Madhya Pradesh reclaimed the title of ‘Tiger State of India’ with ‘526’ the highest number of tigers in a state in the country. The number of tigers grew by 70 percent in the last five years, i.e. about 14 percent every year.
Madhya Pradesh had lost the coveted ‘tiger state’ status to Karnataka in 2011. As per the 2018 report, Karnataka is a close second with 524 tigers, followed by Uttarakhand with 442.
The target for other states was lower as compared MP that had stood on third place with 308 tigers in 2014. Karnataka had 408 tigers and Uttrarakhand had 340 tigers in 2014.
“Clearly, we had among the highest growth rate of tigers and in MP, a part of credit goes to extreme protection steps that we had undertaken,” additional principal chief conservator of forest department Alok Kumar said.
He added that several awareness programs and encroaching was controlled in jungle areas, which helped in controlling the population. “If you have a safe home, then you are bound to flourish and of course, that is how population grew for tigers as well,” Kumar said.
Thanks to its good wildlife management, MP earns well from wildlife tourism. According to the forest department, the state earned about Rs 27.54 crore in 2017-18 from just the gate receipts of the national parks, as shared by officials.
And it’s not just the national parks, even Indore has more upcoming wildlife and exotic animal resorts to attract tourist.
Coordinator of one such recently opened exotic sanctuary, Nihar Parulekar said, “Wildlife needs protection and we want to learn more about it, explore it, understand their secrets, so it is a better way to have a group of them in sanctuaries, where both objectives are attained.”
He added that local people are beneficiaries from direct employment and non-salaried employment, as guides and caretakers in such tasks.
“In the last 5 years, we have seen an increase in tourism in the city and sold several special wildlife travel packages,” a travel agent Rajesh Khanna said.
A biologist Chanchal Gupta said, “Wildlife tourism in MP is already proving to be an important tool in funding parks, in nature awareness, in rural poverty reduction and rural uplift, but some key actions are needed to realise its greater potential for sustainable development and wildlife protection.”
Madhya Pradesh had lost the coveted ‘tiger state’ status to Karnataka in 2011. As per the 2018 report, Karnataka is a close second with 524 tigers, followed by Uttarakhand with 442.
The target for other states was lower as compared MP that had stood on third place with 308 tigers in 2014. Karnataka had 408 tigers and Uttrarakhand had 340 tigers in 2014.
“Clearly, we had among the highest growth rate of tigers and in MP, a part of credit goes to extreme protection steps that we had undertaken,” additional principal chief conservator of forest department Alok Kumar said.
He added that several awareness programs and encroaching was controlled in jungle areas, which helped in controlling the population. “If you have a safe home, then you are bound to flourish and of course, that is how population grew for tigers as well,” Kumar said.
Thanks to its good wildlife management, MP earns well from wildlife tourism. According to the forest department, the state earned about Rs 27.54 crore in 2017-18 from just the gate receipts of the national parks, as shared by officials.
And it’s not just the national parks, even Indore has more upcoming wildlife and exotic animal resorts to attract tourist.
Coordinator of one such recently opened exotic sanctuary, Nihar Parulekar said, “Wildlife needs protection and we want to learn more about it, explore it, understand their secrets, so it is a better way to have a group of them in sanctuaries, where both objectives are attained.”
He added that local people are beneficiaries from direct employment and non-salaried employment, as guides and caretakers in such tasks.
“In the last 5 years, we have seen an increase in tourism in the city and sold several special wildlife travel packages,” a travel agent Rajesh Khanna said.
A biologist Chanchal Gupta said, “Wildlife tourism in MP is already proving to be an important tool in funding parks, in nature awareness, in rural poverty reduction and rural uplift, but some key actions are needed to realise its greater potential for sustainable development and wildlife protection.”
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