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Taken For Granted

By Rohit Parihar

A delay in the implementation of an eco-development project in Ranthambhore forces the World Bank to drastically cut aid. But the Rajasthan Government is yet to learn from its mistakes.

Dholi Gujjar of Bodal village in Rajasthan cannot stop talking about life with an LPG connection. The facility was meant to save the tiger's home as part of a World-Bank aided project in the neighbouring Ranthambhore sanctuary but the spin-offs in her own life have been dramatic. No more of those arduous trudges to the forest to fetch wood, or for that matter the long wait for the cooking to be done. It's so very convenient, she gushes.

Barely a few km away, Ram Kalyan, a tea shop owner, can only listen to her with envy. Still dependent on the forest and his daily collection of 20 kg of wood, he wishes he too had a gas cylinder. So do 10,000 others in the area, but a lackadaisical Rajasthan Government has dashed their hopes and with that, a golden chance to conserve the depleting forest cover and the endangered tiger.

Nothing, it appears, can shake the Government out of its listlessness. Not even a harsh decision by the World Bank to slash project aid from the initial Rs 38 crore to Rs 20 crore. The cut followed the Forest Department's inability to keep up with the parameters in an agreement arrived at between the Government and the Bank. Initiated in 1996, the project was to reach 96 villages by 2002 by involving the locals in the larger scheme of eco-development. Now, however, only 60 villages will benefit from the programme. And that too if the Government utilises the remaining money in time.

Though the decision to slash funds was finalised recently, the threat was issued in June itself. But the Government did little to augment its staff to enable it to utilise the funds, a sore point with the Bank ever since the project's inception. Not only has the department been understaffed, it has been deputing a sizeable section from its existing strength for duties that are under the purview of the Tourism Department. Admits Rajeev Tyagi, director, Project Tiger, Ranthambhore: My officials are too busy escorting VIPs and catering to tourists to be devoting time to the conservation of forests and wildlife. According to G.V. Reddy, deputy director, Project Tiger, his department has only 150 staff members to check grazing in the sanctuary as against the required 300 and just two, instead of 30, to keep track of the 30 tigers.

The lack of staff has affected even functions like issuing notifications for constituting eco-development committees in each village. It was only in 1999 that work on the committees began. The Government has only 57 committees, as against the stipulated 90. The Forest Department has also not bought the requisite number of vehicles to carry out the task of protected area management under the agreement. The excuse: the Government's ban on departments to purchase vehicles. That the money for these vehicles would have been drawn from the aid component, and not the state treasury, didn't seem to have occurred to anyone.

Under the new scheme of things, a world-class interpretation centre at Ranthambhore---it was meant to provide information on the sanctuary in various languages---has also been struck off as the Forest Department could not decide on its design and an agency to execute it. We tried to entrust it with the WWF but it did not work out, is all R.G. Soni, principal chief wildlife warden, has to say.

Red-tapism led to other setbacks as well. The World Bank envisaged that micro proposals aimed at directly helping the villagers with bio gas, LPG connections and some eco-friendly training programmes be executed through consultancies. The agreement called for inviting tenders, the selection of which would be based on the merit of the proposal rather than the cost. This went against the accepted practice of the Government to accept the lowest priced tender. None wanted to take the risk of finalising it, reveals Soni. The result: the forest staff ended up doing the task that the consultancies were supposed to do, causing further delay as no additional staff were recruited for the purpose. Says Reddy: Consultancies would have helped us in executing the project in time without burdening our staff.

Amid this mess up, the Government found itself facing another problem. While residents of the four villages located inside the reserved forest wanted to move out of the area, the World Bank did not permit a relocation unless an impartial NGO recommended it. The state Government turned to the WWF to make the necessary recommendation but the agency declined.

Even with so much having gone wrong, the Government has not learnt its lessons. The dilly-dallying continues in crucial decision-making and the Forest Department is hardpressed to execute what's remaining of the project. Though the scope of the programme has been reduced, the deadline remains the same. But whether the project will be completed by 2002 is anybody's guess. Rakesh Verma, former secretary, forests, is optimistic. I hope the World Bank will continue aid beyond 2002 as well. That's wishful thinking, but for the sake of the tiger, there are others who are similarly hoping against hope.

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