case study on 50 years of project tiger

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your Mobile number and Email id will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Request OTP on Voice Call

Post My Comment

IAS 2024 - Your dream can come true!

Download the ultimate guide to upsc cse preparation, register with byju's & download free pdfs, register with byju's & watch live videos.

• Screen Reader
• Skip to main content
• Text Size A
• Language: English
• Case Studies
• EXIM Procedure

Media & Events

• Image Gallery
• Media Coverage

Other Links

• GI of India
• Experience India
• Indian Trend Fair 2022
• India Organic Biofach 2022
• Gulfood Dubai 2023

Indian Economy News

50 years of project tiger: india earns its stripes by restoring the roar.

• April 10, 2023

The International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) was created as a result of Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi's July 2019 message calling for an alliance of world leaders to obliterate demand and firmly curb poaching and illegal wildlife trade in Asia. The IBCA will concentrate on the preservation and conservation of seven of the largest big cats in the world, including the tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, puma, jaguar, and cheetah.

Citing census data showing that India's tiger population would reach 3,167 in 2022, up from 2,967 in 2018, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi stated: "The tiger numbers we have attained demonstrate that this family of ours is rising. This is a proud moment for the entire globe, not just India.” He further added that it is encouraging that, as we celebrate 75 years of independence, India is home to 75% of the world's tiger population. Also, it is a coincidence that India's tiger reserve covers 75,000 square kilometres (km). Also, the tiger population has grown by 75% in the past 10–12 years.

The tiger was designated as India's national animal on April 1, 1973, and a government-sponsored programme called Project Tiger was started to ensure its survival and preservation in specially constituted tiger reserves around the country.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

Not a member

Editorial Analysis (10th Jan): A Look At Project Tiger, 50 Years On

India's ambitious tiger conservation efforts, while successful in boosting tiger numbers, have sparked conflict due to legal oversights and the displacement of forest-dwelling communities.

Table of Contents

Context: India’s ambitious tiger conservation efforts, while successful in boosting tiger numbers, have sparked conflict due to legal oversights and the displacement of forest-dwelling communities.

Evolution Of Laws related To Wildlife Protection

• 1972 : Enactment of the Wildlife (Protection) Act (WLPA), establishing National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries, thereby impacting the rights of forest-dwellers and delineating Critical Tiger Habitats (CTHs).
• 1973: Launch of Project Tiger as a consequence of the WLPA, marking the start of tiger reserves in India.
• Introduction of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act (FRA), recognizing the rights of forest-dwellers and establishing Gram Sabhas for forest management.
• Post-2006 FRA Enactment : Introduction of Critical Wildlife Habitat (CWH) under the FRA, stipulating that such land cannot be used for non-forest purposes once designated.
• 2009 : Planned notification of FRA Rules, which was complicated by the NTCA’s push to quickly delineate CTHs, leading to the notification of tiger reserves without full adherence to the WLPA.
• 2013 : Passage of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act (LARR Act), mandating fair compensation and rehabilitation for communities relocated due to conservation projects.

We’re now on WhatsApp .  Click to Join

Consequences Of Changes

Positive consequences.

• Growth of Tiger Reserves: Expansion from nine tiger reserves in 1973 to 54 in 2022 signifies a significant increase in protected habitats for tigers.
• Rise in Tiger Numbers: Enhanced conservation efforts have resulted in a notable increase in the tiger population, with estimates between 3,167 and 3,925 by 2022.

Negative Consequences

• Challenges with FRA Implementation : The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 was enacted to protect forest-dwellers’ rights, but its implementation has been contentious and problematic, leading to conflicts over land use within tiger reserves.
• Delay in Establishing Buffer Areas : Initially, the Critical Tiger Habitats, spread over 25,548.54 sq. km in 26 tiger reserves across 12 states, lacked Buffer Areas, crucial for fostering coexistence between wildlife and human communities, until mandated by the Supreme Court in 2012.
• Relocation and Rehabilitation Disputes : The process of relocation and rehabilitation under wildlife conservation laws has been fraught with issues. Despite the LARR Act’s mandate for fair compensation, the actual practices often lack transparency and adequacy, resulting in dissatisfaction among relocated communities.
• Conservation Directives Conflict: The NTCA’s 2007 mandate to delineate CTHs presented conflicts with the FRA’s provisions, creating a complex situation that threatened both tiger conservation efforts and the rights of indigenous communities.
• Inadequate Compensation for Relocation: The fixed compensation for relocation, revised to ₹15 lakh in 2021 from ₹10 lakh, as outlined under the Project Tiger 2008 guidelines, does not fully meet the comprehensive resettlement and relocation requirements stipulated by the LARR Act.

What Should Be Done?

• Voluntary and Fair Relocation Practices : Enforce relocation policies in line with the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement Act, ensuring that people are relocated from tiger reserves voluntarily, with full knowledge, and receive adequate compensation.
• Proactive Conflict Resolution: Formulate proactive approaches to identify, address, and resolve disputes stemming from the expansion of tiger reserves and heightened conservation efforts, ensuring a balance between the necessity of preservation and the rights and welfare of indigenous communities.

Sharing is caring!

I, Sakshi Gupta, am a content writer to empower students aiming for UPSC, PSC, and other competitive exams. My objective is to provide clear, concise, and informative content that caters to your exam preparation needs. I strive to make my content not only informative but also engaging, keeping you motivated throughout your journey!

• Current affairs

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Trending Event

• UPSC EPFO PA Result 2024
• UPSC CMS Result 2024
• SSC Stenographer Apply Online 2024
• SSC Stenographer Notifcation 2024
• IB SA MTS Final Result 2024
• UPSC CAPF AC Admit 2024
• UKPSC Answer Key 2024

Recent Posts

• UPSC Online Coaching
• UPSC Exam 2024
• UPSC Syllabus 2024
• UPSC Prelims Syllabus 2024
• UPSC Mains Syllabus 2024
• UPSC Exam Pattern 2024
• UPSC Age Limit 2024
• UPSC Calendar 2024
• UPSC Syllabus in Hindi
• UPSC Full Form
• UPPSC Exam 2024
• UPPSC Calendar
• UPPSC Syllabus 2024
• UPPSC Exam Pattern 2024
• UPPSC Application Form 2024
• UPPSC Eligibility Criteria 2024
• UPPSC Admit card 2024
• UPPSC Salary And Posts
• UPPSC Cut Off
• UPPSC Previous Year Paper

BPSC Exam 2024

• BPSC 70th Notification
• BPSC 69th Exam Analysis
• BPSC Admit Card
• BPSC Syllabus
• BPSC Exam Pattern
• BPSC Cut Off
• BPSC Question Papers

SSC CGL 2024

• SSC CGL Exam 2024
• SSC CGL Syllabus 2024
• SSC CGL Cut off
• SSC CGL Apply Online
• SSC CGL Salary
• SSC CGL Previous Year Question Paper
• SSC MTS 2024
• SSC MTS Apply Online 2024
• SSC MTS Syllabus 2024
• SSC MTS Salary 2024
• SSC MTS Eligibility Criteria 2024
• SSC MTS Previous Year Paper

SSC Stenographer 2024

• SSC Stenographer Notfication 2024
• SSC Stenographer Syllabus 2024
• SSC Stenographer Salary 2024

IMPORTANT EXAMS

• Terms & Conditions
• Return & Refund Policy
• Privacy Policy

• India Today
• Business Today
• Harper's Bazaar
• Brides Today
• Cosmopolitan
• India Today Hindi
• Reader’s Digest
• Aaj Tak Campus

50 years of Project Tiger: How are tigers counted in the wild

How are tigers counted what goes on behind the scenes in forests and what all it takes to estimate tigers in the wild.

