 Friends, India is a country where protecting nature is a part of culture. This is why it has many unique achievements in wildlife conservation. With only 2.4% of the world's land area, India contributes about 8% of the known global diversity. India is the largest tiger-range country in the world with nearly 1,000 elephants. We are the largest Asian elephant-range country in the world. Our royal population of nearly 3,000 makes us the largest single-horned rhino country in the world. We are the only country in the world to have Asiatic lions. The lion population has increased from around 525 in 2015 to around 675 in 2020. Our leopard population went up by over 60% in just 4 years. The work being done to clean up rivers such as Ganga has helped biodiversity. Some aquatic species that were considered to be in danger have shown improvement. These achievements are all due to people's participation and culture of conservation. For wildlife to thrive, it is important for the ecosystem to thrive. This has been happening in India. While celebrating 75th year of independence, India added 11 wetlands to its list of ramsar sites. This took the total number of ramsar sites to 75. Forest and tree cover are also increasing. India added over 2200 square kilometers of forest and tree cover by 2021 when compared to 2019. In the last decade, the number of community reserves increased from 43 to over 100. In a decade, the number of national parks and sanctuaries around which eco-sensitive zones were notified increased from 9 to 468.