India’s sole specialised institute on wildlife, the Wildlife Institute of India(WII) took a step closer to be regarded as an Institute of National Importance, by submitting its documents to the environment ministry. This was confirmed by Dr V B Mathur. WII Director, who said  “We have sent our proposal to the union environment ministry at present for internal processing. Thereafter the environment ministry will forward the proposal to union finance ministry, social justice ministry, Tribal affairs ministry and Personal ministry before sending it for further approvals, first from the union cabinet and, thereafter final nod from Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. Hopefully, the process will be completed in next three months.” Currently, 92 institutions have been granted INI status, the list of which includes the IITs, IIMs and AIIMS. WII is India’s only specialized institute on wildlife to provide training, degree(MSC) and research to students, as well as gives advice to the states and central government on wildlife issues. Its inclusion in INI category will translate into better funding and grants for the institute and its projects and research, as well as the better autonomy of administration for the institute authorities. The union minister of environment, Dr Harsh Vardhan, while on the visit to the Dehradun campus of WII, announced his support  “WII has become the first institute in the world to facilitate capacity building of 52 countries in natural heritage with the setting up UNESCO Category 2 Centre for Asia and Pacific region. With such glorious recognition at international level, it is high time that WII should be bestowed upon the status of Institute of National Importance in the country. The union environment ministry would soon put up this proposal before the cabinet and then Parliament to facilitate this reckoning.” 

— As reported by TOI