India has doubled number of tigers to nearly 2,970, says PM Modi

India has launched Project Snow Leopard to protect the endangered cat

Modi Safari Twitter Prime Minister Narendra Modi photographing a tiger during a safari in 2016 | Twitter handle of Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday urged tiger range countries to join hands to strengthen tiger conservation through sharing of benchmarking practices.
He was inaugurating the 13th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Migratory species through video conference in Gandhinagar.
The six-day event will witness the sharing of best practices, generation of ideas, presentations and adoption of resolutions for the migratory species.
Over 3000 delegates have registered from India and abroad for the event.
Modi said that India has initiated focussed species conversation projects and programmes. India has achieved its target of doubling the number of tigers two years before the committed date of 2022, he added. The tiger population in India now stands at almost 2,970 tigers.
The Prime Minister said that India has been championing climate action based on the values of conservation, sustainable lifestyle and green development model. The range of our initiatives include an ambitious target of 450 MW in renewable energy, push towards Electric Vehicles, Smart Cities, Conservation of Water and more, he added.
He said that sustained efforts over that years have led to encouraging results and the number of Protected Areas had increased from 745 in 2014 to 870 in 2019, with an area coverage of nearly 1.70 lakh square kilometre.
India will be president of CMSCOP till the 14th edition of CMSCOP is held.

The PM also said that the Great Indian Bustard, a critically endangered bird, has also been at the focus of conservation efforts.


"As part of the captive breeding programme, 9 eggs have been successfully hatched from wild. This has been accomplished by Indian Scientists and Forest Department with technical assistance from International Fund for Houbara Conservation, Abu Dhabi," he said.
Modi also spoke about how conservation of wildlife and habitats has been a part of the cultural ethos of India, which encourages compassion and co-existence. "Our Vedas spoke of protection of animals. Emperor Ashoka put great emphasis on prohibiting the destruction of forests and the killing of animals. Inspired by Gandhiji, the ethos of non-violence and protection of animals and nature has been suitably enshrined in the Constitution of India. It also finds reflection in several laws and legislations," the Prime Minister remarked.
He informed that India has launched Project Snow Leopard to protect the Snow leopard and its habitat in the upper Himalayas.



He added that India would be taking a leadership role in promoting Green Economy including conservation of mountain ecology with people’s participation.