Tiger conservation framework

The increase in the tiger population in India tells a conservation success story. The mortality of 29 tigers during the last three years attributed to poaching tells a different story of the growing challenges of sustaining the conservation efforts. Growing human-wildlife conflicts could also sound like the death knell for tiger conservation in the country if effective steps are not taken to address it. The Central government acknowledges habitat loss to be one of the main causes of human-wildlife conflict. The paradoxical situation leaves nature lovers baffled by the proposed move of the government to relax forest conservation rules and decriminalization of environmental offences for the sake of "ease of doing business". Official data from the quadrennial All India Tiger Estimation Exercise, carried out in 2018, which assesses the Status of Tigers, co-predators, and prey species, show that the tiger population has increased to an estimated number of 2,967 as compared to the 2014 estimation of 2,226 tigers. Tigers spotted during estimation in 51 tiger reserves spread in 18 tiger range states account for 75% of the global tiger population. The debate over the accuracy of the national tiger count continues to persist with some experts questioning the methodology based on the double sampling framework adopted for the estimation exercise. All India Tiger Estimation 2018 Brochure states that in 2014, over 70% of the estimated tiger population was through camera trapping where photographs of 1,686 individual tigers were obtained. The remaining 30% of the tigers which were not captured in camera traps but known to have tigers were estimated by the Spatially Explicit Capture-Recapture (SECR) model where ecological covariates of prey, habitat, and human impacts along with movement parameters of tigers were used. Under the double sampling framework, forest staff collects the first sample to generate information on tiger presence using structured protocols along with information on prey, co-predators, habitat and human impact. A batch of trained wildlife biologists collect the second sample using the information on camera traps on tigers, leopards, prey abundance and adopting the SECR protocol. Before the adoption of SECR, estimation was done using half the Mean of Maximum Distance Moved (MMDM) method in which tiger density was calculated by dividing the estimated population size by the effective trapping area which in turn was estimated by adding a buffer strip of half the mean of maximum distance moved by recaptured tigers to trapping grid. Settling the debate over the methodology adopted for estimation is crucial to conclude the accuracy of data. Accurate data is critical to rule out either overestimation or underestimation, both of which can overshadow tiger conservation efforts in range states and impact resource allocations to tiger reserves under the centrally-sponsored scheme of Project Tiger. The Central Government informed the parliament that the average life span of the tigers in the wild is generally 10-12 years and in natural ecosystem factors like old age, diseases, internecine fights, electrocution, snaring, drowning, road, rail hits etc., and very high infant mortality observed in big cats, including tigers, accounts for the majority of tiger deaths. Altogether 127 tiger mortality in 2021 and 169 human deaths by tiger attacks from 2018 to June 2021 were reported in the country which sounds the alarm bell on human-tiger conflict threatening to derail the tiger conservation success story. This calls for identifying the gaps in the strategy adopted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for managing human-tiger negative interactions. The three-pronged strategy adopted by the NTCA focuses on material and logistical support, restricting habitat interventions and issuing Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to deal with the conflict. In case tiger numbers are at carrying capacity levels, NTCA advises project tiger authority concerned or the range states to limit habitat interventions so that there is no excessive spillover of wildlife including tigers to human habitations. Further, in buffer areas around tiger reserves, habitat interventions are restricted such that they are suboptimal vis-à-vis the core/critical tiger habitat areas, judicious enough to facilitate dispersal to other rich habitat areas only. The SOPs to deal with emergencies arising due to straying of tigers to a human settlement, tiger depredation on livestock, and rehabilitation of tigers from source areas at the landscape level may sound effective but quite challenging to implement without meticulous planning which is also essential for tiger reserves to get adequate material and logistical support under the Project Tiger scheme. Any dilution of existing forest conservation rules aimed at making diversion of forest for development easier, without ascertaining the likely impact on tiger landscapes will jeopardise tiger conservation efforts. Once a pristine forest is fragmented and gone, managing human-wildlife conflict becomes difficult and recurrence becomes normalized. Tiger conservation efforts appear to have been trapped in the dilemma of policymakers in choosing between wildlife conservation and development priorities where forest goes missing from the policy framework.