|
New measures to protect tigers: Minister
India Blooms News Service
New Delhi, Dec 14 (IBNS) The Indian government has taken milestone initiatives for protection of the declining tiger population and other wild animals, a central minister said on Monday.
 |
|
| |
Namo Narain Meena, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, who is currently looking after Ministry of Environment and Forests, told the Rajya Sabha that the initiatives include legal steps, administrative steps, financial steps, international cooperation, reintroduction of tigers and creation of Special Tiger Protection Force(STPF).
Last week, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said tigers are in a "very, very precarious" state and could disappear altogether in nearly half of India's tiger reserves.
In India from about 40,000 a century ago the tiger population has come down to 1,411 at the last census in 2008.
On Monday Meen said the legal steps included amendment of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 for providing enabling provisions for constitution of the National Tiger Conservation Authority and the Tiger and Other Endangered Species Crime Control Bureau.
He said enhancement of punishment in cases of offence relating to a tiger reserve or its core area is also being implemented.
The administrative steps included strengthening of anti-poaching activities, including special strategy for monsoon patrolling, by providing funding support to Tiger Reserve States, as proposed by them, for deployment of anti-poaching squads involving ex-army personnel / home guards, apart from workforce comprising of local people, in addition to strengthening of communication / wireless facilities.
He said the steps also included declaration of eight new Tiger Reserves and in-principle approval accorded for creation of four new Reserves, namely Sahyadri in Maharashtra, Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh, Ratapani in M.P. and Sunabeda in Orissa.
The revised Project Tiger guidelines have been issued to states for strengthening tiger conservation, which apart from ongoing activities, interalia, include funding support to states for enhanced village relocation/rehabilitation package for people living in core or critical tiger habitats (from Rs. 1 lakh/family to Rs. 10 lakhs/family), rehabilitation/resettlement of communities involved in traditional hunting, mainstreaming livelihood and wildlife concerns in forests outside tiger reserves and fostering corridor conservation through restorative strategy to arrest habitat fragmentation.
He said a scientific methodology for estimating tiger (including co-predators, prey animals and assessment of habitat status) has been evolved and mainstreamed. The findings of this estimation/assessment are bench marks for future tiger conservation strategy.
An area of 29284.76 sq. km. has been notified by 15 Tiger States (out of 17) as core or critical tiger habitat under section 38V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended in 2006.
The states included Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal.
Two tiger States (Bihar and Uttar Pradesh) have taken a decision for notifying the core or critical tiger habitats (2765.04 sq.km.). The State of Madhya Pradesh has not identified / notified the core / critical tiger habitat in its newly constituted tiger reserve (Sanjay National Park and Sanjay Dubri Wildlife Sanctuary).
The minister said among the financial steps, India has a Memorandum of Understanding with Nepal on controlling trans-boundary illegal trade in wildlife and conservation, apart from a protocol on tiger conservation with China.
A Global Tiger Forum of Tiger Range Countries has been created for addressing international issues related to tiger conservation, he said.
As a part of active management to rebuild Sariska and Panna Tiger Reserves where tigers have become locally extinct, reintroduction of tigers / tigresses have been done, he said. |
