In 1973, the Government of India organised Project Tiger, an ambitious, holistic conservation design, aimed at securing the nation’s tiger population and conserving biodiversity. Over the history fifty times, Project Tiger has achieved estimable success, making significant strides in tiger conservation. Originally covering nine tiger reserves gauging 18,278 km2, the design has flourished into a remarkable accomplishment with 53 reserves spread across 75,796 km, successfully covering2.3 of India’s total land area.
India presently harbours nearly 75 of the world’s wild tiger population.
The first phase of tiger conservation in the 1970s concentrated on making the Wildlife Protection Act and establishing defended areas for tiger and tropical timbers. Still, the 1980s saw a decline due to expansive coddling. In response, the government initiated the alternate phase in 2005, espousing a geography- position approach, community involvement & support, enforcing strict law enforcement, and using ultramodern technology for scientific monitoring to insure tiger conservation. This approach not only led to an increase in the tiger population, but also had several critical issues that included the designation of exempt critical core and buffer areas, the identification of new tiger reserves, and the recognition of tiger geographies and corridors.
The monitoring exercise inculcated scientific thinking amongst timber staff and employment of technology assured translucency of data collection and analysis. India distributed tiger territories into five major geographies grounded on biogeography and interconnectivity, enabling effective ecological and operation- grounded strategies.
With significant changes in the spatial patterns of tiger circumstance and an increase in unique tiger sightings from 2461 in 2018 to 3080 in 2022, now further than 3/ 4th of the tiger population is set up within defended areas.
On April 9, 2022, during the festivity of 50 times of the Project Tiger at Mysore, Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi declared the minimal tiger population of 3167, which is the population estimate from the camera- trapped area. Now, farther analysis of data, done by the Wildlife Institute of India, from both camera- trapped and on-camera-trapped tiger presence areas, the upper limit of the tiger population is estimated to be 3925 and the average number is 3682 tiger , reflecting a estimable periodic growth rate of6.1 per annum.
Central India and the Shivalik Hills and Gangetic Plains witnessed a notable increases in tiger population, particularly in the countries of Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Maharashtra.
still, certain regions, similar as the Western Ghats, educated localized declines, challenging targeted monitoring and conservation sweats.
Some countries, including Mizoram, Nagaland, Jharkhand, Goa, Chhattisgarh, and Arunachal Pradesh, have reported disquieting trends with small tiger populations.
The largest tiger population of 785 is in Madhya Pradesh, followed by Karnataka( 563) & Uttarakhand( 560), and Maharashtra( 444).
The tiger cornucopia within the Tiger Reserve is loftiest in Corbett( 260), followed by Bandipur( 150), Nagarhole( 141), Bandhavgarh( 135), Dudhwa( 135), Mudumalai( 114), Kanha( 105), Kaziranga( 104), Sundarbans( 100), Tadoba( 97), Sathyamangalam( 85), and Pench- MP( 77).
colorful tiger reserves have shown remarkable growth, while others face challenges. roughly 35 of the tiger reserves urgently bear enhanced protection measures, niche restoration, ungulate addition, and posterior tiger reintroduction.
To save ecological integrity, there’s need to explosively continueeco-friendly development docket, minimize mining impacts, and rehabilitate mining spots. also, fortifying defended area operation, enhancinganti-poaching measures, employing scientific thinking and technology- driven data collection, and addressing mortal- wildlife conflict are vital way to cover the country’s tiger populations.
India’s Project Tiger has made tremendous progress in tiger conservation over the once five decades, but challenges like coddling is still a trouble to tiger conservation. Continued sweats to cover tiger territories and corridors are pivotal for securing the future of India’s tiger and their ecosystems for generations to come.
On the occasion of the Global Tiger Day celebrated at the Corbett Tiger Reserve moment, 29 July 2023, a detailed report was released by Union MoS Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey. In this program CM Uttarakhand and Union MOS Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Tourism Shri Ajay Bhatt also shared besides officers from tiger range countries, MoEFCC and NTCA.
