Rajya Sabha told about efforts to save tiger

While the striking deaths of tiger has shocked the country, the precise details of the death figures and government's conservation initiatives were released in the Rajya Sabha on Monday in an answer to details sought by Jharkhand MP Parimal Nathwani.

Answer was also sought by group president of Gujarat's Reliance Industries to the pendency of appeals in the Income Tax Appellate Tribubal (ITAT) and the effect of sanctioning 10 additional benches in 2004.

Tiger deaths have shot up from 22 in 2006 to 30 in 2007 and shocking 59 in the 11 months of 2009. The government had released Rs6,270.54 lakh in 2007-08; Rs10,240 lakh in 2008-09 and Rs15,459 lakh in 2009-10. However, these grants have not succeeded in controlling the spiraling deaths of the endangered big cats in the country.

In the conservation activities, the response by ministry of environment and forests has highlighted the reintroduction of tigers by rebuilding Sariska and Panna reserves. "The proposal for 13 tiger reserves has been approved. Rs93 lakh each have been released to Corbett, Ranthambore and Dudhwa tiger reserve.

As for ITAT, 10 additional benches have been set up in 2004 with two benches each at Mumbai and Delhi and one each in Pune, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Bilaspur, Jaipur and Ranchi. "This has reduced  pendency by 229758 cases.”