New Delhi: How’s this for skewered priorities: Over 617 national parks and wildlife sanctuaries that are home to several critically endangered species like the Great Indian Bustard and the Snow Leopard get a mere Rs75 crore or Rs1 lakh each per month, on an average, while the 43 reserves for the big cat get a whopping Rs165 crore.
Going by the financial allocation for management of protected areas, each of the 102 national parks and 515 wildlife sanctuaries get only around Rs 12 lakh annually — around Rs1 lakh per month.
According to the environment ministry, this is despite a Planning Commission promise to double the allocation from the present Rs75 crore annual to Rs150 crore.
India’s network of 664 protected areas extend over 4.9 percent of the country’s geographical area. The network comprises 102 national parks, 515 wildlife sanctuaries, 47 conservation reserves — including 43 tiger reserves — and four community reserves.
“Even if we leave the 100 protected areas in the Andaman and Nicobar region — for most of them being islands — there are still around 517 which need sufficient investment for maintenance, upkeep and smooth running,” the official said.
The ministry official said that during meetings to finalise the allocations for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17), the Planning commission had promised to double the Rs75 crore allocation. “The Planning Commission has given us Rs150 crore per year on paper but when it came to allocation, Rs75 crore only came,” the official said.
What adds to the ministry’s woes is that it has not just to manage the protected areas but has to take up wildlife conservation programmes of other endangered species from the same amount.
“It is a lose-lose situation for us. We are able to focus neither on maintenance of protected areas nor on species conservation. State governments do contribute some amount for upkeep of protected areas but that is not something substantial,” the official added.
During a meeting of the National Board for Wildlife last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who heads the board, had emphasised the need to focus on the conservation of other endangered animals and not just tigers. The much celebrated tiger conservation programme covering 43 tiger reserves gets over Rs160 crore per year.
Divyabhanusinh Chavda, president, WWF-India, said: “This is a meagre amount to protect the last remaining habitats of India’s most critically endangered species such as the Jerdon’s Courser, the Great Indian Bustard, the Snow Leopard, the Kashmir Stag and the Manipur Deer.” IANS
