New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley’s budget has cut the allocation for the ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC) by nearly a quarter to ₹ 1,681.60 crore in 2015-16 compared with the amount budgeted for the current fiscal year.
add_main_imageThe environment ministry is tasked with environmental protection, tackling climate change, controlling pollution, managing forests and wildlife.
In his first full-year budget, Jaitley pared the allocation for Project Tiger—India’s most celebrated wildlife conservation programme—to ₹ 136.46 crore in the year starting 1 April, a decrease of around 15% from ₹ 161.02 crore in 2014-15. NextMAds
The All India Tiger Estimation Report released in January said the tiger population had increased by 30% from 2010 to 2,226 in 2014. Experts had called for a focused approach towards maintaining and protecting the increase in the population of the big cats and urged further work on tiger corridors and technological interventions for their security.
Around ₹ 750 crore has been earmarked for the ecology and environment which includes ₹ 100 crore for a national coastal management programme, ₹ 76.10 crore for environmental monitoring and governance and around ₹ 150 crore for the National Afforestation Programme.
Last year, the government had announced creation of a National Adaptation Fund to tackle effects of climate change on agriculture and setting up of a National Centre for Himalayan Studies in Uttarakhand to work for the conservation of the Himalayas. Both of them are still works in progress.
