Nagpur: Tigers in India are getting cornered with each passing day. A few days after a tigress was beaten to death by Chhattisgarh villagers comes the news of a government move that will reduce the funds needed for tiger protection and conservation. The Planning Commission has proposed to merge the three centrally sponsored schemes — Project Tiger, Project Elephant and the Integrated Development under Wildlife Habitat — into one. The move has been opposed by all the nine members of National Board for Wildlife, the highest body to decide on wildlife issues. A sub-committee headed by B K Chaturvedi was set by the Planning Commission to restructure the CSS. Chaturvedi, a member of the commission, discussed the issue with ministry of environment and forests on July 29. The committee’s brief was to find ways to enhance flexibility, scale and efficiency of the scheme. On August 17, Indrani Chandrasekharan, the adviser to the Planning Commission, wrote to MoEF secretary T Chatterjee to take action in the matter. The letter is in TOI’s possession. She states the merger was decided “to include conservation of lions and rhinos too”. Getting wind of this, all the NBWL members wrote, on September 17, to the plan panel deputy chief Montek Singh Ahluwalia expressing shock.