{"id":20119022,"date":"2023-07-20T10:19:37","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T04:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=119022"},"modified":"2023-09-01T13:19:03","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T07:49:03","slug":"indias-successful-project-tiger-could-do-even-better-say-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/indias-successful-project-tiger-could-do-even-better-say-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s successful Project Tiger could do even better, say experts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fifty years after the launch of Project Tiger in India, the country hosts 75%<\/a> of the world\u2019s wild tigers, with the numbers increasing from 2,967 to 3,167 from 2018 to 2022 according to the Status of Tigers 2022<\/a> report. The growth in numbers, though, hides the fact that tiger numbers are not rising everywhere in India, that other endangered species and forest dwelling human communities have been neglected in the single-minded focus on preserving the tiger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, India\u2019s success in raising the number of wild tigers is undeniable. \u201cIndia is leading in conservation on the tiger front. Other countries \u2013 both tiger and non-tiger range countries \u2013 are looking towards India\u2019s efforts and useful experiences in bringing up such numbers,\u201d says Rajesh Gopal, secretary general of the Global Tiger Forum, an international body dedicated to conservation of wild tigers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Project Tiger started<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The rise in numbers is a large change from 1972, when the first all-India tiger census revealed just 1,827 individuals<\/a>, down from an estimated 40,000 in the early twentieth century. The Indian government responded by promulgating the Wild Life (Protection) Act<\/a> in 1972, which provides for the protection of the country\u2019s wild animals, birds, and plant species. Focussing on tigers in particular, the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, launched Project Tiger, aimed at creating wildlife preserves for the big cat, with \u2018core\u2019 zones where no human activity was permitted, and \u2018buffer\u2019 zones surrounding them, where some permitted human activity was allowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her inauguration message on March 26, 1973<\/a>, Gandhi said, \u201cThe tiger cannot be preserved in isolation. It is at the apex of a large and complex biotope. It\u2019s habitat, threatened by human intrusion, commercial forestry and cattle grazing, must first be made inviolate\u201d. The key challenges were rampant poaching as well as habitat loss. By creating the \u2018core\u2019 zones where tigers could be monitored as well as their habitat protected, Project Tiger directly addressed these threats. Soon after, the population of tigers began to rise, and the number of tiger reserves has expanded from the initial 9 in 1973, to 53 in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has not always been smooth sailing. In 2005 the project faced its worst-ever public catastrophe, when all the tigers in the Sariska tiger reserve \u2013 estimated at about twenty individuals, disappeared<\/a> \u2013 presumably poached. In response, the Indian government Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2006. Until this amendment<\/a> tiger reserves had been administrative units that channeled government funding, but now they became legally defined spaces as well. The amendment also established a National Tiger Conservation Authority<\/a> (NTCA) which was empowered to check poaching, preserve the tiger population through the setting up of the Tiger Task Force, and to access funding the for relocation of villages from designated \u2018protected areas\u2019. The Tiger Task Force<\/a> looked into major issues plaguing tiger conservation in India such as systemic institutional failure, misreporting of tiger numbers and need for a landscape approach to tiger conservation planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the recommendations of the task force was to use camera traps, geographical information system and global position system data. The difference in the quality of data from previous methods used until 2004<\/a> \u2013 which had relied largely on pugmarks, scat, and other signs of tigers \u2013 was significant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProject Tiger brought the entire forest department into modern scientific thinking,\u201d says Qamar Quereshi, a nodal officer with the Wildlife Institute of India-NTCA Tiger Cell who was the leading scientist behind the monitoring technique, and one of the editors of the 2008 tiger monitoring report<\/a> incorporating these advances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The perpetual threat of poaching<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite the changes, the threat of poaching remains. A 2022 report<\/a> from the NGO TRAFFIC says 893 tigers were seized from illegal trade in India between 2000 and 2022. Data<\/a> collated by the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) \u2013 a non-profit organisation which provides intelligence to the police to combat poaching \u2013 shows that dozens of tigers are still killed in most years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany tiger deaths are reported each year owing to both organised and opportunistic poachers. Organised poaching thrives as long as there is a demand for tiger body parts outside the country,\u201d says Tito Joseph, programme manager at WPSI. \u201cSome tigers [also] become victims of herbivore poaching as they fall prey to the traps set up by villagers to catch herbivores.\u201d Joseph acknowledges that there has been a marked improvement in curbing poaching during the last decade due to collaborative steps taken by the NTCA, The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, the State Forest Department and the Ministry of Environment. However, he adds, there are still gaps when it comes to sharing information different state governments and with India\u2019s neighboring countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n