Maharashtra has sought 100 per cent financial aid from the Centre for setting up a Tiger Protection Force.
Sudhir Mungantiwar, Maharashtra Minister for Finance, Planning and Forest, has demanded full financial assistance from the Centre for Tiger Protection Force "instead of 60:40 ratio", an official statement said today.
He has also asked for financial aid for setting up of a Tiger Research Centre in Maharashtra and demanded the Centre to bring out a postage stamp on Tadoba Tiger Reserve project.
"We had launched Project Tiger in 1973. Its coverage has increased considerably, from 9 tiger reserves to 49 at present. Tiger conservation is a collective responsibility of the government of India and states.
"I also compliment our state governments for their efforts. But the efforts of government cannot succeed unless they are supported by the people. Our cultural legacy which encourages compassion and co-existence has played an important role in the success of Project Tiger. Due to such collective efforts, there has been a rise of 30 per cent in the number of tigers. It has gone up from 1706 in 2010 to 2226 in 2014," he was quoted as saying in the statement.
Complimenting the initiatives undertaken by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Mungantiwar said "Use of modern technology, including intelligent, infra-red and thermal cameras on a 24x7 basis is being promoted for surveillance against poaching in sensitive tiger reserves. Several protocols for smart patrolling and tiger monitoring have been evolved".
The minister noted that the state has doubled the fund allocation from Rs 185 crore to Rs 380 crore on the tiger conservation programme.
"Radio telemetry is also being promoted to monitor tigers. A national repository of tiger camera trap photo database is also being created. To do all these, we have, this year, doubled our allocation for tiger conservation," he added.
