What numbers do not reveal about tiger conservation

GS Paper3

Syllabus: Environment Conservation

Source: The Hindu

Context:  Today is International Tiger Day. A recent IUCN assessment suggests that tiger numbers have increased by 40% since 2005 at the global level.

Direction: Tiger conservation is important for both prelims and Mains. Do keep certain data, and some measures handy.

The fourth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation 2018 estimated 2,967 tigers or 75 per cent of the global tiger population in the nation (the biggest increase since 2006)

Recent Measures taken by India for conservation of Tigers:-

• Increased Monetary Allocation: In 2019, India invested US$49.4 million in tiger conservation, including relocating villages outside protected areas.
• Water and fodder scheme: within the reserve so that fewer animals stray out of these reserves and minimize animal-human conflict
• Increased Conservation efforts: From 28 in 2006, the number of tiger reserves went up to 50 in 2018, spread across 18 states.
  • Recognition of tiger landscapes and the importance of the corridors and their physical delineation at the highest levels of governance
  • Integrating tiger conservation with developmental activities using the power of reliable information in a Geographic Information System database.
• Smart patrolling and increased vigilance: Organized poaching rackets have been all but crushed. As per Tiger estimation reports, there has been no organized poaching by traditional gangs in Central Indian landscapes since 2013.
• Improved Conditions for breeding: Tigers are fast breeders when conditions are conducive and increased protection has encouraged the tiger to breed.
• Rehabilitation of villages: Villages were shifted outside core areas in many parts of the country which led to the availability of more inviolate space for tigers.
• Accurate estimation exercise: Better estimation over the years made it possible that many tigers that eluded enumerators in earlier exercises were counted this time.
• India has built the world’s largest animal underpass to funnel tigers safely beneath a highway.
  • Finished in 2018, the NH44 has 9 specially built underpasses, ranging in length from 50 to 750 meters, designed to allow animals to pass beneath the roads.

Technological Measures:-

• Lidar-based survey technology is being used to deal with the challenge of human-animal conflict that was causing the death of animals.
  • Lidar is a method of measuring distance by illuminating the target with laser light and measuring the reflection with a sensor.
• Aerial surveillance, Economic Valuation of Tiger Reserves.
• Online database of tiger crime
• Modern protocol for field monitoring:
  • M-STrIPES (Monitoring system for tigers – intensive protection and ecological status) using GPS to geotag photo-evidences and survey information, made this exercise more accurate.
  • CaTRAT (Camera Trap data Repository and Analysis Tool) for automated segregation of camera trap photographs to species.

International:-

• India has decided to extend CA|TS across all its tiger reserves: as nearly 30 per cent of India’s tigers are outside tiger reserves
  • This brings India’s total number of registered sites to 94 (including sites outside the Tiger Reserves).
• Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) program of the World Bank
• Global Tiger Forum engagement along with partners in areas of Conservation Assured Tiger Standards (CA|TS), Security Audit of Tiger Reserves, Management Planning etc.

Conservation efforts have yielded positive results:

Fourth tiger census report, Status of Tigers, Co-predators, Prey and their Habitat, 2018 shows:

• The number of wild tigers in the country had doubled from 1,411 in 2006 to 2,967 today — meaning that India has already met the St Petersburg target of doubling the tiger number by 2022.
• Madhya Pradesh (526) has the maximum number of tigers followed by Karnataka (524) and Uttarakhand (442).
• Largest contiguous tiger population in the world of about 724 tigers was found in the Western Ghats (Nagarhole-Bandipur Wayanad -Mudumalai- SatyamangalamBRT block)-  This is due to the highest prey densities of predators like the striped hyena, the Indian wild dog, jackals and wolves in the area.
• Guinness World Records recognized the country’s efforts as the world’s largest camera trap survey of wildlife.

Issues with the Indian approach:-

• Large-scale habitat destruction and decimation of prey populations are the major long-term threats to the existence of the dwindling tiger population in the country.
• Man-animal conflict: As per government data,in 2019, 58 people lost their lives to human–wildlife conflict and 181 were injured
• Three tiger reserves in India: Mizoram’s Dampa reserve, West Bengal’s Buxa reserve and Jharkhand’s Palamau reserve have no tigers left.
• Increasing fragmentation: The tiger reserves are having poor interconnectivity with each other due to which the gene exchange among the tiger population can barely take place, increasing the risk of disease susceptibility.
• Smaller population leads to higher chances of extinction: Populations that are smaller than 100 breeding individuals have a high probability of extinction.
  • Small and isolated populations face a high probability of extinction. This is because there is a high chance of inbreeding that will expose disadvantageous genetic variants that are present in all genomes. ( as happened in Thailand a few years back)

Way forward:-

• Tiger must be secured at three basic levels: field formation, national and international. Though a sovereign issue, international engagements between border countries are important for evolving a common portfolio to address the threat of trafficking.
• The Key Performance Indicators of the ongoing Global Tiger Recovery Program need adequate resources and more commitment.Donors with a green mission need to support regional projects for reducing the threat of trafficking and addressing the resource dependency of locals through gainful portfolios.
• A citizen’s charter is neededfor green development within sustainable tiger landscapes.
• Increase Connectivity using tiger corridors: Tiger extinction could be avoided if tiger corridors were safeguarded. For instance, having an underpass will allow wildlife movement and connectivity.

Conclusion

The tiger is a unique animal which plays a pivotal role in the health and diversity of an ecosystem.  However, there is a need for further community involvement through tiger reserve that is not built with fences and armed patrol guards, but around a cultural model of conservation i.e. including local tribes like Idu Mishmi in Arunachal Pradesh, who consider Tigers as their elder brother and sacred.

Insta links

Tiger density in India

Mains Link

Q. Evaluate the various measures initiated towards tiger conservation and protection in India which have resulted in a steady increase in the population of tigers. What are the key learnings from these measures toward conservation efforts of other species? (15M)

Prelims Link