50 years of Project Tiger: A roaring success, yet concerns abound

Number of big cats is expected to rise in the country. However, experts underscore the need to look at habitat quality, integrity to get holistic picture of project’s success

Despite enormous pressure from 140 crore population, India has done reasonably well to save the tiger from becoming extinct using a unique conservation scheme launched by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi 50 years ago.

As it celebrates its golden jubilee, there is no doubt that Project Tiger is a roaring success with more than 3,000 striped cats in 53 tiger reserves spread over 75,000 sq km area.

India accounts for 70 per cent of the world’s wild tiger population and there are indications that the count will rise significantly when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release the latest census report later this month.

Conservationists outside the government, however, point out areas of concern notwithstanding the success. The worries range from the so-called “fortress model of conservation” to the skewed distribution of tigers and the degradation of tiger corridors.

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The experts note that the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) must give attention to each of these areas in the next phase of the project with adequate funding if the roars of tigers are to be heard loud and clear in its centenary year.

At the turn of the century, India was estimated to have between 20,000 and 40,000 tigers but widespread hunting led to a sharp decline in their numbers. By 1970, the count dropped to less than 2,000 when an international cry to save the tigers reached the Prime Minister’s Office.

Indira Gandhi set up a panel under the chairmanship of Karan Singh, who wrote the first blueprint for tiger conservation starting with nine reserves – Manas, Palamau, Simlipal, Corbett, Ranthambhore, Kanha, Melghat, Bandipur and Sundarban.

By early 1980s, there were 15 tiger reserves and the numbers swelled to 28 by around 2005-06 when the Sariska episode shocked the country.

Despite an official claim of having 17 tigers in the previous year, it was realised that the predator became extinct in Sariska, thanks to poaching. The same happened to Panna after a few years.

The two episodes put the spotlight firmly on tiger conservation leading to the formation of NTCA and the commissioning of all India tiger estimates using a scientific methodology. The first estimate in 2006 revealed the presence of 1,411 tigers. Since then it's been a steady climb – 1,706 in 2010; 2,226 in 2014 and 2,967 in 2018.

Mere numbers, however, don’t provide a holistic picture of the project’s success, according to wildlife and conservation specialists, who underscore the need to look at the habitat quality and integrity.

For instance, Palamau and Simlipal were among the first nine tiger reserves because of a sizable number of animals. But Palamau currently has none but one visitor and Simlipal, as per the 2018 census, has only 8 tigers along with 12 others who use the forest for transit.

The numbers have dwindled sharply also in Satkosia, Buxa and Indravati tiger reserves.

“While tiger populations have increased in the Western Ghats, Kumaoon, Terai region and central India, their numbers have collapsed in east, central and most parts of the northeast barring Assam. Earlier these forests used to account for nearly half of India’s total tiger population,” said Raza Kazmi, an author and wildlife historian based in Jharkhand.

Most of the eastern forests now don’t harbour the kind of prey base that is required to sustain tiger population. There are huge tracts of forests that have been wiped off the herbivores because of local hunting customs.

“The jungles in Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh can house another 1,500 tigers if forest villages are relocated and the prey base is revived,” noted wildlife biologist Y V Jhala, who retired recently from Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun but was involved with tiger census since 2006.

The other necessity is to move away from the fortress model of conservation to a more participatory approach with the active involvement of local communities.

One of the key recommendations of the Tiger Task Force, set up after the Sariska debacle, was sharing of 30 per cent of profits from tiger parks with the local community.

This has not happened, because of which many times it becomes a tiger-versus-people issue instead of a mutually beneficial relationship.

Shifting villages outside the core areas is essential to create space for tigers since Indian reserves are not as large as Kruger or Serengeti national parks. It requires a payment of Rs 15 lakh per adult but the budget is shrinking.

The allocated budget for Project Tiger in 2018-19 was Rs 350 crore, which dropped to Rs 188 crore in 2022-23. The corridors also need to be secured as most of them have degraded, forming islands like Ranthambore.

“Instead of primarily reporting and focussing on tiger numbers, we should also look at habitat quality and integrity of the ecosystem functions to truly evaluate success. The focus should be on ecosystems rather than be restricted to a single species, backed by open science and participatory conservation,” observed Ravi Chellam, CEO of Metastring Foundation.