Project Tiger
- Objectives
- To ensure the maintenance of a viable population of tigers in India for scientific, economic, aesthetic, cultural and ecological values.
- To preserve, for all times, areas of biological importance as a national heritage for the benefit, education and enjoyment of the people.
- Funding: Centrally Sponsored Scheme
- Ministry: Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC)
Tiger Reserve
- Core Zone
- The core area is kept free of biotic disturbances and forestry operations, where the collection of minor forest produce, grazing, human disturbances are not allowed within.
- These areas are required to be kept for the purposes of tiger conservation, without affecting the rights of the Scheduled Tribes or such other forest dwellers.
- These areas are notified by theState Government in consultation with an Expert Committee (constituted for that purpose).
- Critical Wildlife Habitats (CWHs) have been envisaged in Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.
- The power to notify the rules to designate a CWH rests with the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
- Buffer Zone
- Buffer area is the area peripheral to the critical tiger habitat or core area providing supplementary habitat for dispersing tigers, besides offering scope for co-existence of human activity.
- The limits of the buffer/ peripheral areas are determined on the basis of scientific and objective criteria in consultation with the Gram Sabha and an Expert Committee constituted for the purpose.
International Initiatives
- Global Tiger Forum
- Global Tiger Forum is an Inter-Governmental international body working exclusively for the conservation of Tigers.
- Established in 1994, the Global Tiger Forum (GTF) has its headquarters in New Delhi.
- The General Assembly of GTF meets after every three years.
- It utilises cooperative policies, common approaches, technical expertise, scientific modules, and other appropriate programs.
- As per the Global Tiger Forum, it was set up to highlight the rationale for tiger preservation and provide leadership and a common approach throughout the world in order to safeguard the survival of the tiger, its prey, and its habitat.
- The Global Tiger Forum was set up to promote a worldwide campaign to save the tiger, its prey, and its habitat.
- The Global Tiger Forum has plans to promote a legal framework in the countries involved for biodiversity conservation and to increase the protected area network of habitats of the tiger and facilitate their inter passages in the range countries.
- It is the only Inter-Governmental body to save the tiger worldwide.
- 14 tiger range countries are its members.
- At the St. Petersburg Tiger Summit in 2010, leaders of 13 tiger range countries resolved to double its number in the wild, with a popular slogan ‘T x 2’.
- The Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) program of the World Bank brought global partners together to strengthen the tiger agenda.
- Over the years, the initiative has been institutionalised as a separate entity in the form of the Global Tiger Initiative Council (GTIC) with the Global Tiger Forum as one of its arms.
- GTF has forged viable partnerships with several like-minded organisations in India and abroad – IUCN, WWF, WCT, WII, IIFM, IFAW, WTI, WCS, USAID, World Bank, Clemson University.
- Tx2
- The TX2 goal is a global commitment to double the world’s wild tigers by 2022.
- The base year is 2006
- The goal has been set by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) through the Global Tiger Initiative, Global Tiger Forum, and other critical platforms.
- All 13 tiger range governments came together for the first time at the St Petersburg Summit (Russia – 2010) where they committed to double the number of wild tigers by 2022.
- India has already achieved it.
- Global Tiger Initiative (GTI)
- The Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) was launched in 2008 as a global alliance of governments, international organisations, civil society, conservation, and scientific communities, and the private sector, with the aim of working together to save wild tigers from extinction. In 2013, the scope was broadened to include Snow Leopards.
- The GTI’s founding partners included the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Smithsonian Institution, the Save the Tiger Fund, and International Tiger Coalition (representing more than 40 non-government organisations. The initiative i
- Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards (CA|TS)
- CA|TS is a set of criteria which allows tiger sites to check if their management will lead to successful tiger conservation.
- CA|TS is organised under seven pillars and 17 elements of critical management activity.
- CA|TS was developed by tiger and protected area experts.
- Officially launched in 2013, CA|TS is an important part of Tx2, the global goal to double wild tiger numbers by the year 2022.
- “The long-term goal of CA|TS is to ensure safe havens for tigers.”
- Out of total India’s Tiger reserves 14 have received the Conservation Assured Tiger Standards accreditation. The 14 tiger reserves which have been accredited are:
- Manas, Kaziranga and Orang in Assam,
- Satpura, Kanha and Panna in Madhya Pradesh,
- Pench in Maharashtra,
- Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar,
- Dudhwa in Uttar Pradesh,
- Sunderbans in West Bengal,
- Parambikulam in Kerala,
- Bandipur Tiger Reserve of Karnataka and
- Mudumalai and Anamalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu
Methods of Tiger Census
- The most commonly used technique in the past was the ‘Pugmark Census Technique’. In this method, the imprints of the pugmark of the tiger were recorded and used as a basis for the identification of individuals.
- Recent methods used to estimate the numbers of tigers are camera trapping and DNA fingerprinting.
- M-STrIPES (Monitoring System for Tigers – Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) is an app-based monitoring system, launched across Indian tiger reserves by the NTCA in 2010. The system would enable field managers to assist the intensity and spatial coverage of patrols in a geographic information system (GIS) domain.
National Organisations
- National Tiger Conservation Authority
- Established in 2006 under Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.
- Objectives
- Providing statutory authority to Project Tiger so that compliance of its directives become legal.
- Fostering accountability of Center-State in management of Tiger Reserves by providing a basis for MoU with States within the federal structure.
- Providing for an oversight by Parliament.
- Addressing livelihood interests of local people in areas surrounding Tiger Reserves.
- NTCA Members
- Minister in charge of MoEFCC (as Chairperson),
- Minister of State in MoEFCC (as Vice-Chairperson),
- Three members of Parliament, the Secretary (MoEFCC), and other members.
- Wildlife Institute of India (WII)
- Wildlife Institute of India (WII) offers training programs, academic courses, and advisory in wildlife research and management.
- Established in 1982.
- Established at Dehradun (winter capital and the most populous city in Uttarakhand).
- It is an autonomous Institution of the Ministry of Environment & Forests.