Noting that conservation of tigers is not a choice but an imperative, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called for considering them as ‘natural capital’ and underlined the need for collaboration between governments at the highest level to check trafficking in their body parts.
Making a strong pitch for tiger conservation, the Prime Minister said it was “not a drag on development” and there is a need to define conservation as a means to achieve development than considering it as “anti-growth” and called for involving business groups.
“We need to define conservation as a means to achieve development rather than considering it to be anti-growth. I strongly believe that tiger conservation or conservation of nature is not a drag on development,” the Prime Minister said, adding that both can happen in a mutually complementary manner. Mr. Modi inaugurated the three-day 3rd Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation .
‘Re-orient strategy’“All we need is to re-orient our strategy by factoring in concerns of the tiger in sectors where tiger conservation is not the goal. This [conservation] is a difficult task but can be achieved,” the Prime Minister said. — PTI
