Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 9 (IANS) The government plans to strengthen the wildlife protection act so that poachers are convicted more quickly, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said here Thursday.
“I met (the Supreme Court’s) amicus curae (on environment) Harish Salve and he had some very good ideas on how we can strengthen the act,” Ramesh told the media. “We’ll come up with the legislation soon.”

In the area of wildlife protection, this year’s budget has increased the allocation for India’s flagship Project Tiger to Rs.185 crore from Rs.72 crore last year, a 156 percent rise.

Ramesh said part of the fund would be used to relocate villagers who now live inside the protected forests.

“We are going to give Rs.10 lakh per family and there are 80,000-100,000 families to be relocated, so obviously this money is not enough,” the minister said. “But the prime minister has made an open ended commitment that for relocation of people from protected forests, the government will always find the money from somewhere.”