Uttar Pradesh spends more on elephants statues than live ones

September 14, 2009

phants-statues-than-live-ones_100246947.html

September 13th, 2009 - 9:54 pm ICT by IANS

Lucknow, Sep 13 (IANS) Scores of elephants statues are to come up in a memorial

park here in the Uttar Pradesh capital city at a cost of tens of crores of

rupees. But for creation and maintenance of a special elephant reserve, the

state government can spare only Rs.50 lakh.

The state’s forest department has decided to allocate an annual budget of Rs.50

lakh for the elephant reserve to come up in Bijnore district bordering

Uttarakhand under the Project Elephant, an official said Sunday.

The official sources estimated the cost of the 60 stone elephants sculpted out

of pink Dholpur stones at Chief Minister Mayawati’s dream project - Ambedkar

Memorial - here at Rs.60 lakh per piece.

According to Uttar Pradesh’s chief wildlife conservator B.K. Patnaik, “While the

regular number of elephants in the jungles of Bijnore was estimated at just

about 15-20, free movement of the animals from the adjoining forests of

Uttarakhand often raises the numbers substantially.”

The state has barely 150 elephants and most of these are either part of the

official teams of the state forest department or its wildlife parks.

A 740 sq km area has been earmarked for the proposed elephant park in Bijnore.

It will depend largely on the floating elephant population from the neighbouring

Uttarakhand, the official said.

“In order to provide a special status to the elephant, the government has titled

the new scheme as Project Elephant,” Patnaik added.

Incidentally, elephant is the election symbol of Chief Minister Mayawati’s

ruling Bahujan Samaj Party.

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Thank you for your compassion !

With best regards,

Debasis Chakrabarti

Compassionate Crusaders Trust

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