Vintage cars to run for Dudhwa tigers

1 Feb 2008, 0251 hrs IST, TNN

“The objective of the event is to promote conservation of Dudhwa tigers,” said Sandeep Das, secretary of the club. The motto of the event is ‘Protect Wildlife-Protect the Tiger’.The sponsors for the event include Airtel and HSBC.

Dudhwa national park is one of the important wildlife sanctuaries in northern India. Around 90 kms from Lakhimpur Kheri and 220 kms from Lucknow, it is one of the major sanctuaries which houses tigers. It is the only national park in the state.

Spread in an area of 490 sq kms this wildlife park has around 80 tigers, according to a press release issued by the club. However, across the country due to influx of humans in tiger reserves, the animal’s natural habitat has dwindled and the species count is decreasing rapidly.

To put a check on this, the government recently declared Dudhwa as well as the nearby areas of Kishanpur and Kartaniaghat as critical tiger habitat. Plans are now afoot to relocate around a dozen villages near the wildlife park to some other suitable place so that it eases the functioning of Project tiger.

“We thought that as an organisation we can also highlight the tiger conservation project and create awareness among people associated with us. Forest department has agreed to provide full support and cooperation for the same,” said Das.

MP Singh, director, Dudhwa will flag off the vehicles on the return journey from Dudhwa. The run has a twin benefit of promoting conservation of tigers in Dudhwa and highlighting the vintage cars which are also out of run. Around 8 to 10 cars will be part of the car run.

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