Budget for tiger conservation doubled: Harsh Vardhan

New Delhi, Jan 28 (IANS) Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Harsh Vardhan on Monday said the NDA government has doubled the budget dedicated to tiger conservation in India. He was speaking at the inaugural function of a two-day third stock-taking conference on tiger conservation here. Vardhan, also the Chairman of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, said the government was committed to the conservation of tigers and for that it had "added 4,000 sq km to tiger reserves". Third in a series of stock-taking conferences. This is the second to be held in India after 2012, aimed at reviewing the progress of St. Petersburg declaration on tiger conservation. At the time of deliberations at St. Petersburg, India's tiger estimate stood at 1,411, which, after the third cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation, 2014 nearly doubled to 2,226. The current census for tiger estimation is currently underway. Vardhan said: "The new India that we envisage is not only for humans but for every aspect including wildlife." Delegates from Indonesia, China, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam, Russia and Bhutan attended the conference.
--IANS sd/pgh/mr