Bhupender Yadav calls for more efficient, updated tiger conservation

New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS) As India completed 50 years of tiger conservation, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav, on Saturday, called for a comprehensive policy review to identify challenges in the present times and ensuring efficiency.

Highlighting the Cheetah reintroduction programme, the Union Minister said India has successfully carried out an international translocation of a wild species that had gone extinct in the country, with the project now reaching the third India-born generation of cheetahs.

He added that a new batch of cheetahs from Botswana is expected to arrive in the country around February-end.

Addressing the inaugural session of the “Conference of Chief Wildlife Wardens of Tiger Range States and Field Directors of Tiger Reserves” in Rajasthan’s Alwar, Union Minister Yadav suggested a review of all policy decisions taken in the 28 meetings of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) held so far.

He said that the exercise was needed to identify decisions that have become outdated, those that could not be implemented, and those that have been fully executed.

The initiative, the Union Minister highlighted, would help Tiger conservation policy to adapt with the challenges being encountered in the present times and ensure efficient implementation of conservation measures on ground.

Setting the tone of the two-day conference, Union Minister Yadav suggested that policy decisions taken over the last five decades should be consolidated into a formal policy statement, with the issue placed as the first agenda item in the next NTCA meeting.

The Union Minister said issues related to tiger population estimation, rescue and rehabilitation infrastructure, human-wildlife conflict, utilisation of the Tiger Reserve Fund and the need to strengthen tiger conservation foundations require focused deliberation.

The conference would review the overall status of tiger conservation in the country and deliberate on key policy, management and operational issues.

Union Minister Yadav also called for the formation of four working groups to review region-specific challenges, including changes in tiger population, and to assess the implementation of centrally sponsored schemes across the tiger reserves of the country.

He also asked participants to discuss ways to enhance coordination between NTCA and institutions such as Wildlife Institute of India, Botanical Survey of India, Zoological Survey of India, and Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education, so as to incorporate research inputs from these apex organisations and derive practical benefits in tiger conservation.

–IANS

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