Save Our Tigers | Lead the change

Amitabh Bachchan speaks on the six point agenda to encourage involvement in the movement to save a part of our heritage - our tigers - before it is lost forever.

Principal communication to Chief Ministers

Protecting the tiger, our national animal, and its forests, is crucial to the water, food and economic security of the state. These forests are life-saving infrastructures which will save lives, and livelihoods as climate change moves into higher gear.

Enhancing protection for these forests not only consolidates the ecological and economic foundation of the state, but would also prevents insurrectionists and terrorists, who are in league with the illegal timber and wildlife trade, from stealing forest wealth, which they are using to buy arms and ammunition and to sustain their cadres engaged in anti-national activities.

It is possible to offer guaranteed employment to all adults living in communities immediately surrounding tiger forests.

Immediate Action Points:

Protect the Protectors: Fill forest Guard vacancies within six months. Give forest guards better working conditions, the best leadership, equipment and training and restore foot patrols.
Consolidate Tiger Reserves: Notify buffer zones, protect corridors, stop large scale construction, mining, and damaging projects in and around tiger reserves, divert new highway alignments away from core/critical tiger habitats and restrict traffic from dusk to dawn in existing ones.
Resettle Villages from core/critical tiger habitats: This should be quick, fair and voluntary.
Compensate livestock deaths quickly: Work with NTCA-recommended independent NGOs to certify eligibility. Make quick and fair payments to prevent poisoning of carcases.
Crackdown on poaching: Follow up tight patrolling with speedy convictions and levy punative spot fines and seize vehicles of offenders.
Declare tiger reserve buffers as Green Economic Zones (GEZ): All adults living OUTSIDE, within 10 sq km of critical and core critical tiger habitats to be offered livelihoods based on the restoration of the habitat.

NDTV State Agendas : Read NDTV's state-wise agendas for 8 states »

*1411 is average estimate of India's wild tigers, as per the monitoring exercise by Wildlife Institute of India in association with NTCA, Government of India in 2008. PrivecyPolicy | Terms&Condition