WWF Conservation Conference: India’s Wildlife Action
WWF Conservation Conference Highlights
The WWF Conservation Conference opened in Jaipur with a call for global action on wildlife protection and coexistence. Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav inaugurated the conference and urged conservationists to involve local communities.
Representatives from more than 100 countries attended the event. Yadav highlighted India’s conservation progress during the past decade. Protected areas increased from around 750 to more than 1,000. Tiger reserves rose from 47 to 58, while elephant reserves increased from 30 to 33.
India’s Conservation Progress
Ramsar sites also expanded from 24 to 101. Yadav highlighted India’s cheetah reintroduction programme as another conservation achievement. He linked these efforts with India’s constitutional and cultural commitment to wildlife protection.
India participates in major international conservation frameworks, including CITES, CMS, CBD and the Ramsar Convention. The country has also recorded conservation progress involving tigers, elephants, rhinoceroses and Asiatic lions.
Scientific research and population monitoring support habitat improvement and wildlife corridor planning. India conducts nationwide assessments for tigers, elephants, dolphins, lions and snow leopards. These studies help authorities adopt landscape-level conservation approaches.
The Minister highlighted Great Indian Bustard conservation breeding in Rajasthan. Community-led protection of sacred groves, known as Orans, also supports ecological conservation and land degradation neutrality.
Yadav stressed that conservation should cover grasslands, woodlands and wetlands. He cited programmes for the one-horned rhinoceros and wild water buffalo. The WWF Conservation Conference therefore focused on biodiversity, community participation and practical global cooperation.
