Conserving tiger is conserving forest, according to said Chief Conservator of Forests and Anamalai Forest Reserve Field Director V Ganeshan.

He said this at the enviro-meet `Truth about tigers’ held at Bharathiyar University here as part of global tiger conservation day.

The meeting was organised by the varsity zoology department and was attended among others by Vice-Chancellor Dr A Ganapathi.

“The ministry dealing with environment which started off as a federal Department of Environment in 1980 got renamed as the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in 2014. This is a very clear indication about our environmental condition. Conservation is a costly affair. You need committed people on every level of the department. Western Ghats is one of the hot-spots of bio diversity in a global scale. Hence, the responsibility is higher, said Ganeshan.

He spoke about how former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was involved in preparing the wildlife and environment protection agenda. She spearheaded the enactment of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, Forest Conservation Act 1980 and also launched Project Tiger to save the animal. Three sub-species of tigers, including Bali and Amur, have gone extinct and there are around 3,000 in this region. “Human life cannot be saved unless forest or wildlife is conserved,” he added.

OSAI Environmental Organisation President K Kalidasan mentioned about the journal `Ecosystem Services’ where in a paper `Making the hidden visible: Economic values of tiger reserves in India’ scientists mention the economic aspects of six tiger reserves.

A documentary by the zoology department students, ‘Truth about tigers’, was screened as part of the meeting.