Mumbai: “The prognosis for India’s surviving tiger population is as grim as we have ever seen it,’’ said editor of Sanctuary Magazine Bittu Sahgal at the first public consultation of forest officials, NGOs, politicians and corporate supporters for tiger conservation.
The meeting organized by Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) drew forest officials from Maharshtra, Rajasthan and MP who are collectively in charge of almost half the tigers in India.
The agenda was to share the best practices of three tiger states to protect the animal, facilitate anti-poaching, expand tiger corridors, discuss as well as strengthen existing policies, lobby for resources for conservation, involve local communities in the task of regenerating the lands surrounding protected forests and to win public support for the objectives of tiger conservation.
Hemant Kothari of WCT said that forest protection should be high on the agenda of policy makers. “This is not just because the tiger is our national animal, but because the ecosystem services that the tiger habitats offer us have a social, environmental and financial value far beyond any calculation made thus far,’’ he said.
Rajasthan MP VP Singh said that the rest of India could take a cue from the revival of Ranthambore in terms of the welcome tiger boom.
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