Green activists to miss Jairam in Environment Ministry
''Tigers will miss you, sir''. This is what a senior official of Project Tiger told outgoing Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh today summing up the feelings of environmentalists.
"Cheer up man... I am not going to Mars," replied Ramesh, who has been promoted as a Cabinet Minister and shifted to Rural Development Ministry.
Ramesh, known for his liking for tigers, however, rued, "I was about to translocate two tigress to Sariska."
The Minister made the comment when the official pointed out that Ramesh was a "great supporter of tigers".
Ramesh had made the ministry pro-active and often courted controversy as he played tough ball while granting green clearances.
Noted tiger conservationist Valmik Thapar felt that Ramesh had upgraded the profile of the Environment Ministry.
"I think, Jairam has done a lot of very hardwork in the Ministry, learnt on the job, upgraded the profile of the Ministry and wherever he had the power to do, he was able to do," Thapar said.
"And Jairam also had incredible intelligence on the job. He was a challenge to work with and you can fight with him. I have fought with him many times. We had had differences," he said.
Thapar added that Ramesh's biggest accomplishment is that "one could debate with him, shout at him."
Ramesh refused to speak on his new assignment.
When asked whether he could execute the matters which he articulated as Environment Minister, Ramesh merely said, "This is not for me to say".
"At least the quality of website (Environment Ministry) has been improved," he joked.
