PM Announces Expansion of Wildlife Conservation Efforts

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the seventh meeting of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) at Gir National Park in Gujarat on Monday, on the occasion of World Wildlife Day, and announced several significant decisions and findings to improve wildlife conservation efforts in India, including the expansion of the Cheetah reintroduction initiative to new locations.

- Jayashree Nandi

NEW DELHI:

One of the highlights of the meeting, which the Prime Minister attended after completing a lion safari in Gir in the morning, was the release of India's first-ever riverine dolphin census report, which pegged the number of the aquatic mammals at 6,327 across the country.

The PM also laid the foundation stone for the National Referral Centre for Wildlife at Junagadh in Gujarat and announced the 16th Asiatic lion population estimation to be carried out in May this year. On the occasion, Modi also announced the setting up of a centre of excellence for human-wildlife conflict management, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), at Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, and unveiled a book on river dolphins.

"The Prime Minister announced that cheetah introduction will be expanded to other areas, including the Gandhisagar sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh and Banni Grasslands in Gujarat," the Union environment ministry said in a release.

India, which had lost all its native cheetahs by 1950, received 20 cheetahs—eight from Namibia and 12 from South Africa—in two batches in September 2022 and February 2023 as part of its Cheetah Translocation Project to repopulate wild habitats with African cheetahs. These African cheetahs were reintroduced at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.