Government has launched a health insurance mechanism for forest guards of Kaziranga Tiger reserve and also approved a revolving fund for it, Rajya Sabha was informed today.
Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar in a written reply said that despite several reminders to Assam authorities, the latter is yet to constitute the Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF).
"Yes Sir. A revolving fund with a corpus of Rs 20 lakh has been approved by the government which shall be recouped on a case to case basis and has been institutionalized as a health insurance mechanism for forest guards of the Kaziranga Tiger reserve," he said.
He said that the Chief Wildlife Warden of Assam had submitted a proposal to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for raising a Rhino Protection Force Battalion and not a Special Rhino Protection Force (SRPF).
In September 2014, Environment Minister during his visit to the Kaziranga Tiger reserve took six decisions which included the constitution of a STPF comprising of 112 personnel which included one assistant conservator of forest, three range officers and 108 forest guards with 100 per cent central assistance of Rs 3.72 crore at that point of time.
This included a one time assistance of Rs 1.85 crore for raising new establishment including infrastructure and vehicles
and a perpetual assistance of Rs 1.87 crore for salaries of the personnel and recurring maintenance cost.
"The said decision was followed by a letter to the Assam Chief Minister by the Union Environment Minister in November 2014. Subsequently the NTCA has sent several reminders to the state authorities despite which the state is yet to constitute the said force," Javadekar said.
