Co-existing with tigers outside reserves, Pg7

Key Highlights:

• India's tiger population has increased to 3,682 in 2022, representing over 70% of the world's wild tigers.
• Approximately 35-40% of the country's tiger population now resides outside designated Tiger Reserves.
• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has launched the Tigers Outside Tiger Reserves (TOTR) initiative to address this.
• The TOTR is being implemented as a pilot project in 40 forest divisions across nine states, including Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.

Detailed Insights:

• The success of Project Tiger, launched in 1973, led to the expansion of India's protected area network to 58 reserves.
• As core tiger habitats reach saturation, tigers naturally disperse into human-dominated fringes, leading to increased human-tiger conflict.
• This conflict manifests as human fatalities, livestock depredation, and public anxiety, placing significant pressure on forest departments.
• The TOTR aims to shift from reactive crisis management to proactive, science-driven governance, leveraging technology and community participation.
• Its two main pillars focus on reducing human-tiger conflict through rapid response teams and improving rescue infrastructure, and fostering long-term coexistence.
• States are tasked with streamlining compensation mechanisms and strategically investing in modern conservation tools like camera traps, GPS, and AI for surveillance.
• The initiative underscores a broader national imperative to strengthen the governance of shared landscapes where human livelihoods and ecological processes intersect.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Project Tiger: A flagship conservation program launched in 1973 to protect tigers and their habitats in India.
• Tiger Reserves: Specific protected areas legally designated and managed for the conservation of tigers and their ecosystems under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
• Human-Wildlife Conflict: Negative interactions between people and wild animals, often resulting in adverse impacts on both.
• Coexistence: A conservation approach that enables humans and wildlife to share landscapes sustainably, minimizing conflict and promoting mutual well-being.