http://www.greenlivingonline.com/OurWorld/cp-5170/
(Mar 4, 2008)
(The Canadian Press) NEW DELHI -- India plans to spend more than $13 million to establish a special ranger force to protect the country's endangered tigers. 
The funding proposed Friday by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram follows a $153 million program announced just weeks ago to create new tiger reserves, underscoring renewed efforts by the government to protect the big cats.
New estimates suggest India's wild tiger population has dropped from nearly 3,600 five years ago to about 1,411, the government-run Tiger Project said last month.
"The number 1,411 should ring the alarm bells ... The tiger is under grave threat," Chidambaram told Parliament during his budget presentation for 2008-2009.
Chidambaram said the National Tiger Conservation Authority would be granted 500 million rupees, or $13.15 million, to "raise, arm and deploy" a Tiger Protection Force.
Conservationists welcomed the government's proposal, saying a new force would need to be specially trained and armed to protect tigers from poachers.
"They are finally addressing a very important problem _ poaching," Belinda Wright, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, said Saturday. "I would imagine that much of the existing system would be improved by the injection of the funds."
The Tiger Project plans to create eight new reserves to protect the tigers, covering an area of more than 30,000 square kilometres at a cost about $153 million. Private groups will contribute extra funding.
Some 250 villages, or an estimated 200,000 people, will be relocated under the plan. The government has promised each relocated family $25,600.
The population of tigers in Asia is estimated at about 3,500 today compared to nearly 5,000 in 1997, according to Wright.
India plans special ranger force to protect endangered tigers
Image: Larry Wong/Edmonton Journal
The funding proposed Friday by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram follows a $153 million program announced just weeks ago to create new tiger reserves, underscoring renewed efforts by the government to protect the big cats.
New estimates suggest India's wild tiger population has dropped from nearly 3,600 five years ago to about 1,411, the government-run Tiger Project said last month.
"The number 1,411 should ring the alarm bells ... The tiger is under grave threat," Chidambaram told Parliament during his budget presentation for 2008-2009.
Chidambaram said the National Tiger Conservation Authority would be granted 500 million rupees, or $13.15 million, to "raise, arm and deploy" a Tiger Protection Force.
Conservationists welcomed the government's proposal, saying a new force would need to be specially trained and armed to protect tigers from poachers.
"They are finally addressing a very important problem _ poaching," Belinda Wright, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, said Saturday. "I would imagine that much of the existing system would be improved by the injection of the funds."
The Tiger Project plans to create eight new reserves to protect the tigers, covering an area of more than 30,000 square kilometres at a cost about $153 million. Private groups will contribute extra funding.
Some 250 villages, or an estimated 200,000 people, will be relocated under the plan. The government has promised each relocated family $25,600.
The population of tigers in Asia is estimated at about 3,500 today compared to nearly 5,000 in 1997, according to Wright.
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