Introduction: geographical location/ wildlife/ communities/ religious bel./ ecological imbalance
Situated amidst mountain ranges of northern Western Ghats, Bhimashankar Wildlife sanctuary is one of the ecologically important areas of Maharashtra. It has evergreen forest on crest and moist and dry deciduous forest on eastern and western slopes. It has large varieties of fauna including endemic species like Malabar giant squirrel (Ratufa indica), Large scaled shield tail snake (Uropeltis macrolepis), to mention a few. Sanctuary also harbours variety of avifauna hence has been declared as an Important Bird Area sites (IBA). Sanctuary also is rich in plant diversity especially medicinal plants which are used in traditional medicines.
The farming community residing in the sanctuary depend on subsistence agriculture i.e. monsoon paddy and shifting cultivation along with seasonal wages from tourism related activities for livelihood
Bhimashankar is also an important religious place. Shrine of Lord Shiva which is called Bhimashankar is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas according Hindu religious scripts and thus it is an important pilgrim place. The shrine is very old belonging to early 17th century and is a monolithic structure carved in Hemadpanthi style of architecture.
Its scenic tranquillity and holy aura attracts millions of tourist round the year.
Environmental Scenario:
Being eco sensitive area and a famous religious tourist place, many serious environmental and ecological problems have cropped up in Bhimashankar during past decade. Our initial impression of Bhimashankar wildlife sanctuary was it being an unhygienic tourist place and highly degraded forest. In recent decade the influx of tourists to Bhimashankar temple has seen drastic growth. Lack of awareness among local tribal's and religious tourists has manifested series of direct and indirect problems in wildlife sanctuary. Lack of governance and management system is the main cause of problems such as stated bellow.
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Heaps of garbage everywhere:
Plastic bags, paper plates, wrappers, thermacol, PET bottles, leftover foods, discarded offerings and suchlike are the diversity you can find in the forests surrounding bhimashankar temple. There is no waste management system existing. All the garbage gets dumped behind every food stall. Accumulated garbage either gets burned or is washed away deeper into the forest through streams and valleys. |
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Anthropogenic pressure:
To cater the demands of tourists, local shops and hotels depend heavily upon forest resources such as fuelwood, medicinal plants, water etc. Due to lack of sanitation facility, open defecation is also prevalent. Increase in tourism has also resulted in encroachment upon forest area. Cattle grazing in forest is also a major concern. There have also been many incidents of road kills due to continuous traffic in the area. |
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Social Integrity:
Subsistence agriculture and lack of any other livelihood opportunities leads villagers to carryout low profile jobs in tourist area such as porters, waiters, cleaners which people do not like very much. Plus threat of regulatory action done against them done by
forest department make them despise forest department and conservation. Various NGO's working in the area also create conflict among people for sharing benefits to certain extent. |
With above issues in mind AERF determined to carryout conservation oriented projects with holistic approach of conservation through community participation. We are trying to address these issues of Bhimashankar we currently have three interventions. These projects are supported by Conservation Leadership Programme and Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India.
1. Promoting community based tourism for reducing pressure on and providing livelihoods in Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary, Maharashtra
With the help of Department of Science and Technology (DST) Govt. of India and WWF India coordinated programme "People and Protected Areas" This project was initiated to meet the livelihood needs of indigenous population of Mahadeo koli tribals. This project aims at reducing people's dependency on forest and generating alternative tourism based livelihood. Following are the brief objectives of the project.
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Technological intervention to minimize resource use and waste generation |
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Capacity building among all the stakeholders for sustainable management |
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Livelihood generation for local communities |
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Fodder plots to reduce dependency on forest |
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Estimating tourism carrying capacity of the area |
2. Bhimashankar strategy : towards region wide community conservation programme
With the help of Conservation Leadership Programme, funded by BP this project aims at changing certain behaviours of people which are not sustainable. To adapt to these changes in their lives they will be provided incentives in various forms. Objectives of this project are as follows:
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To testing conservation agreement model in at least 2 villages bordering the BWS |
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To induce community action for conservation work |
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To promote the use of conservation agreements |
3) Kate Stokes Memorial Award - Helping the youth of Bhimashankar become Community Conservation Leaders
Under the scope of the work of Conservation Leadership Programme, AERF was awarded to extend the scope of work beyond conservation agreements. This project aims at generating sense of ownership of Bhimashankar among youth of surrounding villages. With facilitation from forest department this youth group will operate as tourist guides and will keep check on tourist activities within the sanctuary. Following are the objectives of the project
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Forming and training of up to 4 youth groups in the BWS |
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Training and forming one group of volunteers from Pune |
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Capacity building of youth groups to monitor conservation activities. |
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Support for the development of eco-tourism based livelihoods. |
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Developing field guides, caps and other printed material. |
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