AIR Spotlight: Project Tiger

AIR Spotlight is an insightful program featured daily on the All India Radio News on air. In this program, many eminent panellists discuss issues of importance which can be quite helpful in IAS exam preparation.

This article is about the discussion on: Project Tiger’s 50th anniversary – achievements and concerns.

Participants:

1. Mukul Sanghwan, Environmentalist
2. S. Ranghbhashyam, AIR Correspondent

What is Project Tiger?

• Project Tiger was launched by the Central government on 1 April 1973, in a bid to promote the conservation of the tiger.
  • It was started in nine reserves of different States namely, Assam, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal over an area of approximately 14,000 sq. km.
• It aims to enhance the conservation effort for tigers in the country and ensure their rapid growth. 
• According to reports, while there were 40,000 tigers in the country at the time of Independence, they were soon reduced to below 2,000 by 1970 due to their widespread hunting and poaching.

Tiger population: 

• According to the 5th cycle of India’s Tiger Census, the number of tigers in India has increased by 6.74 percent from 2,967 in 2018 to 3,167 in 2022. 
• There has been a nearly 40% increase in the tiger population in a span of 8 years. 
• Today, there are 54 tiger reserves across India, spanning 75,000 sq km.
• Nearly, 75% of the world’s tiger population is in India.

Image: Tiger Population

Image Source: PTI

 National Tiger Conservation Authority: 

• The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change constituted under enabling provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended in 2006, for strengthening tiger conservation, as per powers and functions assigned to it under the said Act.
• The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has been constituted under section 38 L (1) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. 

The objectives of NTCA are:

• Providing statutory authority to Project Tiger so that compliance with its directives becomes legal.
• Fostering accountability of Center-State in management of Tiger Reserves, by providing a basis for MoU with States within our federal structure.
• Providing for oversight by Parliament.
• Addressing livelihood interests of local people in areas surrounding Tiger Reserves.

Challenges to tiger conservation: 

• There has been a decline in the population of the hunt on which the tiger depends. As a result of this tigers are subjected to different vulnerabilities. 
• There has been consistent destruction of the habitat in which the tiger resides. It brings human-animal conflict to the foray. 
• There are additional challenges that arise from human activities like poaching, and trafficking of tigers for various purposes. 
• There is a shrinkage of the forested area in the wake of the rise in the human population and an increase in the demand for land in the country. 
• Some experts have also pointed out that India has reached the saturation point in terms of the tiger population in the country against the land available in the country. 

Tigers are flagship species and play a very important role in ecological balance. The government has done a commendable job of safeguarding the tigers. Now, effort must be made to capitalize on the success made in the past. 

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