Min­is­ter of the En­vi­ron­ment and Wa­ter Re­sources Gan­ga Singh said wildlife farm­ing will play a ma­jor role in boost­ing the lo­cal wildlife pop­u­la­tion dur­ing the two-year mora­to­ri­um on hunt­ing.He ex­pressed con­fi­dence about the ini­tia­tive dur­ing a tour of the Brig­and Hill An­i­mal Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre in Man­zanil­la, yes­ter­day morn­ing.Singh was in­vit­ed by the T&T Zo­o­log­i­cal So­ci­ety (TTZS) to tour the 300-acre re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion fa­cil­i­ty where he got a clos­er look at lo­cal wildlife species, in­clud­ing agouti, deer, mon­keys, macaws and wild hogs. The cen­tre is cur­rent­ly be­ing used by the T&T Zo­o­log­i­cal So­ci­ety to ex­am­ine mod­els for com­mer­cial wildlife farm­ing."As part of the mora­to­ri­um, we in­tend to en­gage in com­mer­cial wildlife farm­ing," he said.

"This will be looked af­ter by the Zo­o­log­i­cal So­ci­ety and fund­ed by the Green Fund. The cen­tre here at Brig­and Hill clear­ly demon­strates that it is pos­si­ble to de­vel­op wildlife farm­ing. It al­so shows the affin­i­ty be­tween man and wild an­i­mals. "This is one of the rea­sons why we have en­gaged in this mora­to­ri­um; to give these an­i­mals a chance to repli­cate in their nat­ur­al en­vi­ron­ment so that they will be present for gen­er­a­tions to come."Singh said his min­istry is tak­ing a se­ri­ous ap­proach to the en­force­ment of the two-year mora­to­ri­um on hunt­ing and em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of puni­tive sanc­tions."In the com­ing weeks, we will show the na­tion our lat­est ap­proach to en­force­ment in the pro­tec­tion of wildlife," he said.