'Hate-driven Propaganda': Bhupender Yadav Calls Out Al Jazeera's Report on India's Tiger Conservation

Defending India’s Tiger conservation efforts, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Monday said it is the only country in the world, where the tiger population is growing as opposed to other nations where it has either stagnating or declining.

Yadav was commenting on an article published by media network Al Jazeera titled “India’s indigenous people pay price of tiger conservation.”

Sharing it on his Twitter handle, Yadav called Al Jazeera as “hate-driven, propaganda media,” and said it’s only natural for the media house to experience “heartburn” after seeing India’s tiger population rise.

“India is the only country where tiger population is growing as opposed to other nations, where it has either stagnated or is declining. So, only natural for ‘hate-driven, propaganda media’ Al Jazeera to experience heartburn,” he said.

Yadav further defended India’s tiger agenda, by calling it “inclusive” and “successful” due to participation of locals.

“Some day, if Al Jazeera left propaganda and did journalism, it will be able to appreciate that India’s tiger agenda is inclusive and successful because of the participation of local communities,” Yadav said.

“Our Tiger Reserves generate employment of over 50 L man-days annually for the locals,” he added.

This comes days after Project Tiger completed 50 years. On the occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the latest tiger census data and release the government’s vision for tiger conservation during ‘Amrit Kaal’ at a mega event in Karnataka’s Mysuru.

India launched Project Tiger on April 1, 1973, to promote conservation and revive the dwindling tiger population. Initially, the project incorporated 9 tiger reserves spanning 18,278 sq km.

Over the past 50 years, significant progress has been made towards this objective, and the number of tiger reserves has now increased to 53, encompassing an area of 75,500 sq km. Read more on Project Tiger here

India has around 3,000 tigers, more than 70 per cent of the global wild tiger population, and the number is increasing at a rate of 6 per cent per year, according to latest official figures.

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