The Hindu , Thursday, November 27, 2014

Correspondent :

About 3 per cent of India’s land area is deemed as protected area in the form of Project Tiger reserves or as sanctuaries for other flagship species such as the grizzled squirrel, the Nilgiri tahr and the lion tailed macaque (“Protecting biodiversity with rigour,” Nov.25). While the habitat within these confines is well-protected, poaching remains a concern. Buffer forests contiguous to protected areas are under pressure. NGOs and the forest department need to tap into corporate social responsibility funds to develop a healthy conservation economy around maintaining and restoring the health of buffer forests. Buffer forests also serve as vital migratory corridors, ensuring that inbreeding is limited. India also has vast stretches of forests in prime condition that do not come under the definition of a wildlife reserve. These include large swathes of forests around the Western and Eastern Ghats, the Vindhyas, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. These forests occupy a land mass much larger than protected areas and need to be protected at all costs. Protecting our biodiversity is ‘not just a nice thing to do’, but an imperative.

SOURCE : http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/letters/protecting-biodiversity/article6637160.ece