Why in news:- PM Modi chairs his first Wildlife Board meeting
About
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired his first-ever meeting of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) last week, on World Wildlife Day on March 3 at Gir.
- The last full-body NBWL meeting was held on September 5, 2012, chaired by then PM Manmohan Singh.
- The PM is the ex officio chairman of the NBWL.
- The present-day National Board for Wildlife was created in 2003 after amending The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
- The NBWL restructured the Indian Board for Wildlife (IBWL), established in 1952. The intent was to give it more teeth by making it a statutory body and giving it a more regulatory character to implement the Wild Life Protection Act.
- The NBWL is the country’s apex body on matters of framing wildlife policy, conservation of wildlife and forests, and on giving recommendations to set up new national parks and sanctuaries.
- The NBWL consists of 47 members with the Prime Minister as its chairperson and the Union environment minister its vice-chairperson.
- Senior members include Chief of the Army Staff; secretaries of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Department of Expenditure of the Ministry of Finance; three Lok Sabha MPs; one Rajya Sabha MP; and the Director General of Forest.
- Ten eminent conservationists, ecologists and environmentalists and five persons from the non-governmental sector are also appointed to the board.
- The NBWL’s predecessor, the Indian Board for Wildlife, took birth in March 1952 as the Central Board for Wildlife. It was named IBWL in its first meeting held at the Lalitha Mahal Palace, Mysore, from November 24 to December 1, 1952. The IBWL was formed to address the decline of wildlife populations.
- Sri Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, the Maharaja of Mysore, was its first chairman.