Listen to Story

• Tigers form the top predators in the ecosystem
• Their role in the balancing act of nature is critical
• India launched Project Tiger in 1973

This Sunday, we will have a fresh count of the number of tigers present in India right now. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release the latest figures of India's big cat population as the country celebrates 50 years of Project Tiger on April 9. The tiger population in India has been rising since the launch of the half-a-century-long conservation campaign across the country.

Tigers form the top predators in the ecosystem and their role in the balancing act of nature is critical. India launched Project Tiger in 1973 to begin a concerted effort toward saving the big cat, which had been facing extinction at the time. Over the last 50 years, their numbers have gone up thanks to concentrated efforts under the campaign. According to the 2018 tiger population survey -- the last such carried out -- India had 2,461 individual tigers.

What’s in Today’s Article?

Why in news, background of project tiger, what is project tiger, developments after the launch of the project tiger, success story of the project tiger, concerns regarding india’s tiger protection and conservation plans.

• Launched in 1973, Project Tiger introduced India’s Tiger Reserves – which have since rapidly ascended in status.
• In the National Parks, the rights of forest-dwellers were removed and vested with the State government.
• The WLPA also created ‘Wildlife Sanctuaries’, where only some permitted rights could be exercised.
• The government created the ‘Critical Tiger Habitat’ (under the WLPA) in areas of National Parks and Sanctuaries which are required to be kept as inviolate for the purposes of wildlife conservation.
• It is a tiger conservation programme (a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the MoEF&CC) launched in 1973 by the Government of India and administered by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
• Ensuring a viable population of the Bengal tiger (‘endangered’)in its natural habitats,
• Protecting it from extinction,
• Preserving areas of biological importance as a natural heritage that represent the diversity of ecosystems across the tiger's range in the country. 
• In Sariska, the government had spent Rs 2 crore per tiger in 2002-2003 for their upkeep and safety, versus Rs 24 lakh per tiger elsewhere.
• The Task Force found that the increasing conflict between the forest/wildlife bureaucracy and those who coexist with the tigers was a recipe for disaster.
• From an administrative category arbitrarily constituted and administered by the forest bureaucracy, Tiger Reserves became a statutory category in 2006.
• Under the Act, the habitation-level Gram Sabha was to democratically determine and demarcate the forest rights that FRA recognised and vested in them.
• As a result, FRA secured the livelihoods of at least 20 crore Indians – about half of them tribals – in 1.79 lakh villages.
• Importantly, FRA introduced a ‘Critical Wildlife Habitat’ (CWH), akin to the CTH, with one difference: once a CWH had been notified, it couldn’t be diverted for non-forestry purposes.
• Today, Tiger Reserves are hailed worldwide as India’s miraculous success story in environment and forest conservation, especially in this age of climate change.
• From only 9 Reserves in 1973 encompassing 9,115 sq. km, there are today 54 in 18 States, occupying 78,135.9 sq. km/ 2.38% of India’s total land area.
• CTHs covers 42,913.37 sq. km/ 26% of the area under National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.
• According to the Tiger Census 2022, there were 3,167-3,925 tigers in the country and their population is growing at 6.1% a year, prompting the government to claim India is now home to 3/4th of the world’s tigers.
• The monitoring system M-STrIPES(Monitoring System for Tigers - Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) - is a software-based monitoring system developed(by NTCA in 2010) to assist patrol and protect tiger habitats.

• The Buffer Area outside the CTH is to promote human-animal coexistence while recognising the livelihood, developmental, social, and cultural rights of the local people.
• However, the overall ‘fortress conservation’ approach to protecting tigers displaced people who had coexisted with tigers for generations.
• India bears the long-term brunt of this error: tigers have been forced to inhabit and inherit a landscape leading to increase in man-wild conflict incidences.
• With further increase in tigers and Tiger Reserves, and tiger corridors to link them up, India’s tiger terrain is set to become a hotspot not for biodiversity but anxiety and conflict.
• WLPA prohibits all relocation except “voluntary relocation on mutually agreed terms and conditions” satisfying requirements in the law.
• According to the FRA and the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act 2013, no relocation can happen without the consent of the affected communities.
• LARR also requires the rehabilitation package to provide financial compensation as well as secure livelihoods to those relocated.
• However, these provisions are not followed in letter and spirit.

Q1) What is the Environment Protection Act (EPA) 1986?

The EPA 1986 is an act to provide for the protection and improvement of the environment and for matters connected therewith. The Act is widely considered to have been a response to the Bhopal gas leak and was passed by the GoI under the Article 253 of the Indian Constitution.

Q2) What is the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)?

The NTCA was constituted in 2005 under the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, following a recommendation of the Tiger Task Force. It was established to reorganise the management of Project Tiger and many Tiger Reserves in India.

Source: The government has trapped Project Tiger, now 50, in a tough spot | Explained

© 2024 Vajiram & Ravi. All rights reserved

• Current Issue
• Arts & Culture
• Social Issues
• Science & Technology
• Environment
• World Affairs
• Data Stories
• Photo Essay
• Newsletter Sign-up
• Print Subscription
• Digital Subscription
• Digital Exclusive Stories

• CONNECT WITH US

Project Tiger @50: Success but at what cost?

Published : Apr 20, 2023 11:00 IST - 14 MINS READ

READ LATER SEE ALL Remove

At Kanha Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh. Questions can be asked about the “success” of Project Tiger: after 50 years, there has been only a 33 per cent increase in the population. | Photo Credit: A.M. Faruqui

The count of tigers in India has increased but has this come at the expense of other species and vulnerable local communities.

It is the 50th anniversary of arguably one of the most important pieces of legislation in Indian history. The Wild Life (Protection) Act (WLPA) of India was passed in 1972 with the goal of safeguarding the nation’s wild animals and birds and their habitats. The legislation established protected areas, prohibited hunting of most species of wildlife, and created a new “protectionist” paradigm for conservation of wildlife in India. The law was enacted in response to concerns that wildlife, the tiger in particular, was in danger of extinction due to uncontrolled hunting. The concept of an “umbrella species” was used to justify focussing protection efforts on tigers, as they occupy the top of the ecological food pyramid, to ensure that the entire food chain remained healthy and safeguarded.

Over the past five decades, the WLPA has helped set conservation priorities where they might have otherwise been overshadowed by other pressing social and economic considerations. As India commemorates 50 years of wildlife protection, it is vital to pose critical questions about the law and associated projects, such as Project Tiger, and their impact on wildlife and biodiversity conservation, the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable local communities, and what is the way forward for the next 50 years.

In the following sections, we will examine the outcomes of the WLPA by scrutinising the extent of protected areas, the current status of species originally listed in Schedule I, which denotes the highest level of protection, and the protection of habitat within these areas. Additionally, we will reflect on the role of the WLPA in securing the future of not only a few large, charismatic, rare, and threatened species but also the overall biodiversity of India’s ecosystems and the people that depend on them.

Exponential increase in protected area: But what about the species within them?

The WLPA is widely recognised for its success in expanding the network of protected areas in India. Since 1972, the number of protected areas has increased exponentially (figure 1) from 65, covering one million hectares, to 998, covering 17.4 million ha, and now encompassing approximately 5.3 per cent of India’s land area. Additionally, over seven million hectares of tiger reserves have been created since 1973 to exclusively protect tigers (figure 1).

However, questions remain about the effectiveness of protected areas in preserving wildlife and their habitats. One way to measure effectiveness is to examine the long-term trends of species that receive the highest protection, such as the Schedule I species, primarily large mammals, in the 1972 Act. Later amendments added species from other taxa, such as plants, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and insects.

