India's new project to conserve 11 species of small wild cats

India recently decided to conserve 11 species of endangered small wild cats with help of US-based establishment i.e. Global Environment Facility .

It is mention worthy here that 7 out of 11 species are on the IUCN red list. These species — having the nature born distribution in India — primarily include fishing cat, Asian leopard cat, jungle cat and Asiatic wild cat.

Structure of such conservation project :

This Wildlife conservation project will be launched in two tiger reserves initiall.

First , Dudhwa tiger reserve in Uttar Pradesh

Second, Pakke tiger reserve in Arunachal Pradesh

Two wildlife sanctuaries — Eaglenest in Arunachal and Ranthambore in Rajasthan would also be the part of this conservation project.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Global Tiger Forum (GTF) and National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) are integral part of the plan as partners.

The project will incur an expenditure of $45 million to be borne jointly by GEF and its financial partners as well as the central government and the respective state governments.”

About GEF :

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) was established on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to help tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems. Since then, the GEF has provided close to $20.5 billion in grants and mobilized an additional $112 billion in co-financing for more than 4,800 projects in 170 countries. Through its Small Grants Programme, the GEF has provided support to nearly 24,000 civil society and community initiatives in 133 countries.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) was established in 1991 and unites 182 member governments — in partnership with international institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector — to address global environmental issues. Today the GEF is the largest funder of projects to improve the global environment.