Karera sanctuary habitants wait for land denotification

BHOPAL: Though chirping of Great Indian Bustard died down nearly 16 years ago in Shivpuri district's Karera sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, habitants of the area whose land was notified to preserve the rare birds are striving to get their lands back.

An area spreading over 202.21 sq km, including 146.66 sq km of public land, was notified 28 years ago as Sone-Chirraiya Sanctuary to preserve Great Indian Bustard. The name of the sanctuary was changed to Karera Sanctuary in 1999.

However, the rare avian species became extinct in the park long ago.

"There were around 40 Great Indian Bustards in the sanctuary till 1987...Last twittering of the birds was heard in 1993. There were five of the rare species in the park at that time, but after that they were not sighted," Karera Sanctuary director Alok Kumar said.

In June last year, State Wildlife Board sent a proposal to the National Wildlife Board (NWB) for denotifying the sanctuary, forest officials said.

Around 40,000 affected people are now waiting for NWB team's visit to their area for the purpose.

Kumar said the sanctuary has a large number of black bucks and claimed that he had seen around 200 black bucks in herds near Giyala Lake on July 18 this year in the sanctuary.

However, former BJP MLA and party's Shivpuri district President Ranveer Singh Rawat said there were a very few black bucks left in the sanctuary.