By IANS
New Delhi : With India’s tiger population dramatically declining to an estimated 1,400 now from 4,000 in 2002, the union cabinet Wednesday approved the takeover of eight new forest areas under its flagship Project Tiger.
Before Wednesday’s decision, India had 28 Project Tiger reserves, with the last lot being included in fiscal 1999-2000. The project was started in 1973 and in its early years was hailed as a global model of ecological conservation.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) decided Wednesday that the eight new reserves would be set up during the 11th Five Year Plan period (2007-2012). It would cost an estimated Rs.320 million.
Briefing journalists after the meeting, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the CCEA approved Rs.6 billion for taking up the preservation of tigers, rehabilitating people from the core area of the tiger reserves and other safeguard-related activities.
“Rs.5.08 billion out of Rs.six billion would be spent on the relocation of villages from the core area,” he said.
Additional Director of Project Tiger Ganga Singh told IANS that the new reserves added Wednesday are Perimbikulam-Annamalai straddling the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu, Dandeli wildlife sanctuary and Hansi national park together in Karnataka, Sanjay Gandhi national park and Sanjaydhubri wildlife sanctuary together in Madhya Pradesh, Udanti and Sitanadi together in Chhattisgarh, Achanakmar also in Chhattisgarh, Satkosia in Orissa and Kaziranga national park in Assam.
Diwakar Sharma of WWF-India said they had hoped the Pilibhit forest would be in the list approved Wednesday, especially since the Uttar Pradesh government had recommended this move.
“We hope the list from northern and western India will be notified soon,” Sharma said. The ministry of environment and forests has prepared the list, based on the recommendations of the Tiger Task Force constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, following the depletion of the tiger population in India.