Parliamentary Secretary, PCCF and others scared our people. The Parliamentary Secretary actually threatened our people.
• Whoever has reported this news was very biased person. The reporter talked about the dates when the Namdapha National Park was declared, but did not mention a word that Lisu/Yobin were living at Nibodi (52 Miles) prior to 1978 and the village was evicted on 22 February 1979, which was nine months before the actual deadline (12 November 1979) set by the Circle Officer.

News Report at AP Times

Source: Effort to relocate Lisus from Namdapha Tiger Reserve (Arunachal Times, 31 March 2010)

ITANAGAR, Mar 31: Efforts to relocate the Lisus from Namdapha National Park (Tiger Project), Miao is on. The Lisus comprising of 84 families are reported to have encroached in the Core/Critical Wild Life habitat inside Namdapha Tiger Reserve at 5 locations.

On Mar 30, a meeting on Lisu relocation and rehabilitation from Namdapha National Park was convened at Miao which was attended by Parliamentary Secretary (Environment & Forests) Kumar Waii. He said that there is immense pressure from the centre to find an early solution to the rehabilitation of Lisu settlers from Namdapha.

He said that the proposal by Lisu leaders to recognize their settlements inside the Tiger Project by de-reserving the area is not feasible and urged them to accept the compensation package and move out from the Park.  He categorically stated that in near future if the Govt. decides to evict the settlers as they inhabit the critical wildlife habitat, it will be a great loss.

The Lisus have sought some time to arrive at an amicable solution.

Local Kamlung Mossang, ZPM Chairperson Junpo Jugli, PCCF (WL & BD) & Chief Wildlife Warden J.L.Singh along with officials from Wildlife and Local administration attended the meeting.

Namdapha was originally a Reserved Forest and was declared as Wildlife Sanctuary in 1972 under Assam Forest Regulation. It was declared a National Park in 1983. In the same year, it was declared a Tiger Reserve under Project Tiger Scheme of the Government of India. An area of 177.425 sq. km. of Reserved Forest was added to the Tiger Reserve in 1986.  Namdapha National Park is the largest protected area in the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot and is recognized as one of the richest areas in biodiversity in India.

There are 41 tiger reserves in India which includes Namdapha and Pakhui in Arunachal, governed by Project Tiger. The landmark report, Status of the Tigers, Co-predators, and Prey in India, published by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, estimates only 1411 adult tigers in existence in India including the uncensused tigers in the Sundarbans.