State of the tiger and its habitat

The main idea behind the declaration of tiger reserves was to arrest the rapid decline in tiger numbers, reduce their hunting, and improve the habitat within the reserves to start with. How did the tiger reserves fare in ensuring the above goals?

In 1973, when Project Tiger was launched, the country had an estimated 2,000 tigers. Tiger reserves were established across the country as part of the effort to revive the tiger population and those of their associated prey. In the early days, this also involved the often involuntary relocation of people from the “core areas” of reserves.

The Indian Grey Wolf. The alarming decline of open habitat essential for the survival of such species is symptomatic of the emphasis the Wild Life Act and Forest Departments put on the “place” where species exist. | Photo Credit: Mihir Godbole

The initial successes in a few reserves masked a more fundamental problem that threatened to undermine the previous two decades of conservation effort. In the 2000s, tiger populations were reported to be at an all-time high in all tiger reserves, often showing unrealistic growth rates. The numbers turned out to be a lie. As scientists and other whistle-blowers started raising the alarm, tigers were found to have gone extinct in two tiger reserves and their numbers had been inflated in many other parts of India. The reality dawned that after 25 years of Project Tiger, tiger numbers might be less than what they were in 1972.

It took another massive effort to restart the revival process, along with more scientifically robust population-monitoring techniques. Now, another 25 years later, the numbers are estimated to be around 3,000. The huge costs, both monetary and non-monetary, associated with tiger protection and wildlife conservation, such as human displacement, loss of access to forest-based livelihoods, and loss of productive land, can lead to legitimate questions about the “success” of Project Tiger: after 50 years, it has resulted in a “modest” 33 per cent increase in the population.

Furthermore, the state of tiger habitats in India is a cause for concern. According to a 2019 study, over 50 per cent of the 13 tiger reserves have experienced a decline in habitat quality. The study raised doubts on their long-term viability and concluded that creating “Tiger Reserves” and increasing protection might not be enough to preserve the condition of the vegetation. 1

Most of India’s tigers are concentrated in increasingly isolated pockets of highly productive habitats, in a matrix of mixed use and human-dominated landscapes. While tiger numbers have increased, so too have human-animal conflicts as dispersing tigers venture farther out in search of rapidly vanishing new homes.

The other Schedule I species

We conducted an analysis of conservation trends for the 43 mammal species that were originally listed in Schedule I of the WLPA. We utilised data from the Red List of Threatened Species portal of the International Union for Conservation of Nature to gain insights into the fate of these species with the highest level of protection under the WLPA.

The analysis sought to answer two questions: What are the long-term population trends of these species, and is there any change in their Red List status since their inclusion in Schedule I?

The findings are sobering. Out of the 43 mammal species, 37 species, or 86 per cent, remain under threat and 32 species, or 74 per cent, continue to decline. The Malabar civet ( Viverra civettina ) is probably extinct, and the Chinese pangolin ( Manis pentadactyla ), the Kashmir stag ( Cervus elaphus hanglu ), and the pygmy hog ( Sus salvanius ) are Critically Endangered.

Six species have shown relatively stable or increasing population trends. And even though the Asiatic lion ( Panthera leo persica ) and the greater one-horned rhinoceros ( Rhinoceros unicornis ) remain Endangered and Vulnerable respectively, their recovery from near extinction is widely regarded as a conservation success story. Significant and protracted delays in translocation in creating founder populations, caused primarily by political one-upmanship, is a cause for serious conservation concern for both the species.

Other taxa, such as birds, have not fared any better. Out of the 22 species of birds initially included in Schedule I, the pink-headed duck ( Rhodonessa caryophyllacea ) is likely extinct, whereas the Jerdon’s courser ( Rhinoptilus bitorquatus ), the great Indian bustard ( Ardeotis nigriceps ), the lesser florican ( Sypheotides indicus ), the Bengal florican ( Houbaropsis bengalensis ), and the white-winged duck ( Asarcornis scutulata ) are all Critically Endangered and on the verge of extirpation in India. Recently, a conservation breeding programme was launched for the great Indian bustard, but its habitats continue to be under severe threat.

Development triumphs over protection

Apart from habitat degradation, protected areas are shrinking , and such loss is driven largely by their denotification and diversion for development, infrastructure, extractive industries, and defence-related projects.

According to a report by the Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment, in the first half of 2021 alone, the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) approved the denotification of 13,855.784 ha of protected areas from four wildlife sanctuaries, including the complete denotification of the Galathea Bay and Megapode wildlife sanctuaries in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 2 In 2020, the NBWL recommended the diversion of more than 1,00,000 ha of protected areas across several sites. However, diversions for non-conservation activities are illegal as a 2000 Supreme Court order prohibits the denotification of any protected area whatsoever. A detailed analysis of the role of the NBWL in the diversion of protected areas, published in Economic & Political Weekly in 2010, concluded that between 1998 and 2009, nearly 10,000 ha was denotified for mining and the expansion of highways and railways. 3

Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros. The recovery of this psecies through militarised protection in Kaziranga is the big conservation success story of the 20th century. | Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR

The consequences of such extractive and linear developments have been extremely harmful, particularly for large mammals such as tigers, leopards, and elephants whose ecological and reproductive success is largely determined by the size of their home range.

As India’s forests and other natural ecosystems continue to become more fragmented, degraded, and isolated, animals seeking newer territories often face increased conflicts with humans or fall victim to speeding vehicles on highways or trains along railway tracks that run across most forests in India today.

Rarity versus biodiversity: Missing the bees and bugs for the elephants and the tigers

Is India’s focus on iconic species such as tigers and elephants enough to protect its biodiversity? Can the country’s current approach to protected areas adequately address the wider concerns of biodiversity conservation and its importance for human well-being?

India’s current protection-centric model, which prioritises conservation of large charismatic species, may not effectively address the threats to human well-being caused by the ongoing biodiversity and climate crises. While the protectionist approach is important to prioritise the rarest and most threatened species, it often neglects the more abundant species that play a crucial role in supporting the services and benefits that humans derive from natural ecosystems.

For example, a single species of bee, the giant rock bee ( Apis dorsata ), which can be found in colonies consisting of thousands of individuals, can pollinate on a much larger scale than 100 species of solitary bees that are much rarer. However, conservation efforts are often focussed on rare species to the detriment of more abundant species that are important for the well-being of humans. This is especially so for the rural poor and marginalised communities who often depend on the abundance of a diverse range of biodiversity, including plants, insects, fishes, slugs, snakes, and frogs. The services provided by these species, whether tangible or indirect, are vital to sustain human livelihoods and well-being requirements, such as providing food and income, pollinating crops, sequestering carbon and water, and providing a sense of joy, wonder, inspiration, and awe. 4

The protected area-centric approach, also known as the “fortress conservation model”, often imposes barriers between humans and nature, creating imaginary and physical boundaries. In extreme cases, walls are erected around protected areas, but more commonly, people with legal, usufruct, historical, and customary claims to forested areas are penalised and restricted from accessing them. Such restrictions alienate local communities from conservation projects and, in the worst cases, turn them against the very species the state is trying to protect.

The Great Indian Bustard. This Schedule I listed bird is facing extinction because it and its habitat were not considered worthy of protection. | Photo Credit: Abi Tamim Vanak

One of the most critical flaws in India’s protected area model is its exclusion of local communities from participation in conservation and protection efforts. Despite efforts to engage communities, including through conservation reserves aligned with IUCN norms, decision-making and conservation prioritisation remain the purview of government authorities. The 2002 amendment to the WLPA expanded protected areas but did little to promote sustainable use of wild bioresources as intended and thus missed an opportunity to create a more inclusive model of biodiversity conservation and address the larger concerns of human well-being.

