Context:

• On the occasion of International Tiger Day, Prime Minister reiterated India's commitment to ensuring safe habitats for its tigers and nurturing tiger-friendly eco systems.
• International Tiger Day is marked on July 29 with an aim to promote a global system for protecting the natural habitats of tigers and to raise public awareness and support for tiger conservation issues.

 

India and its Tiger’s

• India's strategy of tiger conservation attaches topmost importance to involving local communities.
• India is home to over 70% of the tiger population globally.
• India is home to 51 tiger reserves spread across 18 States and the last tiger census of 2018 showed a rise in the tiger population.
• India achieved the target of doubling of tiger population four years ahead of schedule of the St. Petersburg Declaration on tiger conservation.

Tiger census

• The detailed report of the 4th All India Tiger Estimation is unique in the following ways;
  • Abundance index of co-predators and other species has been carried out, which hitherto was restricted only to occupancy.
  • Sex ratio of tigers in all camera trap sites has been carried out for the first time.
  • Anthropogenic effects on tiger populations have been elaborated in a detailed manner.
  • Tiger abundance within pockets in tiger reserves has been demonstrated for the first time.
• The report compares information obtained from tiger surveys of 2006, 2010 and 2014 with data obtained from the 2018-19 review to estimate population trends at country and landscape scales, patch colonization and extinction rates.

About the survey:

• The quadrennial tiger estimation is steered by the National Tiger Conservation Authority with technical support from the Wildlife Institute of India and implemented by state forest departments.
• The All India Tiger Estimation 2018 has entered the Guinness World Record for being the world’s largest camera trap wildlife survey.

CA|TS

• It is a conservation tool that sets minimum standards to manage target species, and encourages assessments to benchmark progress.
• Launched in 2013, the tool was developed in collaboration with field managers, tiger experts and government agencies engaged in tiger conservation.
• CA|TS is a partnership of tiger range governments, inter-governmental agencies, institutions, NGOs and conservation organisations.

Royal Bengal Tiger:

• It forms a specific population of the Pantheratigristigris subspecies that is native to the Indian subcontinent.
• Threats: poaching, loss and fragmentation of habitat.
• IUCN Status:
• Protected under schedule 1 of Wildlife Protection Act.

Project Tiger:

• This tiger conservation programme launched in April 1973 by the Government of India during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's tenure.
• Aim: Ensuring a viable population of Bengal tigers in their natural habitats, protecting them from extinction, and preserving areas of biological importance as a natural heritage
• From 9 tiger reserves since its formative years, the Project Tiger coverage has increased to 50 at present, spread out in 18 of our tiger range states.
• The tiger reserves are constituted on a core/buffer strategy.
  • Core areas have the legal status of a national park or a sanctuary.
  • Whereas, buffer or peripheral areas are a mix of forest and non-forest land, managed as a multiple use area.
• The government has set up a Tiger Protection Force to combat poachers and funded relocation of villagers to minimize human-tiger conflicts.

National Tiger Conservation Authority was established in 2005 following a recommendation of the Tiger Task Force, to reorganise management of Project Tiger and the many Tiger Reserves in India. It is the overarching body for conservation of tigers in India.

Structure of NTCA:

• Environment Minister is the Chairman of the NTCA.
• Below chairman are eight experts or professionals having qualifications and experience in wildlife conservation and welfare of people including tribals, apart from three Members of Parliament (1 Rajya Sabha, 2 Lok Sabha).
• The Inspector General of Forests, in charge of project Tiger, serves as ex-officio Member Secretary.

Functions

• Its main administrative function is to approve the Tiger Conservation Plan prepared by the State Governments and then evaluate and assess various aspects of sustainable ecology and disallow any ecologically unsustainable land use such as, mining, industry and other projects within the tiger reserves.
• As per the WLPA, every State Government has the authority to notify an area as a tiger reserve.
• However, the Tiger Conservation Plans sent by state government need to be approved by the NTCA first.
• Alternatively, Central Government via NTCA may advise the state governments to forward a proposal for creation of Tiger Reserves.

Other Functions of NTCA are as follows:

• Regulation and standardization of tourism activities
• Provide for management focus and measures for addressing conflicts of men and wild animals.
• Provide information on protection measures.
• Ensure that the tiger reserves and areas linking one protected area or tiger reserve with another protected area or tiger reserve are not diverted for ecologically unsustainable uses, except in public interest and with the approval of the National Board for Wild Life and on the advice of the Tiger Conservation Authority.
• Facilitate and support the tiger reserve management in the State.
• Ensure critical support including scientific, information technology and legal support for better implementation of the tiger conservation plan.
• TX2 stands for “Tigers times two”, signalling the goal to double the population of wild tigers by 2022.
• India and Bhutan are among 13 countries working towards TX2, a goal that the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) had set through the Global Tiger Initiative, Global Tiger Forum and other critical platforms.
• The number of the striped cat in the Indian Manas increased from nine in 2010 to 25 in 2018 while that in the Bhutan Manas more than doubled from 12 in 2008 to 26 in 2018.

Global Tiger Initiative (GTI)

• The Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) was launched in 2008 as a global alliance of governments, international organizations, civil society, the 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, Save the Tiger Fund, and International Tiger Coalition (representing more than 40 non-government organizations).
• The initiative is led by the 13 tiger range countries (TRCs).

Global Tiger Forum

• The Global Tiger Forum (GTF) is the only inter- governmental international body established with members from willing countries to embark on a global campaign to protect the Tiger.
• The GTF was formed in 1993 on recommendations from an international symposium on Tiger Conservation at New Delhi, India.
• The GTF is focused on saving the remaining 5 sub-species of Tigers distributed over 13 Tiger Range countries of the world.

TX2 Conservation Excellence Award

• TX2 is the global award, which was set up in 2010 in St. Petersburg, Russia by international organizations working for tiger conservation like UNDP, Global Tiger Forum, International Union for Conservation of Nature, World Wide Fund for Nature, Conservation Assured/Tiger Standards and the Lion's Share.
• The TX2 awards include a financial grant to assist ongoing conservation.
• The award recognises a site that has achieved excellence in two or more of five themes:
  • Tiger and prey population monitoring and research (tiger translocation/prey augmentation);
  • effective site management;
  • enhanced law enforcement,
  • protection and ranger welfare improvement;
  • community-based conservation,
  • benefits and human-wildlife conflict mitigation and habitat and prey management.
• In 2018, the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR) in Uttar Pradesh also won the TX2 award for doubling its population of wild tigers since 2010.

https:www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-committed-to-ensuring-safe-habitats-for-its-tigers-says-pm-modi/article35600255.ece?homepage=true