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 ForestPreserving Forests: Page 5 One project has greatly improved the standard of living for villagers in India, while taking steps toward protecting the forest habitat of the highly endangered Bengal Tiger. Many thousands of residents were forced to move when Ranthambhore National Park was established decades ago, causing much resentment. At first, they were banned from gathering firewood and grazing livestock within the park. This had an extremely positive effect on the forests, which regenerated, and Tigers, deer and other wildlife prospered. Gradually, however, park authorities became more tolerant of the incursions of local people and their livestock into the forests. During the 1980s, large areas became deforested, and poaching endangered Tigers and deer within the park.
To reverse this trend and preserve the habitat of this park's wildlife, a Tiger conservationist and author, Valmik Thapar, established the Ranthambhore Foundation. This Foundation sponsored a nursery which propagated 500,000 tree seedlings, employing villagers to replant the national park. It set up a farm with domestic buffalo which had been bred with milk cows and kept in stalls and enclosures away from the forests. These animals yield far more milk than the emaciated Indian cows overgrazing the forests; fuel for cooking and heating is provided by a bio-gas plant producing methane from the buffalo's dung; a new crafts industry employs women in the village (Ward and Ward 1993). In the first four years of the project, 6,000 school children from local areas were taken into Ranthambhore National Park for education programs (Currey 1996).
A Cable News Network (CNN) reporter, Gary Streiker, visited one of these farms outside Ranthambhore National Park in mid-1997. The villagers were economically better off and appreciated having the bio-gas fuel, which saved them the effort of scouring the landscape for firewood, often a full-day's activity. This allowed them to devote time to crafts and other small businesses. Unfortunately, some of the other villagers around the park were still gathering wood, denuding the park. These age-old customs will be difficult to change. Eco-development and conservation projects in 60 villages surrounding Ranthambhore National Park have been launched. Conservation education on the importance of saving the forests will help to change attitudes and protect the park's wildlife and trees. This will bring tourists and new sources of income.
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