Staff shortage hits tiger reserves.
WHAT IS THIS HAPPENING? New Delhi, July 28: The Sunderbans is among 15 tiger reserves with “very good” management practices, but field staff shortages and inadequate training are hampering conservation activities in all of India’s 39 tiger reserves. An exercise initiated by the Union environment ministry to assess conservation efforts in tiger reserves has dubbed the effectiveness of management as “good” in 12 reserves, satisfactory in eight, and poor in four. “But staff shortages and ageing field staff across all the reserves threaten conservation efforts,” said Vinod Mathur, dean at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun. “In the absence of fresh recruitment, the ageing staff can’t even hand over their skills to the next generation,” added Mathur, who was involved in the exercise, titled “management effectiveness” evaluation of tiger reserves. Mathur said the average age of field staff was 52 years, and the shortage across all reserves could touch 30 per cen...