Become a stakeholder to save Panthera tigris
Moved by reports of a precipitous decline of tigers due to hunting, skin trade, and the expansion of agriculture, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi initiated a number of steps to protect the species.
MOVED BY reports of a precipitous decline of tigers due to hunting, skin trade, and the expansion of agriculture, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi initiated a number of steps to protect the species. This culminated in a string of reserves in different key tiger habitats across the country. Tiger hunting was officially banned only after the enactment of the Wildlife (Protection) Act in 1972. The Act has been amended recently, and punishment and penalty for offences under the Act have been made more stringent. Revenge killings, Chinese medicine, population and livestock pressures, and deforestation are held as other causes. After two years and 500man-hour efforts, two government bodies, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (formerly known as Project Tiger) and the Wildlife Institute of India, came up with a tiger population of 1,411 in India.
During the IXth Plan, compensation of Rs 332 lakh for loss of life and property has been provided by the Government of India under Project Tiger and Project Elephant. Finding ways to compensate for this loss is a particularly tough numbers game in India where well-known parks such as Kanha are often surrounded by more than 1,00,000 villagers. In the past, 27 forest villages have been relocated at government expense from the core area of Kanha Tiger Reserve. The Central Government has sanctioned Rs 141lakh for the construction of a 12 km stone masonry wall on the southern boundary of Corbett where it comes in direct contact with agricultural fields. Conservation of tigers continues to be among the top priorities of the government, which doubled the budgetary allocation for Project Tiger to Rs 184 crore in 2009–10 from Rs 72 crore in 2008–09. The government has earmarked Rs 650 crore in the 11th Plan for Project Tiger.
Another step taken by the Centre is to create a “core inviolate area” in each reserve in which no human habitation is permitted. This move has resulted in the displacement of 80,000 to 1,00,000 people to a “buffer zone” outside the “core inviolate area.” Previously each family was being paid Rs 1 lakh as compensation, which has now been raised to Rs10 lakh per family. The Environment and Forest Ministry had chalked out a massive relocation of nearly one lakh families living in or around the 37 sanctuaries. A successful relocation experiment was carried out in the Bhadra Tiger Reserve in Karnataka; the next takes place at Corbett National Park.
Meanwhile, the government is planning to strengthen legislation to curb poaching and other illegal activities in forest reserves by creating a National Green Tribunal. The Environment Ministry has moved the Cabinet for setting up of a Green Tribunal for speedy disposal of wildlife-related cases.
The status of tiger being low in some tiger reserves is also due to ecological factors like heavy rainfall leading to dense forest cover and paucity of natural preys in Dampa in Mizoram, Namdapha in Arunachal Pradesh, and Kallakad-Mundanthurai in Tamil Nadu.
Left-wing extremism or other extremist disturbances are responsible in some reserves like Indravati (Chhattisgarh), Valmiki (Bihar), Manas (Assam), Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam (Andhra Pradesh), Buxa (West Bengal), Palamu (Jharkhand) and Simlipal (Orissa).
Despite the government’s best efforts, the population of the tiger is declining steadily so much so that Panthera tigris faces extinction if nothing concrete is done to save them soon.
It is estimated that the quantum of trade in wildlife products is just next to narcotics, valued at nearly 20 billion dollars in the global market; of this more than one third is illegal. The existence of a major underground market in China and an almost porous border between the two countries of Nepal and Tibet, tiger poaching and trade has always been a very lucrative business.
Another step taken by the Centre is to create a “core inviolate area” in each reserve in which no human habitation is permitted. This move has resulted in the displacement of 80,000 to 1,00,000 people to a “buffer zone” outside the “core inviolate area.” Previously each family was being paid Rs 1 lakh as compensation, which has now been raised to Rs10 lakh per family. The Environment and Forest Ministry had chalked out a massive relocation of nearly one lakh families living in or around the 37 sanctuaries. A successful relocation experiment was carried out in the Bhadra Tiger Reserve in Karnataka; the next takes place at Corbett National Park.
Meanwhile, the government is planning to strengthen legislation to curb poaching and other illegal activities in forest reserves by creating a National Green Tribunal. The Environment Ministry has moved the Cabinet for setting up of a Green Tribunal for speedy disposal of wildlife-related cases.
The status of tiger being low in some tiger reserves is also due to ecological factors like heavy rainfall leading to dense forest cover and paucity of natural preys in Dampa in Mizoram, Namdapha in Arunachal Pradesh, and Kallakad-Mundanthurai in Tamil Nadu.
Left-wing extremism or other extremist disturbances are responsible in some reserves like Indravati (Chhattisgarh), Valmiki (Bihar), Manas (Assam), Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam (Andhra Pradesh), Buxa (West Bengal), Palamu (Jharkhand) and Simlipal (Orissa).
Despite the government’s best efforts, the population of the tiger is declining steadily so much so that Panthera tigris faces extinction if nothing concrete is done to save them soon.
It is estimated that the quantum of trade in wildlife products is just next to narcotics, valued at nearly 20 billion dollars in the global market; of this more than one third is illegal. The existence of a major underground market in China and an almost porous border between the two countries of Nepal and Tibet, tiger poaching and trade has always been a very lucrative business.
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