Tirthan Sanctuary, Great Himalayan National Park best performers among protected areas

CONTEXT:

India has a network of 903 Protected Areas covering about 5 per cent of its total geographic area of the country.

According to the survey, Tirthan Wildlife Sanctuary and Great Himalayan National Park in Himachal Pradesh have performed the best among the surveyed protected areas.

NEWS IN DETAILS:

Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar on Monday released Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) of 146 national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in the country.

Minister Prakash Javadekar also announced that this year onwards,

1. 10 best National Parks,
2. Five coastal and marine parks and
3. Top five zoos

in the country will be ranked and awarded every year.

Worst performer: The Turtle Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh was the worst performer in the survey.

Best Performers: Tirthan sanctuary, Great Himalayan National Park best performers among protected areas

India’s thriving biodiversity:

• 70% of the global tiger population,
• 70% of Asiatic lions and
• 60% of leopard population

in India is a certificate of India’s thriving biodiversity as these big cats sit at the top of food chain and their growing numbers shows the well-being of the whole ecosystem.

Four categories of Protected Areas: India has systematically designated its Protected Areas in four legal categories under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

1. National Parks,
2. Wildlife Sanctuaries,
3. Conservation Reserves and
4. Community Reserves

903 formally designated Protected Areas: Under this Act, India has 903 formally designated Protected Areas with a total coverage 1,65,012.6 square km. Among these are

• 101 National Parks,
• 553 Wildlife Sanctuaries,
• 86 Conservation Reserves and
• 163 Community Reserves.

For the survey, 146 National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries across 29 states and Union territories were evaluated.

MANAGEMENT EFFECTIVENESS EVALUATION (MEE):

• It has emerged as a key tool that is increasingly being used by governments and international bodies to understand strengths and weaknesses of the protected area management systems.
• It is the assessment of how well protected areas such as national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, conservation reserves, community reserves and tiger reserves are being managed and their effectiveness in conserving target flora and fauna.
• The results of present assessment are encouraging with overall mean MEE score of 62.01% which is higher than the global mean of 56%.
• With this round of evaluation, the Ministry of Environment,Forest and Climate Change(MoEFCC) successfully completed one full cycle of evaluating all terrestrial National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries of the country from 2006 to 2019.

Source: Indian Express