A more holistic approach to biodiversity conservation is necessary so that it supports the needs of all citizens, especially those most vulnerable to the impacts of biodiversity loss and climate change. This requires moving beyond fortress conservation and promoting sustainable use of wild bioresources. By recognising and respecting the legal, customary, and traditional rights of local communities, through the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, conservation efforts can benefit both biodiversity and human well-being.

Beyond protected areas

The WLPA has long been criticised for its narrow focus on protecting forests, perpetuating the flawed idea that treeless landscapes are inherently degraded and worthless. As a result, many iconic species that call these so-called “wastelands” home have become increasingly rare over time. Only in cases where these areas contain grasslands with large herbivores such as rhinoceroses, elephants, and wild buffaloes are they deemed worthy of protecting.

The historical neglect of dry and semi-dry grasslands or other “open natural ecosystems” has had dire consequences, with many native grassland species such as the great Indian bustard and the Jerdon’s courser teetering on the brink of extinction because of the lack of habitat protection by State Forest Departments. The alarming decline of open habitat that species such as the great Indian bustard, lesser florican, and the Indian grey wolf ( Canis lupus pallipes ) need to survive is also symptomatic of a broader conservation problem. The WLPA and State Forest Departments are strongly tied to the “place” where species exist. By protecting these places, they assume that the species within them will also thrive. This approach generally works for most forest-dependent species. However, “landscape” species such as the bustard, the wolf, the leopard, and many bird species have always lived in shared spaces well outside the purview of what a Forest Department considers its domain. Hence, the conservation of these species has suffered because the place-based approach of protecting a few 10s or 100s of square kilometres does not match the thousands of square kilometres that these species typically need.

This also highlights another problem with the WLPA. At its very core, it is a restrictive and punitive Act. It carries with it the heft of a long stick to punish wrongdoers if they violate the principles of conservation set forth in it. However, the carrot of incentivising conservation is missing from its purview. Therefore, while the mechanical, and often unscientific, cataloguing of species into the various schedules was meant to denote different levels of protection, the WLPA did little to actually promote their conservation. The ultimate goal of conservation should be to create conditions so that species are no longer under threat. Such a framework is entirely missing from the WLPA. The listing of a species within a particular schedule does little to galvanise State agencies into action to first determine the current status of the species and then prepare and implement a species recovery plan so that ultimately the species can be “delisted” from the schedule.

For a radical shift in conservation ideology

As we breach the 50-year mark, it is a fitting time for reflection. To not only look at where we were and where we stand today but also start working towards where we envisage that India’s biodiversity will be in the next 50 years.

Currently, India’s commendable efforts to expand its protected areas and tiger reserves are undermined by an excessive fixation on tiger numbers. Moving forward, it is crucial to broaden the metrics of conservation efficacy beyond narrow quantitative goals to include more qualitative aspects, such as promoting connectivity across protected areas, enhancing habitat within existing reserves, and providing ample space for all species, and not merely tigers, to move freely and maintain genetic diversity. Going forward, the Act must envisage biodiversity conservation as a goal rather than simply protecting a few select species. In addition to that, future plans should include predictive models to design interventions and strategies to tackle the complex conservation challenges posed by the ongoing climate-driven crisis.

However, this will require a radical shift in India’s conservation ideology from a strictly “protectionist” and punitive approach to a more inclusive and enabling one that prioritises biodiversity conservation as a mainstream goal. To fully embrace this approach, India must also acknowledge that biodiversity belongs everywhere and should not be confined to protected areas.

Looking ahead to the next 50 years, we must continue to push for progress in the fight to protect our planet’s biodiversity. By learning from the past and looking towards the future, we can ensure a safe, sustainable, and equitable world for not just the biodiversity that the WLPA is mandated to conserve and protect but also the lives and livelihoods of millions of people dependent on biodiversity.

Rajkamal Goswami is a Fellow in residence at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology & the Environment (ATREE), Bengaluru. Abi Tamim Vanak is a Senior Fellow at ATREE.

• Koulgi, P.S., N. Clinton, , and K.K. Karanth (2019): “Extensive vegetation browning and drying in forests of India’s Tiger Reserves”, Science Reports , 9, 14976.
• https://thelifeindia.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/analysis-of-wildlife-2021.pdf
• Menon, M., K. Kohli, and V. Samdariya (2010): “Diversion of Protected Areas: Role of the Wildlife Board”, Economic & Political Weekly , 45, pp. 18–21.
• Naeem, S., R. Chazdon, J.E. Duffy, C. Prager, and B. Worm (2016): “Biodiversity and human well-being: an essential link for sustainable development”, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences , 283, 20162091.

CONTRIBUTE YOUR COMMENTS

SHARE THIS STORY

More stories from this issue

How 10 young women overcome challenges in Rajasthan as Shiksha Sambal Fellows

The monkey whisperers of Delhi

Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre: Culture as spectacle

Where is Amritpal Singh? Drama unravels in Punjab around missing preacher

A road map to limbo: World Bank-IMF plans to resolve global economic crises

Vivan Sundaram: Inviting the world into his art

Vivan Sundaram (1943-2023): Rebel, writer, thinker, artist

Online video games vs online real money games: not one and the same.

1987 Maliana massacre verdict: Travesty of justice

Rise of the regionals

Editor’s note: what the 2024 election results mean for india.

• Bookmark stories to read later.
• Comment on stories to start conversations.
• Subscribe to our newsletters.
• Get notified about discounts and offers to our products.

Terms & conditions   |   Institutional Subscriber

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide to our community guidelines for posting your comment

[email protected]

• Our Centers Delhi Bhubaneswar Lucknow

CURRENT AFFAIRS FOR UPSC IAS

50 Years of Project Tiger

Published: 6th Apr, 2023

India marked 50 years of Project Tiger on April 1, 2023.

About Project Tiger:

• Project Tiger is a tiger conservation programme launched in April 1973 by the Government of India during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's tenure.
• The project aims at ensuring a viable population of Bengal tigers in their natural habitats, protecting them from extinction, and preserving areas of biological importance as a natural heritage forever represented as close as possible the diversity of ecosystems across the distribution of tigers in the country.
• It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and climate change
• The project is administered by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) .
• While it initially covered nine Tiger Reserves ( Manas, Palamau, Simlipal, Corbett, Ranthambhore, Kanha, Melghat, Bandipur and Sundarban ) spread over 18,278 sq km, India now has 54 such reserves covering more than 75,000 sq km (approximately 2.4% of the country’s geographical area).

Facts related to Tigers in India:

• There are 54 tiger reserves in India that are governed by Project Tiger.
• In 2006, there were 1,411 tigers which increased to 1,706 in 2010, 2,226 in 2014 and 2967 in 2018 .

• Every 4 years the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) conducts a tiger census across India.
• The Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris ), also called the Indian tiger or the Royal Bengal tiger is native to the Indian subcontinent.
• They are currently found in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.
• It is listed as Endangered in Nepal, India, and Bhutan, While Bangladesh and China list it as Critically Endangered.
• White Tiger, Bengal Tiger and Indochinese Tiger.

