Aksheev Thakur Tribune News Service

he wildlife panel of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has approved the installation of 4G mobile towers in the core zone of the Kanha Tiger Reserve to boost the communication services of the Madhya Pradesh Police which are combating Naxals. The Centre has set a deadline to eliminate Naxalism by March 31, 2026.

A core zone of a tiger reserve is the innermost area that is legally protected and human intervention is strictly prohibited. Considering that the proposed mobile tower installation at Supkhar village falls within the core area of the reserve, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had not approved the proposal earlier due to its ecologically sensitive location.

Infra to be removed once operations over

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has accepted Madhya Pradesh’s proposal to install 4G mobile towers in the core zone of the Kanha Tiger Reserve, subject to the condition that the mobile tower infrastructure must be removed once the Left Wing Extremism threat is neutralised.

“However, since the proposal has been identified by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) as a critical requirement for enhancing communication infrastructure in remote forested areas to support operations against Left Wing Extremism (LWE), the project holds the national security significance,” an official said.

The Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) was informed that the proposal by the Madhya Pradesh Police was for the use of 0.0324 ha of forest land from the core zone of the reserve for anti-Naxal operation. The proposal has been recommended by the Madhya Pradesh Government and its forest department.

The ministry has accepted the proposal subject to the condition that the mobile tower infrastructure must be decommissioned and removed once the Left Wing Extremism threat is neutralised and the area is declared free from insurgent activity.