By following sustainable models of forest conservation, India can aspire to manage 15,000 tigers in the available forest area, according to conservationist and wildlife ecologist K. Ullas Karanth.
In his talk on ‘Saving Wildlife in Changing India’ organised INTACH Mangaluru chapter on August 7, Mr. Karanth said the country has 3,000 tigers in about 4% of forest cover. “This is not a significant number,” he said while expressing the need for the country to adapt sustainable models of forest conservation.
Mr. Karanth said agriculture development and conservation go hand-in-hand in a model proposed in 1993. There is also the other eco-economic decoupling model where economic growth happens without corresponding increase in the pressure on the environment.
“By following either of this models, I am hopeful we can manage 15,000 tigers in the available forest land by catering to growth aspirations of the people of this country,” he said.
Expressing concern over gradual shrinkage of forest cover in India, Mr. Karanth said increase in the area for farming is among the factors resulting in decrease of forest cover. The other factors include clearance of timber from the forests, fire, and increase in livestock. Solar energy, micro hydel, wind power and massive road projects were becoming big menace for forests. Wildlife tourism is adding more pressure on the forest land.
The conservationist said it is necessary to make agriculture really productive. “We need to have plants that can sustain vageries of nature with less amount of water and land.” The country needs to ponder over ongoing development projects and push for projects that do not harm the ecology.
‘Tunnel is best solution for crossing Western Ghats’
“The way in which we are building roads in Western Ghats, we would lose this eco-sensitive region,” he said. He favours tunnels in the Western Ghats. “Western countries have good tunnels,” he said.
Mr. Karanth advocated a rational solution to use of coal for energy production and other purposes as emission from coal is causing harm to the ecology.
Published - August 08, 2024 02:57 pm IST
