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support measures. Only 12 tiger reserves in the country are in a healthy state. Sixteen are in poor health, and of these seven are affected by Left wing extremism. Indravati Tiger Reserve in Chattisgarh has been out of bounds for six years now, and Valmiki and Palamau tiger reserves in Bihar and Jharkhand are under Maoist influence. Left wing extremism is also responsible for poor governance and low density of tigers in Simlipal (Orissa), Namdapha (Arunachal) and Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam (AP). The picturesque Manas TR (Assam), too, has low tiger density because of prolonged Bodo unrest. The condition in the remaining nine tiger reserves, however, is satisfactory. So the survival of the tiger depends on the political commitment of not just the Prime Minister and the ebullient, eager-to-perform Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh but also of the various chief ministers who are heading the states where the striped big cat is fighting the battle of survival. Political solutions are needed to save the tiger in the Naxal-affected reserves, and the Centre, states and civil society have to act in unison to achieve this goal. Policies and people The future of the tiger in India will also be determined by the competence and expertise of the directors of tiger reserves and the Special Tiger Protection Forces (STPFs) that have been sanctioned for 13 tiger reserves. In 2008, a special budget of Rs 50 crore was provided to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the apex body for tiger conservation, for raising the STPFs. So far a sum of Rs 93 lakh has been released to each of three parks — Corbett, Dudhwa and Ranthambore — and the remaining 10 tiger reserves are to raise, arm and deploy the STPFs in 2009-2010. The speed and efficiency with which compensation is paid to villagers for the livestock and humans killed by the big cat, will also determine if angry, marginalised villagers stop putting poison in tiger kills. According to figures provided by the Wildlife Protection Society of India , some 35 tigers (cubs as well as adults) died between November, 2008, and May, 2009, and there were several seizures of skins, bones and tiger parts from different parts of the country. While some may have died of natural causes, there were at least, two cases of poisoning, and a cub was hit by a vehicle in Bandhavgarh, Madhya Pradesh. Even as this report was being prepared, there were reports of a mining lobby, headed by industrialist Adani, seeking mining rights in the buffer of the Tadoba-Andhari tiger reserve in Maharashtra. Though the Environment Ministry has rejected the proposal, the pressure continues. There is already a high rate of man and tiger conflict in this reserve, and the Centre should firmly turn down any proposal for industrial development in the area. There are still 350 to 370 villages and habitations with a population of 80,000 in the core areas of tiger reserves in the country. The tiger needs an undisturbed habitat if its population has to bounce back from the abysmal low of 1,411 as per the estimates of the NTCA and the Wildlife Institute of India in 2008. A minimum area of 800 to 1,000 sq km of undisturbed forests and grasslands is needed for a viable population of 20 to 22 breeding females with a good prey base, says Rajesh Gopal, Director of the NTCA. Effective buffer areas Though Kailash Sankhala, the first director of Project Tiger in the 1960s, had the vision to recommend buffer areas around the core of the reserves so that tigers straying out had a safe zone, it just did not happen. In fact, much of the land adjoining core areas was grabbed by the rich, who put up resorts and lodges to cash in on wildlife tourism. The Tiger Task Force, headed by Sunita Narain, which had been set up to review the management of tiger reserves and strengthen tiger conservation in 2005, reiterated the need for buffer areas. Most of the tigers have been killed outside the core area. So there has to be a sense of urgency in declaring areas around the core protected areas as buffers with communities living in them having a stake in protecting the tiger. Holistic conservation A wonderful new blueprint has been drawn up to protect the tiger. Based on the recommendations of the Tiger Task Force and the extensive field research done by the NTCA and WII in 2008, for the first time we have a realistic assessment of the status of the tiger, co-predators and their prey in India. They scientifically determined population limits, habitat condition and connectivity for ensuring the survival of free-ranging tigers. The study has led to a shift in focus from tiger numbers and protected area conservation practices to landscape-level holistic conservation strategies. Tiger-inhabited forests in India have been classified into six landscape complexes — Shivalik-Gangetic Plains, Central Indian Landscape, Eastern