Other Tiger Conservation Measures:

• NATIONAL TIGER CONSERVATION AUTHORITY : It was established in 2005, following the recommendations of the Tiger Task. It was given statutory status by the 2006 amendment of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 for strengthening tiger conservation, as per powers and functions assigned to it.
• TIGER RELOCATION PROJECTS : The tiger relocation project was initiated in 2018 wherein two big cats, a male (Mahavir) from Kanha Tiger Reserve and a female (Sundari) from Bandhavgarh from Madhya Pradesh were relocated to Satkosia Tiger Reserve in Odisha, to shore up the tiger population
• TIGER SPECIAL PROTECTION FORCE : It will be effective in checking illegal human intrusion into the reserve through villages located on its fringes and serve as a second layer of protection for tigers
• GLOBAL TIGER FORUM : It is an Inter-Governmental international body working exclusively for the conservation of Tigers. Established in 1994, the Global Tiger Forum (GTF) has its headquarters in New Delhi
• GLOBAL TIGER INITIATIVE : Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) was launched in  2008  as  a  global  alliance  of  governments, international organizations, civil society, conservation, and scientific communities, and the private sector, with the aim of working together to save wild tigers
• MSTrIPES : MSTrIPES program uses Global Positioning System (GPS), General Packet Radio Services (GPRS), and remote sensing, to collect information from the field, create a database using modern Information Technology (IT) based tools, analyses the information using GIS and statistical tools to provide inferences that allow tiger reserve managers to better manage their wildlife resources.

More Articles

Verifying, please be patient.

Our Centers

DELHI (Karol Bagh)

GS SCORE, 1B, Second Floor, Pusa Road, Karol Bagh, New Delhi - 110005 (Beside Karol Bagh Metro Station Gate No. 8)

Get directions on Google Maps

BHUBANESWAR (Jaydev Vihar)

GS SCORE, Plot No.2298, Jaydev Vihar Square, Near HCG Day Care, BBSR - 751013

LUCKNOW (Aliganj)

GS SCORE, 2nd Floor, B-33, Sangam Chauraha, Sector H, Aliganj, Lucknow, UP - 226024

Delhi (Karol Bagh) Centre

GS SCORE, Second Floor, Metro Tower, 1B, Pusa Road, Karol Bagh, New Delhi - 110005 (Beside Karol Bagh Metro Station Gate No. 8)

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +91 8448496262

Classroom / online / Live programs

• Mains Classes
• Mains Advance Classes
• Ethics & Essay Classes
• IAS Foundation
• Aadhar:NCERT Foundation
• Target PT:Prelims Classes
• Current Affairs Mentorship Program
• Optional Classes
• Optional Q&A (TEST SERIES & Mentorship)
• Mains Previous Year Questions

TEST SERIES/ MENTORSHIP

• ITS:Integrated Test Series & Mentorship
• GS Mains Q&A (Mentorship & Test Series)
• GS Test Series
• Ethics & Essay Test Series
• Samarth - Mains Answer Writing

STUDY MATERIAL

• Prelims Study Material
• Mains Study Material
• Mains Answer Writing Workbook
• Meet the Mentor
• Terms & Conditions
• © 2024 - IAS SCORE

All Rights Reserved.

Welcome to our secure login portal. Access your account with ease.

• Using Password

Not registered yet? register here!

Welcome to our secure register portal. For a brighter future, register now and unlock endless learning opportunities.

User Register

Already have an account? Login

Oops, forgot your password? Don't worry, we've got you covered. Reset it here

Lost your login details? No problem! forgot your password in just a few clicks

Forgot Password

Verify your mobile number, you have successfully logged in.

Join Us on WhatsApp

UK Edition Change

• UK Politics
• News Videos
• Paris 2024 Olympics
• Rugby Union
• Sport Videos
• John Rentoul
• Mary Dejevsky
• Andrew Grice
• Sean O’Grady
• Photography
• Theatre & Dance
• Culture Videos
• Fitness & Wellbeing
• Food & Drink
• Health & Families
• Royal Family
• Electric Vehicles
• Car Insurance Deals
• Lifestyle Videos
• UK Hotel Reviews
• News & Advice
• Simon Calder
• Australia & New Zealand
• South America
• C. America & Caribbean
• Middle East
• Politics Explained
• News Analysis
• Today’s Edition
• Home & Garden
• Broadband deals
• Fashion & Beauty
• Travel & Outdoors
• Sports & Fitness
• Climate 100
• Sustainable Living
• Climate Videos
• Solar Panels
• Behind The Headlines
• On The Ground
• Decomplicated
• You Ask The Questions
• Binge Watch
• Travel Smart
• Watch on your TV
• Crosswords & Puzzles
• Most Commented
• Newsletters
• Ask Me Anything
• Virtual Events
• Wine Offers

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in

How the return of poaching threatens India’s tiger success story

50 years of project tiger: india’s wildlife authorities insist poaching is not happening at an ‘alarming’ rate, but campaigners and local rangers say grim incidents of dead tigers being found without claws, whiskers and teeth are part of a bigger and growing problem. arpan rai reports from madhya pradesh, india.

Article bookmarked

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails, thanks for signing up to the breaking news email.

T he poachers who killed T32 in India ’s Madhya Pradesh had a simple plan, and executed it at night. Running wire through a field and applying a strong current, they electrocuted the tigress as she patrolled her territory, beating her to death after she lost consciousness. They then pulled out her canines, whiskers and claws before dumping the body in a village well, weighted down by a stone.

T32 was declared missing by rangers, until three days later the stone gave way and her remains floated up to the surface of the well. The grim image of the tigress’s mutilated body floating in the water sent ripples of outrage through the conservation community.

Here in the dense forests in the heart of central India, the reserves of Madhya Pradesh are playing a crucial role in what the government says is the success story of Project Tiger . Launched 50 years ago, the country’s flagship conservation programme has seen tiger numbers rise from 2,967 to 3,167 as of the latest census released by prime minister Narendra Modi this April .

Yet while this figure was lauded as “an achievement not only for India, but for the entire world” by Modi and celebrated by the country as a whole, conservationists say this actually represents the smallest increase in tiger numbers for a five-year period going back at least two decades.

Another number, they say, should be getting more attention – the 324 tiger deaths India has seen in just the last 29 months, equivalent to the loss of one tiger every three days. At least 87 tigers have already died this year alone.

Some deaths must inevitably be the result of old age, sickness or natural competition between these fearsome and territorial predators. But poaching is also a major factor, one which is rarely acknowledged, let alone debated, in the official conversation around India’s tiger success story.

The last time tiger poaching got out of control in India it had a devastating impact on the overall population of the animals: official figures show that between 2002 and 2006, the country lost a total of more than 2,200 tigers.

A return to those days is many conservationists’ worst nightmare, and there are concerns that Madhya Pradesh is emerging as a new hotspot for poachers, accounting for more than 90 of the deaths between 2021 and April 2023.

Besides the way the body had been disposed of, the fact that T32 was found with claws, whiskers and canines missing is an unmistakable indicator that she was poached, says Vincent Rahim, who was the top forest official at Bandhavgarh national park at the time.

During Rahim’s tenure another star tigress also died in suspicious circumstances. Solo was seen as the park’s friendliest tiger and a tourist’s delight, undisturbed by the noise of jeeps and canter vans and always happy to put on a display.

In October 2020 she was found dead alongside her cub, and while no official reason has ever been given for her death, officials and locals believe she was poisoned. “Some traces of poison were found in her stomach in the autopsy,” says Rahim, adding that mystery remains over why she was targeted.

One theory is that Solo was poisoned by villagers, possibly angered by the threat she and other tigers pose to their livestock. Villagers have been known to use commonly available pesticides as a reliable method of killing big cats, says Kuldeep Chaturvedi, a member of the tiger protection force in Bandhavgarh tiger reserve.

Rahim describes Solo’s death as a “huge loss for the park”, and as sad as it was shocking. But the cause of death was not a surprise, recognised as one of the two most common ways in which tigers are deliberately killed in India.

“[This is] how tigers die – either they are poisoned out of vengeance or they are electrocuted,” the tiger reserve’s current sub-divisional officer Sudhir Mishra tells The Independent. “You cannot rule out poaching, it is not going away, ever,” he adds.

