Why in the news?

  • During Wildlife Week 2025 celebrations at the Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun, Union Environment Minister launched five major conservation projects and four national-level wildlife monitoring programmes.

Five Major Conservation Projects

  • Tigers Outside Tiger Reserves (TOTR)
    • What is it?: The Tigers Outside Tiger Reserves (TOTR) is a new national-level initiative by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
    • Aim:
      • To reduce human–tiger conflicts in non-reserve landscapes by ensuring safe coexistence between people and dispersing tigers.
      • To protect tigers that move beyond reserve boundaries due to habitat fragmentation, growing populations, and shrinking corridors.
      • To foster a landscape-level conservation approach, balancing ecological sustainability with human safety and livelihoods.
    • Period: The project will be implemented over 2025–28.
  • Project Dolphin (Phase II)
    • Aim: Conservation of river and marine cetaceans, including the endangered Ganga River Dolphin and Indus Dolphin.
Project Dolphin

  • Aim: Conservation of river and marine cetaceans, including the endangered Ganga River Dolphin and Indus Dolphin.
  • Launch: 2020
  • Time Period: 10 years
  • Objectives
    • The main objective of the Project is to safeguard India’s diverse Dolphin population, riverine as well as oceanic, by addressing the multifaceted threats they face.
    • The project aims to address existing conservation concerns while also empowering stakeholders to participate in dolphin conservation.
  • Project Sloth Bear
    • Aim: Establishing the first-ever national conservation framework for sloth bears, which face habitat loss and poaching threats.
    • Features: Habitat protection, mitigation of bear–human conflict, rescue and rehabilitation centres, and awareness campaigns.
  • Project Gharial:
    • Aim: Strengthening recovery of the critically endangered gharial population in river ecosystems such as the Chambal and Gandak.
  • Centre of Excellence for Human-Wildlife Conflict Management
    • Established at Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), this national center provides policy support, research, and field-based mitigation strategies for human-wildlife conflict management.

Monitoring Initiatives

  • Second Cycle of Population Estimation of River Dolphins and Other Cetaceans, including release of the brochure and field guide.
  • All India Tiger Estimation Cycle–6 that include  release of the field guide in eight regional languages.
  • Action Plan for the Second Cycle of Snow Leopard Population Estimation.
  • Progress report on the Population Estimation of Great Indian Bustard and Lesser Florican.

 

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