Tiger, tiger, burning bright

According to an estimate released recently on the basis of the quadrennial census co-ordinated by the Wildlife Institute of India, the tiger is burning bright in India’s forests, with the population increasing to 3,682 in 2023, up from 2,967 in 2018. In May, only a minimum of 3,167 tigers were estimated but this has increased in the latest count. The maximum number of 785 tigers was reported in Madhya Pradesh, followed by Karnataka with 563, Uttarakhand with 560, and Maharashtra with 444. There have been doubts about the methodology of count and the exact numbers, but there is no doubt that the numbers have improved. After the inception of Project Tiger in 1973, the tiger population has increased from 1,780 to the present levels. India now has 75 per cent of the world’s tigers. This is certainly an achievement because the tigers were on the brink when the conservation efforts started.

Project Tiger, with nine sites extending over 16,338 sq km, was launched in India by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on April 1, 1973. The coverage has steadily increased, and now 53 Tiger Reserves (TR)s are notified in the country, covering a total area of 75,000 sq km. The fifty one year journey of Project Tiger is divided into two phases. The first phase went through turbulence when, in the 1980s, the trade in body parts of tigers began to decimate the population, leading to the shocking revelation of the local extinction of tigers in 2005 in Sariska (Rajasthan) and later in Panna (Madhya Pradesh), Buxa (West Bengal), and the TRs of the north-eastern states. A tiger task force was constituted, and based on its recommendation, a chapter on the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) was inserted in the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, on September 26, 2006. This led to the second part of the journey with a specific tiger agenda, such as notification of core and buffer areas, critical tiger habitats, managing reserves with an NTCA-approved tiger conservation plan, relocation of villages from core areas, and settling inter-departmental coordination issues through a steering committee headed by the chief minister of the respective state.

One of the major achievements of the project was the launch of the International Big Cat Alliance aimed at protecting seven species globally: the tiger, leopard, jaguar, lion, snow leopard, puma, and cheetah, worldwide. Recently the PM attributed the increasing number of tigers, Asiatic lions, leopards, rhinoceroses, and elephants, as well as the addition of tree cover and biodiversity, to the tradition and culture of India. He added that the ‘Amrit Kaal Ka Vision” for the next 25 years will focus on a landscape-level approach to secure wild tiger habitats and their role in livelihood and preserving socio-cultural ethos. He advised member countries of the Big Cat Alliance to find relationships of emotion and economy between wild animals and the communities residing around them.

While NTCA regularly worked on implementation, TR-level management in some of the states lagged behind. No doubt, states have secured tigers in different landscapes but neglected habitat and corridor conservation. Implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, has been flawed. Politicians supported the bogus claims for electoral gains. This has been one of the main reasons for decimating tree growth on forest land; it is corroborated by the India State Forest Report (ISFR 2021), the latest in the series published every alternate year by the Forest Survey of India. The interim report of all India tiger estimation for the Western Ghats landscape reads, “The majority of tiger populations remain stable, and some have declined; a significant reduction of tiger occupancy has been observed throughout the landscape.” The observation in the central Indian Highlands and Eastern Ghats landscape has shown gains in number but pointed out threats to conservation like high concentrations of mining activity. Tiger occupancy declined in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana. The report from the north-eastern landscape is equally shocking: “The landscape has experienced extensive change in land-use patterns in the past, leading to severe loss of natural habitat.”

Overall, the report indicates that the number of tigers has gone up from 2,967 to at least 3,167; the loss in the Western Ghats landscape has been wiped out by the gains in the central Indian landscape. We must reverse the trend of decimating forest cover to restore habitats and corridors for tigers. The assessment of forest and tree cover in notified TRs was also studied. Decadal change between 2011 and 2021 in tree cover in 52 TRs has been analysed in ISFR 2021, and it is found that there is a total loss of tree cover to the extent of 22.62 sq km. While 20 TRs have gained tree cover, 32 have lost it. TRs like Buxa (West Bengal), Anamalai (Tamil Nadu), and Indravathi (Chhattisgarh) have gained 238.80 sq km, 120.78 sq km, and 64.48 sq km, respectively, while TRs like Kawal (Telangana), Bhadra (Karnataka), and Sundarbans (West Bengal) have lost cover in 118.97 sq km, 53.09 sq km, and 49.95 sq km, respectively. The story from Karnataka is quite disturbing. Apart from Bhadra, the TRs like Nagarhole, Bandipur, and Kali have also lost 42.38 sq km, 7.39 sq km, and 13.14 sq km, respectively. The only TR in Karnataka that has gained 16.77 sq km of tree cover is in Punajur. Tree cover is essential for tigers, we must give them their space.

Views expressed are personal