Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his South Block office in New Delhi on Thursday. During the meeting lasting about half-an-hour, he apprised Modi of Simhastha to be held at Ujjain next year.
Chouhan invited the Prime Minister to Simhastha, which will be an ideological mega event where seminars will be held mainly on spiritual life and dharma. Modi agreed to visit Ujjain for the event where he will release the Ujjain Declaration.
The Chief Minister also invited the Prime Minister to the Vishwa Hindi Sammelan to be held at Bhopal in September next.
Chouhan dwelt in detail about the ongoing development and public welfare schemes in the State and informed Modi about the atmosphere for investment in the State.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan has asked the Centre to allow tourism in the buffer zone of its national parks which have at least 257 tigers.
Chouhan on Thursday met Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar and apprised him of the difficulties coming in the way of execution of development works for want of approval at different stages or delay in getting green nod.
Chouhan requested the Minister to allow tourism activities in the buffer zones (peripheral area) of the national parks as this will help the people living in those areas to get employment while remaining emotionally attached to the forest areas, a press release issued by the State Government said.
There are nine national parks in Madhya Pradesh. Of these, Bandhavgarh, Kanha, Panna, Bori-Satpura, Sanjay Dubri and Pench have as many as 257 tigers. The tiger population in the country was estimated to be 1,706 as per data collected in 2010.
Chouhan also expressed his concern for the decreasing number of tigers in the State, it said. He raised the issue of people living in the tiger reserve areas and settling them elsewhere in the State. The Chief Minister requested the Central Government to provide funds for the purpose from Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) scheme, the release said.