Thaindian News

Bhopal, Dec 9 (IANS) Over a thousand wild animals, including seven tigers and 22 leopards, died in Madhya Pradesh in the last four years even while Rs.100 crore were spent to conserve the wild cat, according to the 2010 tiger census report.

A staggering 1,017 wildlife animals lost their lives from October 2007 to October 2010. These animals were tigers, leopards, bears, deer and Neelgai (blue bulls).

The government said all the killed animals were poached and cases against 604 people have been lodged for their slaughter.

Madhya Pradesh has nine national parks and 25 wildlife sanctuaries spread over a total of 10,862 sq km, constituting 3.52 percent of the state’s total area.

The central government launched “Project Tiger” in 1973. Kanha National Park was one of the first nine protected areas selected under the project in the country.

At present, the state has six Project Tiger areas. These are - Kanha, Panna, Bandhavgarh, Satpura, Pench and Sanjay Dhubri.

Madhya Pradesh contains 19 percent of India’s total tigers and ten percent of the world’s tiger numbers.

Every year, the central government allots over Rs.25 crore to Madhya Pradesh in the name of wildlife animal conservation.

According to the 2006 tiger census, there were around 300 tigers and 3,000 leopards in Madhya Pradesh.

“There is fall in the poaching of wildlife animals but the small animals are an easy target of villagers. It is not easy to stop them but still we are trying hard to control them,” said Forest Minister Sartaj Singh.