The Prime Minister
has called for ‘people-centered conservation approaches’ for
protecting the wild life in the country. Addressing the first
meeting of the National Board for Wild Life here today, Shri
Atal Behari Vajpayee stressed the need for the participation
of all stake holders in decision making. "While there is
an urgent need to safeguard protected areas, it is equally important
to demonstrate the economic benefits of protected areas for
people living in and around them. This will ensure a golden
bridge connecting our cultural ethos and economic benefit, creating
a win-win situation for both people and the protected areas",
Shri Vajpayee said.
The Prime Minister
who is also the chairman of the Board, called for increased
coordination among various ministries, departments and state
governments. The ministries of Environment & Forests, Agriculture,
Rural Development, Water Resources, Tribal Welfare, Tourism
& Culture along with their counterparts in states have to
recognize their joint responsibility in developing innovative
strategies for bio diversity conservation, he said.
Expressing happiness
over the activities of the Ministry of Environment & Forests
and all those associated with wild life conservation, Shri Vajpayee
noted that there was progress in implementing the Wild Life
Action Plan but more actions were needed to be taken speedily.
The Prime Minister
expressed grave concern at the activities of wild life criminals
and said that despite having adequate legal provisions to tackle
poaching and illegal trade of wild life and its derivatives,
success in this regard has been limited due to lack of effective
enforcement of rules and provisions.
The Prime Minister
had a word of praise for the Minister for Environment and Forests
Shri T.R. Baalu for taking initiatives to protect the endangered
marine species and for setting up the Marine Bio Diversity Institute
at Kanya Kumari.
In his address the
Minister for Environment & Forests Shri T.R. Baalu called
for integration among various institutions and departments for
managing issues relating to conservation of wild life. He proposed
the constitution of an inter ministerial coordination committee
for formulating policies and synergising the implementation
activities.
Shri Baalu recalled
the initiatives taken by his Ministry in the last two years
in the area of wild life conservation. One such initiatives
relates to recognizing the need for revival of symbiotic link
between the community and the wild life. The Minister said that
the aim is to bring 10% of the country’s land mass under protected
area net work through establishment of new categories of protected
areas.
Shri Baalu referred
to the recent spurt in instances of human killings particularly
by leopards in the state of Maharashtra and Gujarat and said
that there is a need to evolve innovative methods to prevent
occurrence of such incidents in future. "Unless we find
out a solution to this problem all our efforts for conservation
would be negated because of people’s ire".
The Board decided
to establish a specialized cell on the basis of the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to curb
international trade in wild life products originating from India.
The Cell will liaise with various international agencies including
INTERPOL and TRAFFIC International. It will also create data
base on wild life species, their products and derivatives that
are in trade, the modus operandi of the wild life mafia and
their international links in order to develop profiles of wild
life criminals.
The board also decided
to set up a task force on Natural Heritage Sites. The terms
of reference of the task force include preparation of a tentative
list of natural heritage sites having universal value. There
are many natural sites in the country that exemplify major stages
in the geomorphological history or represent ongoing ecological
or biological processes or contain the natural heritage of endangered
animals and plants or are of exceptional natural beauty. The
Natural Heritage Division of the World Heritage Secretariat
has expressed their desire that India should nominate such unique
sites in the as World heritage Properties. Some of these include:-
a) The coastal and
desert ecosystems of Runn of Kutch, Gujarat
b) Andaman and Nicobar
Islands
c) Lakshadweep Island
d) Western Ghats
The Board also decided
to develop a programme framework for involving the World Conservation
Union (IUCN) in the conservation of wild life and international
cooperation, constitute a committee on integration of wild life
conservation with other sectoral programmes and constitute a
task force on resource augmentation areas for conservation of
wild life outside protected areas.
The Prime Minister
gave away Rajiv Gandhi Wild Life Conservation Award (individual
category) for the year 2002 to Shri A.Ramchandaran, Wild Life
Warden, Nagapattinam for rescuing a stranded whale near Pachaikadu
about 15 Kms west of Kodiakkarai, Tamil Nadu.
The Rajiv Gandhi Wild
Life Conservation Award (institution category) was one by the
Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Mumbai in recognition
of their contribution in the field of wild life conservation.
