Question raised in Lok Sabha on Villages in Forest Areas, 14/03/2017. As reported by States, in respect of tiger reserves, villages located in core/critical tiger habitat was 751. However, number of villages located in protected forest areas other than Tiger Reserves are not compiled in the Ministry. Details of villages relocated outside from Tiger Reserve/Wildlife sanctuaries are given in the Annexure.

Question raised in Lok Sabha on Tiger Population, 14/03/2017. The country level tiger estimation using the refined methodology is done once in four years. As per the assessment of the Status of Tigers, Co-predators and Prey, 2014 using the refined methodology, the tiger number has shown 30% increase countrywide with an estimated number of 2226 (range 1945-2491) as compared to 2010 estimation of 1706 (range 1520-1909 tigers). The details of tiger estimation pertaining to tiger landscapes in the country for the years 2010 and 2014 are at Annexure-I.

Question raised in Lok Sabha on Survey of Polluted Cities, 14/03/2017. The Central Pollution Control Board monitors the ambient air quality at 680 monitoring stations located in 300 cities / towns covering 29 states and 6 union territories across the country under National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP). State-wise ambient air quality data including Maharashtra during 2015 is given at Annexure.

Question raised in Lok Sabha on Preservation of Wetlands, 14/03/2017. 115 wetlands in 24 States and two Union Territories have been identified for conservation and management under the National Wetland Conservation Programme (NWCP) of the Ministry. The State-wise list of these wetlands is given in Annexure.

Question raised in Lok Sabha on Ozone Pollution, 14/03/2017. Government is aware of the news report regarding likely impact of ozone on human health. The data related to ozone, collected by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), for the year 2016 is annexed. The data collected shows that ozone levels have not exceeded the permissible level of 100 μg/m3 at any of the locations during the year 2016. Since the concentration of ozone is less than the permissible limits, the reports published need to be correlated with the data and scrutinized before arriving at any conclusion.

Question raised in Lok Sabha on Eco-system of Rivers, 14/03/2017. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) along with State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) monitors the river water quality across the country through a network of 1275 monitoring stations on various rivers under the National Water Quality Monitoring Programme (NWQMP). As per the report published by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in February 2015, 302 polluted river stretches have been identified on 275 rivers based on Bio-chemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) levels, a key indicator of organic pollution.