Sambar, leopard camera trapped in Mangar, shows importance Aravallis, say experts
The Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam or the Forest Conservation Amendment Act exempts unrecorded “deemed forests” from the Act
New Delhi: A sambar was recently camera trapped in Haryana’s Mangar area indicating that the region serves as a habitat for Sambars too, apart from leopards, hyenas and Rusty-spotted Cats, which were camera trapped earlier.
The Sambar was captured in forested areas of Mangar which are yet to be recognised as forests by the state.
The Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam or the Forest Conservation Amendment Act exempts unrecorded “deemed forests” from the Act, which leaves such forests vulnerable to land use change.
Sunil Harsana, a resident of Mangar and environmental researcher, who as part of a fellowship titled ‘Coexistence Consortium’, set up eight camera traps in and around Mangar, found several ecologically important wild animals captured during the past couple of years.
The sambar sighting is possibly the first ever in the region according to ecologists. “The camera trapping exercise has revealed the existence of leopards, hyenas, Rusty-spotted cats and now sambar. We have found several images of individual hyenas which indicates that there is a healthy population of hyenas here,” Harsana said. Sambar is categorised as “vulnerable” in International Union for Conversation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List and their numbers are decreasing.
“Mangar has around 1100 acres of confirmed forests notified under the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) section 4/5 and around 2500 acres of Aravallis in the category of forest ‘status to be decided’. The photo of the sambar in Mangar shows that our wildlife is thriving in these Aravalli forests that are still in legal limbo with the forest ‘status to be decided’ tag and serves as yet another reason and reminder, if that is required, of why these forests adjacent to Asola Wildlife Sanctuary urgently need legal recognition and protection,” said Chetan Agarwal, who is an expert on forests.
“This sighting is significant because it means that parts of the Gurgaon Aravallis have tropical dry forest and riparian forest remnants that have potential for rejuvenation as good wildlife habitat.”
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“However, it probably represents a tiny population that will not be viable unless connectivity is maintained with the rest of the Aravallis,” said Ghazala Shahabuddin, ecologist and author.
Provisions of the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 applies on any land that has been declared or notified as a forest in accordance with the provisions of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 or under any other law for the time being in force or has been recorded in Government record as forest, as on or after the 25th October, 1980.
HT reported on October 3 last year that the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 will benefit real estate companies that own land in what was to be declared “deemed forest” in Haryana’s Aravallis, documents show. For example, in Mangar village spread over 4262 acres (of which 3810 acres is hill area), a large part of land that should have been identified as forest as per dictionary meaning (SC’s 1996 order to identify forests as per dictionary meaning) is in fact owned by three private companies.
The union environment ministry has provided a one-year period in the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Rules, 2023 for consolidation of government records by state governments.
“The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 has been enacted with a view to augment and strengthen forest management, remove ambiguity in the applicability of the provisions of the Principal Act in various lands, promote plantation in private lands, achieve the targets envisaged in the National Forest Policy, 1988 and to align with dynamic changes in the ecological, social and environmental regimes during the last four decades, Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 has been enacted by the Central Government on 1.12.2023,” Union environment minister, Bhupender Yadav said in an interview to HT on February 1.
“The Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Rules, 2023 were accordingly notified by the Central Government on 29.11.2023 wherein all states and Union territory administrations have been instructed to prepare, within a period of one year, a consolidated government records of all lands on which the provisions of Amendment Act shall be applicable. These provisions imply that states have been provided an opportunity to consolidate their records for the purpose of applicability of the Act without excluding forest like areas from the purview of the Act,” he added.