KOLKATA: A last-minute decision by the Union government to change the funding pattern of Project Tiger could send conservation programmes haywire across the country. Bengal, for instance, is suddenly left with no money for its Sunderbans and Buxa tiger reserves at the fag end of the fiscal.

It's not as if the Narendra Modi government is going to save a massive amount of money by switching from 100% central funding to a 60:40 sharing with states. Bengal needed only Rs 1.06 crore for its tiger reserves — Rs 75 lakh for Sunderbans, one of the largest tiger habitats in the world, and Rs 31 lakh for Buxa. Forest officials desperately needed this money to buy guns and set up special camps to take on poachers. They hope the state government will help make ends meet but with an election ahead it is feared the debt-ridden state may not part with funds as it moves into the last quarter of the 2015-16 fiscal.

The Centre is 'saving' only about Rs 20 crore by depriving 22-odd tiger reserves, including big ones like Corbett, Kanha, Ranthambore and Kaziranga. It will presumably utilise this money on welfare or development projects. The actual saving will be even higher if we take into account all the 47 tiger reserves in the country.

Conservationists lashed out at the Centre, wondering if this means that the Centre is turning its back on Project Tiger. BittuSahgal said: "The Centre should be ashamed of what it has done. I have full sympathy for the states. The climate talks in Paris have once again brought to light the fact that the tiger's forests are the only insurance people have against the impact of climate change. But the Centre is not bothered about protecting forests. It has lost its sense of balance."

Sources say it was only on December 3 that the finance ministry informed the ministry of environment, forest and climate change about the new funding pattern under the non-recurring head for Project Tiger. Chief wildlife warden Pradip Shukla confirmed the development to TOI. "If we were told in advance we could have tried to cope with the situation. But we are being told in the eleventh hour, when we are entering the last quarter of the fiscal," he said.

It's a cruel blow for the Sunderbans tiger, which is already cornered in the climate battle. Bengal is severely short on manpower and the sudden lack of funds could jeopardise the mission to protect its jungles and save the big cat.

In Sunderbans, a host of crucial schemes are now uncertain — from setting up patrol camps in vulnerable areas and purchase of camera traps and GPS for field research to nylon net fencing along the forest boundary, embankment protection and installation of solar lights in villages.

In Buxa, the fight against poachers will be crippled as foresters won't have money to set up anti-poaching camps, buy arms and ammunition and rubber boats for river patrolling.

State wildlife advisory board members JoydipKundu and Biswajit Roy Chowdhury flayed the Centre. "The policymakers talk about river linking, and the tigers' forests are the source of these rivers. How can the Centre shift its focus from tiger?" asked Kundu. "Can the leaders achieve their GDP ambition if they shake the nation's ecological foundation? I don't think they can," said Roy Chowdhury.