Some poaching of tiger parts is most likely opportunistic – villagers kill an animal who was threatening their farms, and then try to sell some of the remains knowing they will fetch large prices on the black market. Poached tiger parts can go for anywhere between £1,000 and £100,000 in Nepal and China, officials told The Independent .

Such amounts draw organised criminals as well, as was suspected to be the case in Tamil Nadu earlier this year when a group of men and women travelled from northern India to seek employment as labourers in the Nilgiris tiger reserve in order to hunt the big cats at night, police say. They were caught during one such poaching attempt and arrested in February.

“The modus operandi was simple, they would trap a tiger, skin it and sell it along with the bones and canines,” says a top forest official in Nilgiris who was directly involved in the arrest.

The official says they are now investigating the poachers’ possible connections in other parts of the country, as well as the established logistics network that transports the tiger parts via train to port cities like Chennai, and from there to Bangladesh, Nepal and China.

It means the rangers in Madhya Pradesh are always on the lookout for both the poachers and their support networks – keeping one eye on the forest inside the reserve, and the other on key railway junctions like Katni which connects central India to major ports.

While the most lucrative black markets for tiger parts are in traditional medicine abroad, there are also plenty of superstitions and occult practices around the animals in India that create local demand for parts.

“If you mix tigers’ whiskers in your enemy’s food, be assured that the person will die within a month and a half. No medicine in the world can stop it,” one villager employed in the national parks tells The Independent.

Tackling such views and creating a sense of pride in tiger protection among locals is one of the most important and challenging tasks for forest officials. There are more than 5,000 people living within Bandhavgarh tiger reserve, with small pockets of villages having schools, pharmacies, local grocery stores and even grounds for holding social functions within the protected area.

It is the perfect set-up for human-animal conflict. Gudda, a 50-year-old villager who was attacked by a tiger in February this year while grazing his cattle, says the attack occurred at a time when tigers are normally not active – around 1pm in the afternoon.

Gudda tells The Independent he had no warning before the attack apart from the gentlest rustling of nearby leaves. He turned and saw nothing, but then was slammed off his feet by a force that felt like a hurricane.

He landed face-to-face with a snarling fully-grown tiger, a dominant male well-known to those who live in the village which he counts as his territory alongside a fellow tigress and their cubs.

The tiger looked Gudda in the eye and then went for his face. The cattle-herder reacted instinctively by raising his right forearm, offering it to the tiger instead. “I wanted to stop the tiger from eating my face,” he says.

Gudda howled for help, screaming “come running, save me, I am being eaten alive”, but with the nearest houses still far away he had little hope of rescue. “I knew I was going to die just like hundreds of other villagers who previously succumbed to tiger attacks,” he tells The Independent .

Then suddenly, almost as if he changed his mind, the tiger walked off.

Chaturvedi says this part of Madhya Pradesh sees between 10 and 15 such instances a year of tigers charging villagers while they graze their cattle, and that deaths are also not uncommon. Persuading these same villagers to help protect tigers from poachers is not always easy.

Many of the villagers living around or in tiger reserves consist of tribal communities long associated with tigers, like the Baheliyas – which is also the Hindi word for hunter. Though big cats are no longer on the menu for these groups, many continue to survive on bushmeat from spotted deer and peacocks – and tigers are inevitably caught in their traps from time to time. Traps are also laid as a protective measure by farmers, to keep grazers off their agricultural land.

SP Yadav, a top official with India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the additional director general of Project Tiger, suggests these kinds of incidents are more likely than deliberate poaching of tigers for their parts.

“There have been a few instances of electrocution of tigers and poisoning happening in Madhya Pradesh,” he admits. “Sometimes the electric fence which is used by farmers for protecting their crops has unintended consequences when a tiger strays into the field.”

He says the Indian government is working hard to prevent these accidental deaths. “Now no new [power] transmission line is permitted in protected areas [of the tiger reserve] without insulating them or bushing them,” Yadav tells The Independent.

This year, authorities have found just one case of a tiger’s skin being poached in Madhya Pradesh, he says. “In the current year, though there are 55 tiger deaths reported so far (nationally, up to March) only four cases pertain to seizure of skin, which can be attributed directly to poaching,” he says.

The Modi administration, he says, is “very well aware about the real threat posed by the trans-national poaching syndicates”.

Yadav says the NTCA maintains a national repository of camera trap photographs of tigers. “So in case of seizure of tiger skin, it is matched against the databases of the park as well as the national database to identify the origin of the skin.

“Poaching of prey and sometimes tiger cannot be ruled out, but it is not at an alarming rate,” he says.

Prominent wildlife activist Ajay Dubey disagrees, claiming that the only difference in the 50 years since Project Tiger was launched in 1973 is that hunting the animals has become illegal – but only on paper.

“Poor conviction rates along with zero tightening of legal provisions on the state level has led to the decimation of the tiger population in India,” he says, calling on the government to release state-by-state figures of the tiger population so it can be verified by local experts.

Dubey alleges that the claims made by the NTCA of rising tiger numbers on a national level do not tally with what he and other campaigners are seeing on the ground, adding that the tiger reserves of India are failing in conflict management between humans and tigers.

Mishra says his forest department in Bandhavgarh is putting the majority of its resources towards protecting wildlife and averting poaching, rather than boosting tourism or other logistical requirements, as the park is, if anything, facing a problem of plenty.

He says there are more than 150 tigers vying for space and their own territory in the reserve, with some inevitably forced to the periphery where they risk running into humans.

“Mark my words: there is a population explosion among tigers, much beyond what our existing capacity permits,” he says.

Rahim, Bandhavgarh’s former head, says reserves in Madhya Pradesh “are reaching their saturation point. Of course there will be violence and natural selection.”

Does that imply more deaths among tigers and villagers to come? “Nature and the wild will take care of it,” he says.

For the first part in our series on 50 Years of Project Tiger, read here about how a decorative shrub introduced by the British to India is now threatening tiger habitats.

In the second part of the series, read here about how traditional communities are coping with a rise in tiger attacks and deaths in the world’s largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

New to The Independent?

Or if you would prefer:

Hi {{indy.fullName}}

• My Independent Premium
• Account details
• Help centre

SRIRAMs IAS

India’s Best IAS Coaching Centre

• Student Login

Stocktake: Project Tiger at 50 Years

• UPSC Daily Current Affairs

Get a call back

Fill the below form to get free counselling for UPSC Civil Services exam preparation

50 years of Project Tiger & Tiger translocation

• Last Updated on Aug 31, 2023
• Project Tiger is in its 50 th year since its launch in 1973, in India. 
• In its 50 th year, India has signed an MOU with Cambodia for reintroducing tigers (species: Panthera tigris) there through translocation. 
• In Cambodia the species have become extinct.
• So far, India has only translocated tigers within the country, not internationally. This will be the first time India will do so.
• In 2022, African Cheetahs were successfully translocated from Namibia to India. It was the first wild to wild intercontinental translocation.

About Project Tiger

• It was launched in 1973 from Jim Corbett National Park, Uttarakhand to save the declining tigers population. It is a major wildlife conservation project in India.
• At that time, Project Tiger included 9 tiger reserves spread over 18,278 sq km. 
• It is governed by the Wildlife Act of 1972 .
• The initiative is funded by the Union Govt. of India and administrated under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
• National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is the immediate supervising agency.
• To identify factors causing a reduction in tiger habitats and mitigate them through suitable management practices. 
• To maintain a viable tiger population for their economic, ecological, cultural, and aesthetic significance. 

