Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, Vidarbha's star tourist attraction, is buzzing with activity. Inside the 625.40 sq km reserve, excavators are hard at work, digging up earth for an ambitious road-building project. Strips of forest, several metres wide, have been cleared alongside existing roads. Outside, along the fringes of the reserve, entrepreneurs are busy building a cluster of guesthouses and resorts. State forest officials too, are hard at work-trying to relocate the five remaining villages lying within the recently declared critical wildlife habitat in the state's Chandrapur district.

The five villages within Tadoba reserve are among about 60 forest villages in Maharashtra facing relocation out of protected areas. Most of these (about 39) are in the state's three tiger reserves-Pench, Melghat and Tadoba-Andhari, all located in the Vidarbha region. An additional 50 villages are to be relocated from the site of the proposed Mansinghdeo Sanctuary in Ramtek, that is to be attached to the Pench Tiger Reserve.

Forest officials say that villages within the protected areas must be removed to "reduce human movement and minimize disturbance to wildlife".

The Tadoba park administration is trying to curb all movement, including tourist footfall, inside the reserve boundaries. The government-owned Tadoba resort, which lies within the park boundaries, was shut down on April 1 and only 50 tourist vehicles will be allowed into the park daily from now on, informs Tadoba field director Sheshrao Patil. Then why the aggressive road-building?

Officials don't have their stories coordinated. G K Vashisht, assistant conservator of forests (ACF), says it's only repair work-the existing roads are being laid with murum, a local variety of gravel, to prevent vehicles getting stuck in the rains. But Patil also says that "metalling" the road is imperative.

Until four years ago, the government-owned resort inside the reserve was the only tourist facility here. The road connecting the resort to the reserve's Mohrali gate, was Tadoba's only metalled road. Now resorts and hotels are cropping up willy- nilly outside the reserves' gates. There are already three full-fledged tourist facilities along the reserve's western fringes. Two more facilities-a camping site with a faculty house and interpretation centre, and a local panchayat built guest house are coming up on the park's southeastern side.

Given the demand, land prices are shooting up. A 4.85 hectare (ha) piece of agricultural land adjacent to the Jhari gate recently sold for Rs. 125,000 per acre (the average price of land is about Rs. 50,000 to 60,000 per acre).

"Now people have started demanding Rs 200,000 to Rs. 300,000 per acre," says B Ramteke, the patwari (revenue official) of Kolara village. Buyers from Nagpur and Chandrapur have begun frequenting this area. At least two or three persons visit every month, says Ramteke.

The land-buying spree by businessmen is held in check only due to the high prices and because most land in these areas is owned by tribals and can't be easily transferred to non-tribals.

The flurry of tourism related activities has irked local communities whose own access to the reserve and its resources is being increasingly curbed.

For the past two years, villages along the reserve have been banned from entering the protected area to collect non-timber forest produce that are their major sources of income. "Since March this year, tourists have started entering the park from this (Pangli) gate, but they do not let us collect tendu, bamboo or even mahua. We are only allowed to take firewood for domestic use," says Lata Pendam of Pangli village.

The situation is worse for villages within the reserve. Since 2004, the state has intensified its attempts to relocate the six forest villages that remained within the reserve area-a move that had been hanging fire since 1986 when the Andhari was declared a game sanctuary was declared. While the officials insist that the relocation process is being carried out through negotiations and on an entirely voluntary basis, villagers say they are being coerced and bullied by district forest and revenue officials.

-Down to earth feature