Dolphin to gharial: Five conservation projects launched

The central government, as part of the National Wildlife Week, has launched five projects for species conservation and conflict management focused on dolphins, sloth bears, gharials and tigers.

- Jayashree Nandi

On Monday, Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav announced the launch of Project Dolphin (Phase-II); Project Sloth Bear; Project Gharial; Centre of Excellence for Human-Wildlife Conflict Management (CoE-HWC) at Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), and Tigers Outside Tiger Reserves.

The minister, who was at the Forest Research Institute (FRI) in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, also unveiled four national-level action plans and field guides for species population assessments and monitoring programmes. These would cover river dolphins and other cetaceans, tigers, snow leopards, Great Indian Bustard and Lesser Florican.

As he announced the initiatives, Yadav emphasised on the sensitive “balance” between humans and wildlife, especially in an era of rapid development.