Present Status

• Currently, there are 53 tiger reserves covering more than 75,000 sq km (approximately 2.4% of the country’s geographical area) across India. 
• With the current population of about 3,000 tigers , India harbours more than 70% of global wild tiger population, which is increasing at an annual rate of 6%.
• India has the largest number of CAT-accredited tiger reserves in the world at 17.
• Compensation for voluntary village relocation has also been enhanced from Rs 10 lakh per family to Rs 15 lakh in order to aid tiger conservation.

Conservation Status

• Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 - Schedule 1
• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List: Endangered.
• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES): Appendix I.

Explore more current affairs

Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve

India to roll out new treatment regimen for drug-resistant tb.

As in Kerala, local climate processes can worsen climate extremes

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Name  *

Email  *

Add Comment  *

Attachments The maximum upload file size: 20 MB. You can upload: image , document , archive . Drop files here

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

Post Comment

Trending now

Discover more from Compass by Rau's IAS

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Type your email…

Continue reading

• डाउन टू अर्थ
• Print Edition

• Agriculture
• Data Centre
• Young Environmentalist
• Newsletters

Tiger reserved: Fiftieth anniversary of Project Tiger means little to forest-dwelling communities

India is celebrating a milestone in its conservation journey with the completion of 50 years of Project Tiger—a flagship conservation programme for the country’s flagship species.

To mark the occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Bandipur tiger reserve in Karnataka on April 9 and released the latest tiger census data that highlights a successful conservation story:

India now has 3,167 tigers and 53 tiger reserves, spread over 75,796 sq km or 2.3 per cent of the country’s geographic area.

Only 1,827 tigers were left in the wild when Project Tiger was introduced on April 1, 1973, by then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

The project thus began by notifying eight national parks and wildlife sanctuaries as tiger reserves.

Tiger numbers reached 3,700 in 2002, but then hit an all-time low of 1,411 in 2006, with Sariska tiger reserve in Rajasthan reporting a wipeout of the animal.

That year, the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 (WLPA), was amended to offer legal protection to tiger reserves and to allow the establishment of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a statutory body to oversee tiger conservation efforts.

The number of tigers and tiger reserves have steadily increased since then.

But this success has come at the cost of communities who have traditionally lived in and around these tiger reserves.

The fact is that despite amendments, our policies still follow the fortress conservation approach where the strategy is to “exclude and protect”.

As per WLPA, tiger reserves are overlaid in protected areas. This means existing protected areas such as national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, suitable for the viability of tiger population, are notified as core areas or critical tiger habitat (CTH); the forests peripheral to CTH are notified as buffer areas, which act as a transition between CTH and non-tiger reserves.

The definition of CTH states that such areas are to be kept inviolate, which has been translated to mean that it has to be kept free from humans, leaving relocation of the villages as the only option. While the law stipulates informed consent of the Gram Sabha before relocation, this provision has seldom been followed.

Data with the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change shows that since 1972, of the 751 villages in the CTH identified for relocation, 177 have been relocated and several others are proposed for immediate relocation.

It is important to note that the data does not include relocation of unsurveyed villages, those evicted from tiger reserves or villages and families displaced from non-tiger reserve protected areas.

Even in some villages identified for relocation, communities are disgruntled and are opposing the shift. The NTCA guidelines of 2012 state that every family to be relocated is entitled to a minimum compensation of Rs 10 lakh, either through monetary relief or a combination of land, housing and other facilities.

The amount was increased to Rs 15 lakh in April 2021. The Act and guidelines lay down certain procedures to be followed before the relocation process. However, the promises remain unfulfilled in most cases.

A study of 26 protected areas by Kalpavriksh, a non-profit, and The Environmental Justice Atlas, an online research portal, blames such poorly executed relocation to institutional apathy towards forest-dwelling communities.

In most cases, it was seen that the relocation procedure had not been followed, leaving the communities in a worse-off situation than they were earlier.

This is the reason that Jenu Kurubas, a traditional honey gathering community, have been protesting against their evictions from Nagarahole tiger reserve in Karnataka by the state forest department.

In Melghat tiger reserve in Maharashtra, families in 2019 demanded that their land be given back to them. In Corbett tiger reserve, 157 Van Gujjar families were rehabilitated in 2013 with only 12 bigha (1.58 ha) with no assistance from the forest department to build houses.

The relocation of Van Gujjars from Sonanadi wildlife sanctuary, which forms part of the CTH of Corbett, is not displayed in the official data of voluntary relocation from tiger reserves.

In Achanakmar tiger reserve in Chhattisgarh, poor conditions in the relocation site led to the death of one individual in 2009. As many as seven villages in Bhoramdeo wildlife sanctuary in Chhattisgarh were uprooted for a tiger reserve, which was never created.

The post-relocation status of communities also paints a grim picture. According to a 2019 report of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), constituted by the Supreme Court in the case of T N Godavarman Thirumulpad versus Union of India , 122 of the 177 relocated villages have been resettled on forest land.

But the legal status of the forest land to revenue land was changed only in 42 villages. This means families in remaining 80 villages, where the land status has not been de-notified after relocation, are not able to access government welfare schemes.

Based on the CEC report, the apex court on January 28, 2019, ordered that the land status for all 122 villages be de-notified and that the provision be applied in case of future relocations.

Where attempts have been made towards inclusivity, the response of the state towards the strengthening of such processes has not been convincing.

In 2006, when WLPA was amended, the Union government also enacted the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, which allows for recognition of rights of forest dwelling communities in all forest lands, including protected areas.

However, it appears WLPA has failed to include the recognition of rights process. Moreover, there have been attempts to undermine implementation of the Forest Rights Act.

In 2017, NTCA published a circular stating that the Forest Rights Act cannot be conferred on CTH in the absence of guidelines for the same. The circular, though, was superseded in 2018 by another circular that said the process under the Forest Rights Act be followed while settling rights in CTH.

Yet the process of recognition of communities’ rights in tiger reserves has been slower compared to other protected areas and non-protected forests.

So far, forest rights have been conferred to communities only in a handful of tiger reserves, including Odisha’s Similipal tiger reserve, Karnataka’s Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple tiger reserve and Chhattisgarh’s Achanakmar tiger reserve.

Even here, the state governments have not incorporated the management plans formulated by these communities in the overall tiger conservation plans. This is against India’s commitment for an inclusive approach to conservation under the global biodiversity framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

For long-term sustenance of tiger populations and habitats, conservation efforts need to go beyond the protected area-model and follow a landscape approach through inclusion of communities in decision — making and management processes.

The latest tiger census also points out that many tiger reserves are approaching the threshold limit to hold more tigers while a few, especially in the north-eastern belt, are facing paucity of tiger population.

Additionally, developmental activities have led to fragmentation of corridors. The crores of rupees being spent to relocate villages need to be utilised to secure connectivity of corridors by promoting coexistence and harmony between communities and wildlife.

The cultural and traditional practices of communities that promote human-wildlife coexistence need to be incorporated within existing management structures.

