BENGALURU: As the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her ninth budget, the Global Big Cat Alliance 2024 project and said that India will host the summit this year, Karnataka forest department officials are busy making preparations to host international and national delegates in Bandipur and Nagarhole.
The international workshop and the training programme will be jointly organised by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and International Big Cat Alliance, a multi-country and multi-agency coalition, from February 9-13 in Karnataka.
This is the first time India is hosting the event, and the two locations were chosen to promote Southern India. It may be recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the project in Mysuru during the release of the tiger estimation report in 2023.
Forest department officials said, for the first two days, the delegates from 18 countries and officials from all Indian states will attend the workshops in Bandipur Tiger Reserve, and then on February 11 and 12, they will be in Nagarhole Tiger Reserve.
India has the highest number of tigers. We also house a healthy population of leopards, snow leopards and jaguars. The discussion will cover all aspects of conservation and the efforts needed to use and strengthen modern technology for the protection of all the big cats,” officials said.
So far, interstate boundaries and conservation measures have been stressed. There is a need to address international boundaries and adopt the best practices for better mitigation measures.
However, pointed out that the exercise will have little meaning when primary issues are not addressed, like the resettlement of forest dwellers. The government must stop clearing projects inside tiger habitat and must also be open to critical peer reviews