Animals may be relocated far from runway

Nagpur: In a move that will please all animal lovers, the forest department has chalked out an action plan to relocate wild animals from near the airport. The decision was taken at a joint meeting of officials from Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Nagpur forest division held on May 31. It is learnt that the animals will first be tranquilised before they are moved out to nearby forest areas.
However, B Majumdar, principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) Maharashtra, said, “I’m not aware of the plan. It’s true that authority to issue permission to tranquilise the animals lies with me, but I’ll have to first see the plan. I strongly feel that even if you tranquilise the animals the problem will not be solved unless the openings are closed.”
When contacted, Dr N Rambabu, conservator of forests (CF), Nagpur, said, “We hope to implement the action plan this week. However, tranquilising an animal in open area is difficult and unless the AAI closes down the number of openings in the compound wall around the airport the problem will not be addressed in the real sense.” During a joint inspection of the airport area two days ago, the AAI and forest officials spotted five scheduled animals like four-horned antelope and barking deer (an antelope has been listed under schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, barking deer is a schedule III animal).
According to sources, a conservator is the competent authority to give nod to tranquilise barking deer. However, for tranquilising antelopes, the chief wildlife warden’s permission is needed. It is learnt that Dr Rambabu is likely to meet Majumdar on Monday to discuss the issue.
09/06/08 Vijay Pinjarkar & Sachin Dravekar/Times of india

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Categories: Airports Jun 2008, Safety Jun 2008