Patna, June 3 (IANS) The Bihar government has decided to relocate the villagers living inside the state's only national park following an increased threat to wildlife and declining green cover, said a forest official.
Alarmed by a drop in the tiger population at the Valmiki National Park in the state's west Champaran district, the government has approved a plan to relocate the villagers.
'All 28 villages in Valmiki National Park would be removed. Soon the process of evicting all the villagers will start as a part of safety and protection for wildlife,' Murariji Mishra, the state's chief conservator of forest and wild life warden, told IANS.
Forest officials admit that poaching of tiger and other wild life has been rampant in the park with the help of villagers. A drastic drop in the tiger population at Valmiki national park, which is part of India's Project Tiger, was reported last year following a census.
Officials said the number of tigers was down to 35 from 52 counted in 2003 and 56 a year earlier.
