New Delhi: Pointing out that tiger habitat protection is the key to sustenance of the gene pool of big cats, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh today asked economists and conservationists to create awareness about the enormous value provided by tiger landscapes.
"I would urge our economists and conservationists to come together and help develop a better understanding by all of us, including policy makers in other sectors, of the enormous value provided by tiger landscapes," Ramesh said at a workshop "Consensus for Conservation" organised here.
Ramesh congratulated Tiger Range Countries (TRCs) like Russia, Vietnam and Burma for finalizing an ambitious global programme for restoring tiger population from 1500 at present to 3000 in the world.
The global tiger recovery programme (GTRP) is to be adopted by the 13-tiger range governments at a first of its kind tiger summit to be held in St Petersburg in Russia next year.
The Summit is to be co-hosted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and World Bank President Robert Zoellick.
The GTRP has emerged from a year-long consultation process in which tiger-range countries have taken the lead in learning from each other about best practises and for defining priority actions to be taken to deal with the crisis of extinction facing the Tiger.
The decades-long experience of India and its expertise gained through Project Tiger has been a valuable input into the GTRP. Early actions to implement policy and institutional actions have already begun in TRCs.
PTI
