On Tuesday, Vidarbha Economic Development (VED) Council, Friends of Tiger Country Central India (FTCCI), Greenpeace and India Against Corruption (IAC) announced their support to the issues raised by Dhotre.
Plans are now afoot to bring chief minister Prithviraj Chavan to the pandal site when he will be in the city to review various projects. The IAC volunteers took out a rally from Law College Square to declare support to Dhotre's fast.
"It is indeed a matter of shame that Dhotre has to resort to a fast to draw attention and get some action from the state government to save tigers," said Devendra Parekh, president, VED. Incidents of tiger poaching in the buffer zone of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) led seemingly shocked forest minister Patangrao Kadam to issue 'shoot-at-sight' orders but such reactions and emotional outbursts yield no comprehensive results as the follow up is extremely poor, he added.
"The need of the hour is a comprehensive policy initiatives that will ensure protection of tigers vis-a-vis their habitat for all times to come," said Parekh.
On Tuesday, as Dhotre's fast entered the second day, several local leaders including Shiv Sena MLA from Ramtek Ashish Jaiswal and Nationalist Youth Congress leader Salil Deshmukh visited Dhotre to express solidarity. Deshmukh said his NGO Koshish fully supports Dhotre. Read the full report here.
Source: Times News Network, Nagpur.
