Improved fund flow channel for tiger conservation

New Delhi, July 2 : The cabinet Thursday approved an improved fund flow channel from the union government to the states and further down to the tiger reserves to ensure effective tiger conservation.

The decision, approving the implementation of “the new and improved tripartite Memorandum of Understanding format linked to fund flows between the union ministry of environment and forests, state governments and the tiger reserve management” was taken in a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said cabinet spokesperson Ambika Soni.

She said the fund flow channel was devised following concerns expressed by the prime minister on the issue of tiger conservation.

The tripartite MOU would ensure effective tiger conservation by laying out the respective responsibilities and reciprocal commitments linked to fund flows to foster public accountability, said Soni.

She added that the MoU would strengthen tiger conservation initiatives in the country, besides reinforcing the ongoing ones aimed conserving tiger population and rid them of the threat of poaching and demand for its body parts in the international illegal market.

She said the new fund flow channel would develop approaches to strengthen the ongoing efforts for conserving tigers in the designated tiger reserves and other tiger bearing forests of the country and would also address the growing concern among public for saving the tiger.

She said the new fund flow management would be done through centrally-sponsored scheme of Project Tiger in the 37 Tiger reserves in the country. It would cover 17 states - Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarkhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka.

--IANS