Bollywood stars line up to save tigers

Led by generous donations from filmstars including Amitabh Bachchan, who auctioned his imported watch and two designer sunglasses, the 'Save Our Tiger' campaign has managed to generate Rs 4.86 crores.

Led by generous donations from filmstars including Amitabh Bachchan, who auctioned his imported watch and two designer sunglasses, the 'Save Our Tiger' campaign has managed to generate Rs 4.86 crores.

HT Image

Bachchan, who is also the campaign ambassador, donated Rs 28 lakh and also auctioned his Cartier watch and two pairs of designer shades which raised another Rs 8.45 lakhs for the tiger conservation project being organised by NDTV.

Altogether more than Rs 4.86 crores were raised with donors including actors Abhishek Bachchan and Diya Mirza, fashion designer Manish Malhotra, footballer Bhaichung Bhutia, businessman Hemendre Kothari, BJP president Nitin Gadkari and Mumbai MP Priya Dutt.

To save tigers, facing a grave threat of extinction, Big B also visited Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh yesterday to join wildlife champions and highlight the key conservation issues on a special telethon on NDTV.

"A year back when this campaign started I felt honoured to be a part of it; and today I can see the efforts over the year bear fruit. The donations from this 12 hour Telethon would be of immense help in providing the infrastructure required for consistent operations and activities in tiger conservation," the 68-year-old actor said in a statement.

All the funds generated will be utilised to create rapid response teams who will be equipped to protect the country's tigers and respond to any emergency in and around tiger parks.

"The fund raised is sufficient to create and deploy 35 Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) and cover all the Tiger Reserves across the country," Anish Andheria, director of Wildlife Conservation Trust, said.