INDIA: STOP THE ASSAULT ON YOUR LAST PROTECTED AREAS AND ITS WILDLIFE:LESS THAN 5%

Terrestrial protected areas constitute less than 4.9 percent of the geographical area of India and harbor many endangered species. These reserves suffer severe fragmentation and a variety of diffuse human-related disturbances.

For example, the survival of the Asian elephant and the Bengal tiger in India hangs by a thread because they are increasingly confined to small isolated protected areas.
India's conservative national government has reconstituted the National Board for Wildlife -- by conveniently choosing experts who are rapidly approving projects in crucial wildlife habitats, including five tiger reserves.
Everywhere one looks, protected areas seem to be under assault.

India's current government seems determined to advance 'development' at all costs. But will diminishing the nation's critical wildlife areas -- which have already suffered greatly -- bring the kind of development that India really needs?