Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, August 29: Worried over the declining number of Royal Bengal tigers in Orissa’s forests, former Union minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh Monday urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to take steps to save the tiger population in the state.
“It would be a calamity if the tigers were to become extinct. Unlike in Panna and Siriska, tigers cannot really be shifted to Similipal and Satkosia and hence the importance of not only saving but augmenting what is there now,” Ramesh said in a letter to Patnaik.
Requesting the chief minister “not to see any politics in his communication”, Ramesh said he had earlier shared his interests and hoped the CM would also share his concern over the issue.
In his letter, Ramesh said during his visit to the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun, he was “shocked” to learn that the tigers were on their way to extinction in Simlipal and Satkosia forests.
Recalling the steps he had taken during his stint as Union minister for environment and forests, Ramesh said, “Under my initiative, a special task force was constituted in June 2009 to save the tigers of Orissa which are unique because of their black stripes.”He, however, said the state government officials were in denial mode at that time and had challenged the population estimates made by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
“Nothing seems to have changed. In fact the situation may have gone worse with tiger population estimates down to a low single digit in the state,” Ramesh said in the letter made available to media.
