NEW DELHI: The new tiger census will be out soon. But bad news for the tigers has come with numbers of a different kind. With the UPA government deciding to keep a tight fiscal lid on the budget this year, funds for tiger conservation have been cut by 25%.
With resources from the Centre drying up, plans for relocation of villagers from tiger reserves could be put on hold. The National Tiger Conservation Authority had worked out a need for Rs 5,000 crore to relocate and resettle almost 50,000 families over a period. It had got the earmarked Rs 700 crore from the Planning Commission for the coming five years for the relocation and other works.
But this year, the fiscal constraints that other ministries are bound to face as well, has hit the tiger reserves as well. A mere Rs 150 crore has been allocated for the 39 tiger reserves for the next financial year, down from the Rs 196 crore it had been provided for this fiscal year.
Sources said environment minister Jairam Ramesh has been engaging with the Planning Commission and the finance ministry to see if he can up the budget but all hints are that the ministry itself will not see any substantial gains in its resources in the coming fiscal.
The NTCA had increased the budget for relocation and provided a package of Rs 10 lakh per displaced family as part of its renewed attempts to create inviolate tiger reserves as required under the Wildlife Conservation Act. The relocation plans would need to be shelved at least for the next year if the final outlay is not a tad bigger.
