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Congress leader shares a 2009 letter to attack PM Modi amid cheetah credit war
Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier said that Project Cheetah was his government’s endeavour towards environment and wildlife conservation.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday shared a letter from 2009 about Project Cheetah to hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his allegation that "no constructive efforts" were made by the previous governments to the re-introduction of felines in India. Jairam Ramesh, who was a minister of state (independent charge) for environment and forests during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance's government, had written a letter to Wildlife Trust of India in 2009, giving a green signal to Project Cheetah. (Also Read | 'Sara paisa barbad': BJP leader mocks at Akhilesh for 'meowing cheetah' tweet)
In the letter shared by Ramesh, the Congress leader had asked Dr M.K. Ranjitsinh of the Wildlife Trust of India to prepare a “detailed roadmap for the reintroduction of the Cheetah which should include a detailed analysis of different potential sites.”
“The analysis should be carried out by the Wildlife Institute of India in collaboration with other organizations like BNHS and WTI,” the letter read.
“You may also like to take State Forest Departments as part of this study. I expect that the roadmap would be submitted to the MoE&F by the end of January 2010,” he added.
Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet that the letter launched Project Cheetah in 2009.
“Our PM is a pathological liar. I couldn’t lay my hands on this letter yesterday because of my preoccupation with the #BharatJodoYatra,” he tweeted.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Modi released three of the eight cheetahs flown in from Namibia into special enclosures in the Kuno National Park (KNP) in the Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh. In his address after kicking off the cheetah introduction project, PM Modi said, “It is unfortunate that we declared cheetahs extinct in 1952, but for decades no constructive efforts were made to reintroduce them in India. Now, with new strength and vigour, the country has embarked on the project of reviving the population of cheetahs during this 'Amrit Kaal.”
