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The Uncertain Future of the Desert National Park in Rajasthan, India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Asad R. Rahmani
Asad R. Rahmani
Affiliation:
Senior Scientist, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), and Project Scientist, Endangered Species Project, BNHS, Hornbill House, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Road, Bombay 400 023, India
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Extract

The 3,162 sq. km Desert National Park (DNP) is one of the largest protected areas in India. It represents all of the natural features of the Thar Desert in India. Since its establishment in the early 1980s, the wildlife population has increased, and now the Indian Gazelle, the Great Indian Bustard, the Desert Fox, etc., are easily seen in it. But although many core areas of 500 to 1,000 hectares each have been established, progress in the development of the Park is slow, and now the future of the Park itself is in jeopardy owing to a plan to construct a feeder canal of the main Indira Gandhi Nahar (canal) Project (IGNP), which would bisect the Park. It is feared that such improvement in irrigation facilites would make it impossible to shift the villagers outside the Park boundary, as had been planned earlier—and moreover, it would attract settlers to the Park. Salient features of the DNP, its important fauna, and various options to save the Park, are described in this paper.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1989 , pp. 237 - 244
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1989

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