Nongkhyllem wildlife sanctuary in Meghalaya has been rated as the best wildlife sanctuary in the North East region.
Nongkhyllem wildlife sanctuary located in Ri-Bhoi district is among the 16 wildlife sanctuaries in the North East that have been evaluated by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
According to the Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) of Protected Areas (PAs), Nongkhyllem wildlife sanctuary rated best PA with 79.17 per cent in ‘Very Good’ category, followed by Khangchendzonga National Park, Sikkim which was also rated in ‘Very Good’ category with 77.50 per cent MEE score.
Pani-Dihing wildlife sanctuary, Assam was rated in ‘Poor’ category with least MEE score of31.66 per cent in North East region.
The MEE report covering 146 national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in the country was released on January 11.
At present, India has a network of 903 Protected Areas in the country covering about 5 per cent of the total geographic area of the country. In order to assess the efficacy of Protected Areas, evaluation of management effectiveness is required.
MEE of Protected Areas (PAs) has emerged as a key tool for PA managers and is increasingly being used by governments and international bodies to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the protected area management systems.
The results of present assessment are encouraging with overall mean MEE score of 62.01 per cent which is higher than the global mean of 56 per cent.
With this round of evaluation, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has successfully completed one full cycle of evaluating all terrestrial national parks and wildlife sanctuaries of the country from 2006 to 2019.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has also launched the Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Indian Zoos (MEE-ZOO) framework which proposes guidelines, criteria and indicators for evaluation of zoos of the country through Management Effectiveness Evaluation Process (MEE-ZOO) in a manner which is discrete, holistic and independent.
The assessment criteria and indicators look beyond the traditional concepts, include issues of animal welfare, husbandry and sustainability of resources and finance.
The MEE-ZOO exercise is moving towards developing highest standards in Zoos across India and adhering to core values of accountability, transparency, innovation, use of technology, collaboration and integrity to achieve the mandate of conservation of endangered species.
