File picture of a tigress

Patna, April 20: Wildlife lovers of Uttarakhand and Jharkhand have something to cheer about. According to reports, Team India captain M.S. Dhoni has promised to do his bit to spread the message of tiger conservation in these states.

Bihar, out of which Jharkhand was carved out in 2000, has, however, limited options when it comes to spreading the message as it does not have someone of Dhoni’s stature in the sporting arena who could be a brand ambassador for tiger conservation.

Bereft of choices, the state forest department is now contemplating to put a formal request before chief minister Nitish Kumar to don the role of brand ambassador of Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR), the state’s only such.

“Nitishji is a person in whom people of the state have faith. If he gives a message for tiger conservation it would certainly be of great help,” a senior forest department official told The Telegraph.

He was, however, not sure about the time the department would take in putting forward the proposal.

“One cannot move in haste as the request has to be put before the chief minister. We are first trying to find out whether the chief minister would be willing to be projected as a brand ambassador or not. Only then, a formal proposal would be worked out,” the official added.

Reasons on why the department was not opting for celebrities from the entertainment world as a brand ambassador for VTR, the official said: “The two most known faces from Bihar who are in the film industry (read: Shatrughan Sinha and Shekhar Suman) are associated with different political parties. Selection from amongst them could open a can of worms, as people would point fingers at forest officials. In case of Nitishji, the same question would not arise.”

At the time of VTR’s notification in 1989-90, the reserve was home to an estimated 81 tigers. But since then, the number has declined and it came down to 10 in the tiger census of 2006.