Akshay Chettri is a member of Kalpavriksh—Environmental Action Group, Pune. Views in the article are personal

This was first published in the 1-15 May, 2023 print edition of  Down To Earth

Related Stories

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Project Tiger

Project Tiger was conceived in the nascent seventies, out of concern for India's dwindling wilderness. Its contribution has been substantial. Moreover, the journey through these years has been one of significant learning, providing an insight into the involved linkages between nature conservation and sustainable community development. This opens new avenues for a wide-based conservation effort with people's support. To the ecologist of today, equally and justifiably, the tiger again is a symbol of the country's wilderness. The flow of nutrients through the complex web of nature in the forest ecosystems, culminates in the tiger, Microorganisms break up plant and animal residues to form humus which accounts for soil fertility. The resultant diverse vegetation provides food to herbivorous insects, birds and mammals, besides conserving soil and enriching water and weather regimes. Among a host of predators and scavengers that thrive on this productivity, the striped feline stands supreme in most of our forests. From the cold Himalayan high altitudes forests to the steaming coastal mangroves of the Sundarbans, from the scorched and scrublands of Rajasthan to the lush evergreens of the south, the northeast, and from the flat teral swamps to the rolling hard grounds of the peninsula, the tiger is very much at home. The will being of the tiger is thus synonymous with the health of the Indian wilderness. The architects of the Project, a special Task Force of the Indian Board for Wildlife, conscious of this, thus enunciated its objective: 1) " To ensure maintenance of a viable population of tiger in India and to preserve, for all time, areas of biological importance as a national heritage for the benefit, education and enjoyment of the people. " The Project was launched in 1973, and this concern and the direction were strongly reflected in the message for the occasion by the then Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, who regarded it as a truly national endeavour and observed: 2) " The tiger cannot be preserved in isolation. It is at the apex of a large and complex biotope. Its habitat, threatened by human intrusion, commercial forestry and cattle grazing, must first be made inviolate. " Background

Related Papers

Surjit Bhujabal

Global Ecology and Conservation

Vasanth Reddy

Mohammed Ashraf

The tiger is a breathtakingly charismatic species. It is the largest terrestrial carnivorous mammal on earth and sits on top of the food chain in tropical, grassland and boreal ecosystem s ranging from South Asia to Central Asia and Siberia in the former USSR. In these eco-regions, the tiger has served as a flagship mammal and hence acted as an umbrella species for overall biodiversity conservation management. It is an ecological indicator species from which wildlife biologists can detect various ecological changes in terms of species richness, size, equitability, biomass, etc. Some wildlife biologists refer to the tiger as an ecological litmus paper because of its role in helping to indicate the overall health of tropical ecosystem s in South and South-East Asia.

Odisha Wildlife Conclave 2023

Lala Aswini Kumar Singh

The talk is at: https://youtu.be/OgOoDZ8eW0M It is about tiger conservation in Odisha state, which contributed tiger enumeration technique to India in 1972; it is one of the first nine states which launched Project Tiger in 1973; and have warned about population stagnation with imminent population decline from 1995-96; and cautioned about the appearance of melanistic tiger in Similipal. The warning and cautions proved right after 27-28 years. The talk gave advice to officers in charge of wildlife and tiger conservation.

World Bank Publications

Biodiversity is critical to maintaining the integrity of ecosystems and the ecological processes that support species and human well-being. The world is facing an unprecedented rate of species extinction: one in eight bird species, one in four mammals, and one in three amphibians are threatened. Species can recover with concerted conservation. As a charismatic endangered species, tigers have become a powerful symbol of biodiversity loss globally, as their numbers have dropped from 100,000 at the turn of the 20th century to an estimated 3,000-3,500 tigers in the wild today. The need to protect tigers has taken on great urgency, and international efforts are attempting to pull them back from the edge of extinction. From November 21 to 24, 2010, the Russian Federation hosted leaders from 13 tiger range countries at a conference in St. Petersburg. The goal was inter alia to eliminate illegal trade in tiger parts while protecting tiger habitats and to double the tiger population by 2022....

Alexandra Vladimirova

Bikku Rathod

Conservation Genetics

Jyotsna Bhagavatula , Katakam Harika , sisinthy shivaji

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

Gautam Talukdar

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.

RELATED PAPERS

Dipendra Adhikari , Babu R Lamichhane , Naresh Subedi

Prasanta Kumar Saikia

Priya Singh

Jimmy Borah

Qamar Qureshi

Nazeem Quazi

Gosia (Malgorzata) Bryja

Ashwin Naidu , Kenneth Walker

Jayanta Mallick

Frontiers in conservation science

Channa Phan

Samrat Mondol

Maheshwar Dhakal

Vasanth Kamath

Journal of Threatened Taxa

Abishek Harihar

Environmental Conservation

Nigel Leader-williams

C R E W M B R

udit sharma

Sudha Vasan

Shekhar Kolipaka

The Initiation

Jhamak B Karki

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

• Skip to main content
• Skip to search
• Skip to footer

Products and Services

Cisco Security

Master your goals. innovate. we'll tackle threats..

Get powerful security across all your networks, cloud, endpoints, and email to protect everything that matters, from anywhere.

If it's connected, you're protected

Cisco Security “The Hacker”

More connected users and devices creates more complexity. Cisco Security Cloud makes security easier for IT and safer for everyone anywhere security meets the network.

Deliver smarter, stronger security

Protect your organization across a multicloud environment, while simplifying security operations, improving scalability, and driving data-informed outcomes, powered by Cisco Talos.

Unlock better user experiences

Create a seamless experience that frustrates attackers, not users, by granting access from any device, anywhere, and adding more proactive security controls.

Deliver cost-effective defenses

Improve ROI by consolidating vendors, reducing complexity and integrating your security.

Strengthen security resilience

Unified, end-to-end protection maximizes value, minimizes risk, and closes security gaps everywhere to defend against evolving threats. Protect access, apps, and innovation across your network to secure your future.

Cisco Secure Firewall

Better visibility and actionable insights across networks, clouds, endpoints, and email allows users to respond confidently to the most sophisticated threats at machine scale.

Featured security products

Cisco hypershield.

A new groundbreaking security architecture that makes hyperscaler technology accessible to enterprises of all sizes and delivers AI-native security for modern data centers and cloud.

Cisco Secure Access (SSE)

A converged cybersecurity solution, grounded in zero trust, that radically reduces risk and delights both end users and IT staff by safely connecting anything to anywhere.

Detect the most sophisticated threats sooner across all vectors and prioritize by impact for faster responses.

Cisco Multicloud Defense

Gain multidirectional protection across clouds to stop inbound attacks, data exfiltration, and lateral movement.

Secure applications and enable frictionless access with strong MFA and more. Establish user and device trust, gain visibility into devices, and enable secure access to all apps.

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Simplify highly secure network access control with software-defined access and automation.

Security Suites delivered by Cisco Security Cloud

Cisco User Protection Suite

Get secure access to any application, on any device, from anywhere. Defend against threats targeting users and deliver seamless access for hybrid work.

Cisco Cloud Protection Suite

Secure your apps and data with a powerful, flexible framework for a hybrid and multicloud world.

Cisco Breach Protection Suite

Secure your business by investigating, prioritizing, and resolving incidents through unified defense and contextual insights from data-backed, AI-powered security.

Customer stories and insights

Global partnerships fight to end child exploitation together.

"Marriott has long championed human rights and human trafficking awareness. Combating CSAM is an important extension of that work. The IWF provided the level of rigor we needed in a URL list, and Cisco's security technology provided the means to easily apply it."

Abbe Horswill, Director, Human Rights and Social Impact

Company: Marriott International

The NFL relies on Cisco

"From securing stadiums, broadcasts, and fans to protecting the largest live sporting event in America, the right tools and the right team are key in making sure things run smoothly, avoiding disruptions to the game, and safeguarding the data and devices that make mission-critical gameday operations possible."

Add value to security solutions

Cisco Security Enterprise Agreement

Instant savings

Experience security software buying flexibility with one easy-to-manage agreement.

Services for security

Let the experts secure your business

Get more from your investments and enable constant vigilance to protect your organization.

Sharpen your security insights

Cisco Cybersecurity Viewpoints

Set your vision to a more secure future with Cisco Cybersecurity Viewpoints. With specialized content from podcasts to industry news, you'll walk away with a deeper understanding of the trends, research, and topics in our rapidly changing world.