India’s effort to save tigers, the national animal, has been a tremendous success in recent years. India’s current tiger population stands at 3,000. To understand how this feat was achieved and what this means for other threatened wildlife species in India, we spoke to Dr Samir Kumar Sinha, Chief Ecologist at Wildlife Trust of India.
Samir Kumar Sinha: World Tiger Day is celebrated to create awareness about the endangerment of tigers around the world. At the World Tiger Summit in 2010 at St. Petersburg, it was decided to celebrate this day annually for the purpose of creating awareness.
For us, there is of great importance because India accounts for 70% of the world’s tiger population. So India is the main custodian of tigers in the world. Of the 6 sub-species of tigers in the world, India has the Royal Bengal Tiger. Secondly, we are a vast country with a high population density, so there is greater pressure on resources and therefore greater challenges in terms of wildlife conservation, and there is a greater need for awareness about tiger conservation.
Moreover newer issues are emerging in this sphere. As their population increases, the tigers disperse into areas of human habitation, which is leading to increased human-tiger confrontation. But in terms of management and conservation of tigers, I would say that India is a guru.
One of the best examples of why I say this is Panna, Madhya Pradesh. Earlier, there was a very bad situation in both Panna and Sariska, where tiger population reduced drastically because of poaching. Tigers had become locally extinct there. But with meticulous planning, the tigers were slowly brought back to Panna, and it is a very good tiger habitat today. Now tigers are dispersing to other parts of the country from here. So, within a matter of 12-15 years, Panna has gone from extinction to becoming a source population. The way this has been done is something for India to be proud of.
Samir Kumar Sinha: One of the most important things we did was set up the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). It is a statutory body, with the legal power to implement rules and action. The NTCA oversees the management of tigers, their habitats, and all allied activities, so it is a very good institutional framework that India has. It works both with the state governments and on an international scale as well.
Second key step was the scientific approach towards monitoring the tiger population. Earlier the numbers were monitored by state departments. Now this is done in four stages. In this all tiger reserves are involved in monitoring the number of tigers under their area, it is called Phase IV tiger management. Phase IV means all reserves should monitor the tigers throughout the year. And for this, they are provided with some tools also, like an application used by forest and protected area staff to monitor the tiger population, their habitat conditions, etc.
Samir Kumar Sinha: Every event has two aspects. Earlier when tiger population was less, the incidences of tigers coming out near human settlements during the process of natural dispersion were less. The tiger is a territorial animal. So when their population increases, they move from their native area to find a territory for themselves. While making this move sometimes, they come in close contact with the human population. Sometimes, compared to adult male tigers, the younger and the older tigers are pushed to the periphery of the tiger habitat, which usually have less resources. In this case, an old tiger will probably look for ‘easy prey’ – livestock in the neighboring villages. At the same time, it is not only a matter of increase in population and dispersion, but also a matter of shrinkage of their habitat. Often the infrastructure is laid by humans within these habitats, which causes disturbances. So there are several factors behind this occurrence.
As for conflict, people rely on reactive strategy. After an incident people would try to capture the tiger and relocate it to another area. So, WTI has been landscaping in Uttar Pradesh for almost 13 years. In Dudhwa and Pilibhit, the cases of conflict are very high. And all of these areas come under a sugarcane cultivation belt in U.P. For tigers the sugarcane field is like a grassland, where they can hide well. It’s also a good prey base, as smaller animals like deer are found in these areas. So the tigers find food and shelter in these sugarcane fields, and they start living there, because the environment is so conducive. During harvesting the tigers attack the humans.
Initially, the strategy was to capture the tiger and release it in the wild, if it was in a suitable condition. If not, to send it to a lifetime care facility like a zoo. Then WTI began working with the people. So we have a group of on-ground volunteers, the Primary Response Team. Their job is to reduce the encounter between humans and tigers. If the humans don’t go close to tigers, the tigers won’t attack. The PRT’s job is to relay caution to the villagers, and update WTI and forest department, so that if necessary, an expert will be available to guide the tiger away and provide a safe passage, or to capture it.
Earlier, providing a safe passage to a tiger or leopard that had ventured into human areas was not a popular strategy. But we found that in about 50% of the cases, resolution can happen by simply providing a safe passage to the animal, by leaving it alone. To manage the PRTs better, we identified the tiger hotspots based on previous data, and in these zones we find local volunteers to form PRTs. These people work on a completely voluntary basis. At the end of the day, the villagers only are facing this problem, not the forest department or the NGO. So it becomes their problem and they should be prepared to resolve.
Sunil Kumar Sinha: See, conflict is not a new thing. Even when there were vast expanses of open land, conflict used to happen. The native villagers know this. They considered it an act of god. The change comes when an outsider takes charge. So now when the forest department tells them not to kill the tigers, or instructs them to act in a certain way, they feel that the forest department is now responsible for the issue of conflict, and not themselves. Moreover, in case of any damage or loss of property, the forest department provides the afflicted villagers with compensation. So they build a closer association between the forest department and the animals, that if the animal causes any harm, the department considers itself responsible for it. So they distance themselves from managing their land and resources and wildlife. This is a prevalent sentiment, which needs to be changed for effective conservation to take place.
Samir Kumar Sinha: The tiger is a charismatic species. So it has the capability to raise funds for projects working towards its conservation. The same cannot be said for most other wildlife species. It is hard for conservation efforts targeted at other species to garner that sort of attention. So investment in terms of management, manpower, etc. is worrying for other species apart from tigers. Even majestic species like elephants don’t get enough resources for management. So that is what makes tiger conservation stand out among other wildlife conservation projects.
Moreover, since tiger is a long range animal, their habitat conservation benefits other long range animals like elephants. So we need to adopt a landscape approach for conservation, which is happening in India already. People are talking about tiger corridors, but it is difficult for other animals to individually get this attention.
Samir Kumar Sinha: Yes, definitely it has benefitted many species. But to say that all species have benefitted from tiger conservation efforts would also not be true. Because a lot of the species are specialist species, they require a specific habitat. So we say that the tiger is an umbrella animal when it comes to wildlife conservation, but our sole focus is towards increasing the tiger population and increasing their prey base.
Samir Kumar Sinha: The core challenge is definitely habitat. Natural open areas are generally considered wastelands, but they also support a great variety of species. Same is true for wetlands and grasslands. So it is important to conserve all kinds of habitats.
And we need to sensitise all the stakeholders regarding these efforts. In India, when it comes to conservation, it usually comes down to the forest department, and the concerned NGOs. So conservation ownership should be taken by all these stakeholders, not just the forest department and some NGOs. Currently most stakeholders only want to have limited association, without investing any dedicated resources. Even government agencies have a similar outlook.
Samir Kumar Sinha: I’d like to briefly talk about the frontline forest officials, they are the real heroes, the real protectors of the Indian wildlife ecosystem. But you should see their quality of life. It’s very disheartening to see the way their efforts are reciprocated.
Secondly, even though community involvement is an extremely important part of wildlife conservation, the current strategies involve the local communities in a very limited scope in a lot of areas. They should also be involved and be able to reap the benefits of the conservation efforts.
Another important aspect is putting in consistent efforts towards conservation. Project Tiger started in 1973. We need to have such constant efforts. A conservation project has to exist for at least 10-15 years to make some significant impact. Otherwise it would be a waste of resources. We should also modify the steps according to the changes occurring with time. So these are some important things that I wanted to share regarding wildlife and tiger conservation.
The lead image at the top of this page shows a tiger and its cubs in one of India’s tiger reserves (Photo courtesy Anuradha Marwah, Shutterstock)
