Protecting wildlife and natural resources is the utmost priority of TN Govt: MK Stalin

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin on Wednesday chaired the first meeting of the State Wildlife Board, after and said the State would always be a leader in protecting wildlife as well as in the safeguarding of natural resources.

The meeting was conducted to give a clear roadmap for conservation and wildlife protection initiatives in the State.

Addressing the meeting at the Secretariat, Stalin, who is the chairperson of the Board, said that his government has taken a number of measures to make Tamil Nadu a leading State in terms of forests and wildlife protection.

The Chief Minister also released the ‘Tamil Nadu Elephant Death Audit Framework’ which is the first of its kind with the objective to document reasons for elephant deaths for better accountability.

Stalin also said that from this year, the State will implement biodiversity conservation and greening projects as a response to climate change, with an outlay of  Rs 920.56 crore with assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Measures have also been undertaken to restore degraded forest land, with about ₹481.14 crore assistance from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) Stalin said.

Earlier in the day, the CM had chaired the 21st meeting of the Governing Board of the Zoo Authority of Tamil Nadu and called upon the officials for upgrading the facilities across zoological parks in the State.