Discussion on 50 years of Project Tiger and photos of Indian Prime Minister Modi

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived to see the tigers at the Bandipur National Park in the southern state of Karnataka on Sunday, April 9.

He has also shared some of his pictures on Twitter in this regard. He is actually there to mark 50 years of India's courageous 'Project Tiger' on tigers and to release the latest tiger census data in Mysore.

It should be noted that India's tiger census data was last released in 2018.

Professor Bilal Habib at the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun, India, told BBC Urdu over the phone that 'Project Tiger' was launched in 1973 by the Congress Indira Gandhi government and on April 1. He completed his Golden Jubilee.

To mark the occasion, Prime Minister Modi will launch the International Big Cats Alliance (IBCA) at a function to commemorate 50 years of Project Tiger. which will work with countries focusing on the conservation and recovery of the world's seven big cats. These include tigers, lions, leopards, snow leopards, puma, jaguars and leopards of the cat family.

He traveled 20 kilometers to Bandipur in an open jeep wearing a black hat, printed camouflage shirt and khaki pants. Meanwhile, Anhun also met the cast and crew of the Oscar-winning documentary 'Elephant Whispers'.

His visit is being talked about on social media and people are retweeting his pictures.

Senior leader and spokesperson of Congress party Jairam Rameshan criticized his trip regarding 'Project Tiger' and wrote that 'Today in Bandipur the Prime Minister of Project Tiger started 50 years ago. Will take full credit. They will do a lot of spectacle and they will ignore all the laws designed to protect the tribals living in the forest areas, the environment, the forests and the wildlife. They will grab the headlines but the reality is the opposite.'

Journalist and author Sagarika Ghosh, tweeting about Project Tiger, posted a photo of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi with a tiger and wrote: 'PM Modi is in Bandipur for Project Tiger. #ProjectTiger didn't start in 2014. was It was established in 1973 by the then PM Indira Gandhi. At the time most thought it wouldn't work, but it did. In fact, very few Prime Ministers have been as passionate about wildlife conservation as Indira Gandhi.'

Many others have said that tiger numbers have doubled under Modi and that he is interested in wildlife. While many have criticized Modi's image, he uses every opportunity for his own image.

England cricketer Kevin Pietersen described Modi's image as iconic and called him a hero and tweeted a picture of him, writing: 'A world leader who loves wild animals with them in their natural habitat. Very excited while spending time. Remember that on his last birthday, he released the cheetahs into the wild in India.'

Anyway, what is Project Tiger and why was it started?

Prof. Bilal Habib said that Project Tiger is a unique and unprecedented tiger conservation success story in the world and India should be commended for it.

Lion hunting was once considered a sign of bravery, wealth and power and there are many stories about it. In fact, the Bandipur Park which the Indian PM visited today was once a hunting ground for the Mysore princes.

Speaking to the BBC, he said, 'After independence from British rule in the mid-1960s, it was realized that India's tiger population was dying out due to hunting and lack of suitable and safe habitat. Is.

As a result, tiger hunting was banned in 1968 during Indira Gandhi's regime. A nationwide law was also felt for the protection of wild animals, birds and plants, so the Wildlife (Protection) Act- 1972 came into being.

In the following year, 1973, the tiger was declared the national animal of India and its hunting was banned.

The then Tourism Minister Dr Karan Singh announced the launch of this project in nine tiger sanctuaries in the country where special attention was given to their conservation.

Now, 50 years later, there are more than 50 tiger sanctuaries across the country. And according to an estimate, India currently has 70% of the world's tigers and their number is more or less three thousand.

But observers say these 50 years have not been smooth sailing for tiger conservation. In the early 1990s, tigers were again threatened with extinction due to large-scale poaching, but when a nationwide census was conducted in 2006, the number was much higher than estimated at 1,400. Turned out to be more than

According to a report published in Hindustan Times, although there are 54 protected sanctuaries for tigers in India, 30% of India's tigers are found in other sanctuaries.

It should be noted that the tiger reserve visited by Mr. Modi has relatively few tigers.