Environment ministry for Rs 130 cr WB project in Kutch Rann

Central Environment minister Shri Jairam Ramesh today said, his ministry will launch a Rs. 130 crore initiative with the World Bank in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat and a wildlife sanctuary in Himachal Pradesh for better management of protected areas by making people stakeholders.

Addressing the Stakeholders’ Consultation on the Convention on Biological Diversity in New Delhi, Ramesh said, “It will be a new model of managing biodiversity as it makes local people stakeholders in biodiversity conservation. Whenever access to local community is chocked in protected areas, it creates barrier and people are up in arms.”

“There is a big challenge for India which nobody else has – to balance the demographic pressure and development challenge. We have different stakeholders and they have to be reconciled in a manner that biodiversity is protected and interests of local people are also protected,” he said adding that the country needs a paradigm shift in forest management.

“We can’t be treating our tribals as interlopers and have to give them stake in development. The tradition of command and control won’t be acceptable to people and they have to made stake holders,” he added.