Minister of state for environment, forests and climate change (independent charge) Prakash Javadekar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bhutan minister for agriculture and forests Yeshey Dorji inaugurate the Third Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Photo: G.N. JHA)
Minister of state for environment, forests and climate change (independent charge) Prakash Javadekar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bhutan minister for agriculture and forests Yeshey Dorji inaugurate the Third Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Photo: G.N. JHA)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday made a strong case for tiger conservation through “collaboration between governments at the highest level” across the world to put an end to poaching of wild cats for “trafficking of their body parts”. Mr Modi, while inaugurating the three-day third Asia ministerial conference on tiger conservation, announced “the good news” of the country moving towards formally adopting the statute of South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (Sawen), an inter-governmental wildlife law enforcement support body to work together to fight wildlife crimes.
Environment minister Prakash Javadekar expressed his happiness over an estimated increase in tiger population in India to about 2,500 from 2,226 in 2014, while clearing the decks for a new scheme to improve forest cover in tiger corridors by “incentivising the project proponents who carry out compensatory afforestation in such areas”.
Urging the need to consider tigers as “natural capital” rather than seeing their conservation as anti-growth, the PM emphasised on the need to “smartly” integrate the tiger and wildlife safeguards in various infrastructures at the landscape-level.