Ghats, Western Ghats, North Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra Plains and the Sunderbans. Each of these landscapes, in which the tiger reserves fall, still have contiguous tiger habitat and contain breeding populations of tigers. Protection is paramount for the survival of identified tiger population. Forest corridors have to be reconstructed, buffer areas clearly demarcated and local communities involved in protection and conservation by making them stakeholders. The old system of tiger census through pugmarks has been replaced with the more accurate camera traps in a capture-recapture statistical framework to estimate tiger density. However, this is an expensive method, and has limitations in low tiger density areas. So an elaborate method has been evolved which is a mix of camera trapping and co-relating prey base with tigers in a demarcated area. A mammoth census operation was undertaken by foresters in marked forest beats of 15 to 20 km across the country. They carried out a physical identification and study of carnivore signs — kills, dung/pellet counts etc — to arrive at more accurate numbers. The decimation of the tiger population — first in Sariska and, subsequently, in Panna Tiger Reserve — due to poaching spurred the government to get into the reform mode. Sheer adversity was turned into an opportunity to crack the whip on poor governance and poaching. Among the slew of measures that have been put in place are the constitution of a multidisciplinary wildlife crime control bureau; declaration of eight new tiger reserves and fund support to states for enhanced relocation/rehabilitation package for people living in core areas. As against Rs 1 lakh per family, the compensation amount has been raised to Rs 10 lakh per family. Despite this tenfold increase in compensation, relocation is taking a long time. Traditional hunters, too, are to be moved out of core areas and rehabilitated with livelihood options. While two female and one male tiger have been translocated from Ranthambore to Sariska, two tigresses have been reintroduced in Panna and another three or four will be shifted from Kanha or Bandhavgarh. While the Sariska tigers have been mating, rebuilding Panna will not be an easy task, admits Rajesh Gopal. It’s a difficult landscape and a dacoit-infested area. All the translocated tigers have been radio-collared and can be tracked through satellite. To boost the decimated population in Buxa, West Bengal, there are plans to bring together the tigers in designated spaces within the parks, allow them to mate, radio-collar them, and then release them. International moves On the international front, too, a lot is being done to give the tiger that special status. India has an MoU with Nepal on controlling trans-boundary illegal trade in wildlife, and has a protocol with China on tiger conservation. At the CITES meeting in The Hague in 2007, the proposal of India, Nepal, China and Russia that captive breeding of tigers should be only to support the wild population and not for commercial reasons was accepted. India also appealed to China to phase out tiger farming and eliminate stockpiles of Asian big cat body parts and derivatives. Detailed terms and conditions for tripartite MoUs between the Ministry of Environment and Forests, working through the NTCA, and the state governments acting through the directors of the tiger reserves have been worked out to ensure protection and development of these reserves, and to ensure a steady flow of funds. Tiger conservation plans and the field initiatives proposed have to be submitted to the NTCA and the states will have to delineate as well as notify core habitat and buffer areas within six months of the MOU. So far only Rajasthan has signed the MoU. Another six or seven are expected to sign MOU within the next couple of months. The state governments are supposed to establish reserve-specific tiger conservation foundations. The gate money collected will go to these foundations as also other state funds. These funds will be used for developing the reserves with community support. As per the tripartite agreement, the state governments will have to certify that they will not allow mining, industry and other such projects for a tiger reserve. The responsibilities of the directors of the tiger reserves have also been spelt out. A very comprehensive action plan has been drawn and funds will probably not be a problem. But implementation of the canvas of action will not be easy. The future of the tiger
depends on the implementation of the wonderful plans that have been
drawn up. We cannot afford to relax.
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Maneka was a maverick but her heart was in the right place. She genuinely cared for wildlife and nature. Kamal Nath was a good minister and steered India through the Earth Summit at Rio in the early 1990s, but his political ambitions lay in the economic ministries.\
