The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), in collaboration with the Sankala Foundation, is organising an art exhibition titled ‘Silent Conversation: From Margins to the Centre’, from November 3 to November 5 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

NTCA, along with Sankala Foundation through this art exhibition, is paying a tribute to the successful completion of 50 years of Project Tiger.

NTCA was established in 2006 and has been at the forefront of tiger conservation work in India. Its work domain extends from on the ground protection initiatives to science-based monitoring of tigers and their habitat using latest technological tools, independent assessment of tiger reserves, financial and technical support to tiger reserves, creating inviolate space for wildlife while ensuring community development to international cooperation.

Project Tiger

• In 1973, the Project Tiger was established with the objective of utilising the tiger’s functional role and charisma to garner public support and resources for preserving representative ecosystems. 

• Project Tiger is an ongoing centrally sponsored scheme of the ministry of environment, forests and climate change providing central assistance to the tiger states for tiger conservation in designated tiger reserves.

• Since its inception, the project has expanded from nine tiger reserves covering 18,278 square kilometres (sqkm) to 54 reserves in 18 tiger range states.

• The tiger reserves are constituted on a core/buffer strategy. The core areas have the legal status of a national park or a sanctuary, whereas the buffer or peripheral areas are a mix of forest and non-forest land, managed as a multiple use area.

• Most tiger reserves and protected areas in India are existing as small islands in a vast sea of ecologically unsustainable land use, and many tiger populations are confined to small protected areas. Although some habitat corridors exist that allow tiger movement between them, most of these habitats are not protected areas, continue to deteriorate further due to unsustainable human use and developmental projects, and thereby are not conducive to animal movement.

• Project Tiger aims to foster an exclusive tiger agenda in the core areas of tiger reserves, with an inclusive people oriented agenda in the buffer.

• The conservation of tigers in India can be divided into two phases. The first phase starting in the 1970s, involved the enactment of the Wildlife Protection Act and the establishment of protected areas that helped conserve tigers and tropical forest ecosystems.

• However, in the 1980s, the trade in tiger parts began to decimate the population, leading to a shocking revelation of local extinction of Tigers in the Sariska Tiger Reserve in 2005 and thus began the second phase. 

• The second phase began in 2005-06, with the government adopting a landscape-level approach and implementing strict monitoring for tiger conservation. 

India home to 75% of the world’s tiger population

• India has become home to approximately 75 per cent of the world’s tiger population.

• The number of tigers in India has increased from 2,967 in 2018 to 3,682 in 2022, an annual rise of 6 per cent.

• With a 50 per cent increase in the last four years, Madhya Pradesh has the maximum number (785) of tigers in the country, followed by Karnataka (563), Uttarakhand (560), and Maharashtra (444). 

• The number of tigers in Rajasthan has increased from 32 in 2006 to 88 in 2022.

Challenges for tiger conservation

• Despite efforts to conserve tigers, there are still several challenges that need to be addressed. 

• One of the major challenges is aligning the aspirations of large-scale economic development while safeguarding forests and their wildlife and mitigating human-tiger conflict. 

• Other silent and surmounting threats are climate change-related impacts on habitats and the loss of the quality of forests over time. 

• Out of the approximately 400,000 sqkm of forests in tiger states, only one-third are in relatively healthier condition. 

• Another significant challenge is the illegal wildlife trade. Even though poaching is illegal, the demand for tiger products remains high, and poachers continue to kill tigers for profit. 

• To combat this, the Indian government has implemented strict laws and increased surveillance to prevent poaching and illegal trade.

• To ensure the long-term survival of tigers in India, a multi-faceted approach is needed, including protecting and expanding tiger habitats, preserving population connectivity, minimising human-tiger conflicts, and combating threats like habitat loss, poaching, and illegal trade. 

• It is important to restore habitats, increase ungulate populations, and plan reintroduction of tigers in low density areas to tackle conflict issues. 

• The involvement of various stakeholders, such as governments, NGOs, local communities, and businesses, is crucial. 

• Strategies like increased patrolling, monitoring, and law enforcement, focus on “Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECM)” along with promoting eco-tourism and sustainable livelihoods for local communities, can help achieve this goal.

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