NATIONAL TIGER CONSERVATION AUTHORITY/PROJECT TIGER
The Government of India has taken a pioneering initiative for conserving its national animal, the tiger, by launching the ‘Project Tiger’ in 1973.
From 9 tiger reserves since its formative years, the Project Tiger coverage has increased to 47 at present, spread out in 18 of our tiger range states. This amounts to around 2.08% of the geographical area of our country.
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. The 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.
Project Tiger is an ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, providing central assistance to the tiger States for tiger conservation in designated tiger reserves.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is a statutory body of the Ministry, with an overarching supervisory / coordination role, performing functions as provided in the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
Activities include:
protection,
habitat amelioration,
day to day monitoring,
eco-development for local people in buffer areas,
voluntary relocation of people from core/critical tiger habitats, and
addressing human-wildlife conflicts, within the ambit of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and guidelines of Project Tiger / National Tiger Conservation Authority.
The NTCA / Project Tiger also conducts the country level assessment of the status of tiger, co-predators, prey and habitat once in four years, using the refined methodology, as approved by the Tiger Task Force.
Special thrust on tiger protection and anti-poaching operations
The illegal demand for body parts and derivatives of tiger outside the country continues to be a serious threat to wild tigers. Therefore, protection is accorded topmost priority in Project Tiger / NTCA. The States are engaged in an ongoing manner through the NTCA Headquarters as well as Regional Offices, while issuing alerts, besides closely working with the CBI, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and the Police Departments. The following actions are taken in this context:
Alerting the States as and when required
Transmitting backward / forward linkages of information relating to poachers
Advising the States for combing forest floor to check snares / traps
Providing assistance to States for ant poaching operations
Using information technology for improved surveillance (e-Eye system) using thermal cameras launched in Corbett
Launching tiger reserve level monitoring using camera trap to keep a photo ID database of individual tigers
Preparing a national database of individual tiger photo captures to establish linkage with body parts seized or dead tigers
Assisting States to refine protection oriented monitoring through monitoring system for tiger’s intensive protection and ecological status (M-STrIPES)
Providing grant through NTCA for patrolling in tiger rich sensitive forest areas outside tiger reserves
Supporting States for raising, arming and deploying the Special Tiger Protection Force
Managing dispersing tigers in human dominated landscapes
In several productive tiger landscapes, tigers move out from the core/critical tiger habitats/source areas. This is an innate behaviour owing to their social dynamics. Since the tiger landscapes have human settlements and varied land uses, there are frequent human-tiger/ wildlife interface issues. The NTCA / Project Tiger is actively engaging with the States to address such issues and a SOP has been put in place in this regard.
Due to concerted efforts under Project Tiger, at present India has the distinction of having the maximum number of tigers in the world (2226) as per 2014 assessment, when compared to the 13 tiger range countries. The 2014 country level tiger assessment has also shown a 30% increase of tigers in the country (from 1706 in 2010 to 2226 in 2014). 70% of the world's tigers exist in India. The tiger corridors for gene flow have been mapped in the GIS domain. The latest estimate has captured 1540 individual tigers which is around 70% of the total population estimate. Robust Spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) models have been used to arrive at the current figure.
