New Delhi: While flagging off a rally on wheels ‘India for Tigers’, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav on Saturday said that countrywide campaign focusing on citizen participation, where small changes, at the local level, will add up to significant national gains and help reinforce the trusteeship concept and living in harmony with nature, said a statement.
"We are trustees, not owners," he observed.
As regards the rally, the statement said the pan-India outreach activity has twin objectives of celebrating India’s 75 years of Independence and spreading the message of biodiversity conservation under the ambit of Project Tiger and Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats (IDWH) programme of the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
All 51 tiger reserves will be participating at the landscape level and a myriad of events throughout the rally will see the active involvement of a diverse range of stakeholders and the amalgamation of events will showcase the overarching presence of tiger which is deep-rooted in our culture, mythology, history, literature with an appeal to give this majestic big cat its due right to flourish in peace and safety, it said.
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The event also saw the release of guidelines for ecotourism in forest and wildlife areas. It underscores the need for a participatory approach in the conservation of wildlife and its habitats. It also emphasizes the engagement of local communities. Suggesting enrichment of local economies and encouraging the sustainable use of indigenous material through financially viable value chains, the guidelines advocates aid to help local communities become self-reliant. It observed that such a move would promote partnership among stakeholders in the development of ecotourism as well as equitable sharing of benefits with local communities.
The field guide for monitoring Ganges and Indus river dolphins, associated aquatic fauna and habitat has enlisted Dolphins enumeration as its key area of focus. It would help delineate important conservation areas, where development can be planned with appropriate mitigation measures, and also secure the livelihoods of local communities.
So far, there is no synchronized enumeration plan, however sporadic enumerations have been done in past. The first time a standardized monitoring protocol has been made and will be employed for synchronized Dolphin enumeration exercise to be undertaken in states of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab. Dolphin estimation is an important process and constituent of “Project Dolphin”.
The monitoring protocol methodology includes visual monitoring of Gangetic Dolphin populations. Depending upon the width and depth of the river, a boat-based method for Dolphin visual monitoring would use a double observer survey, a boat-in-tandem survey and a single-boat survey.
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