In 2006, India had around 1411 tigers. This figure rose to 3682 tigers in 2022. According to the NTCA, over 1/3 of tigers live outside tiger reserves. In certain areas, there are more tigers outside reserves than inside the core areas of reserves.
Around 200 years ago, India had over 50,000 tigers. The tiger habitat at that time was not fragmented into small patches of tiger reserves. There were healthy corridors connecting dense habitats of tigers.
However, the colonial policies of the British Raj led to ruthless exploitation of forests for timber and infrastructure development. When forests are gone, and forests get fragmented, the tiger populations get isolated into small patches of forests.
After Independence, Project Tiger was launched in 1973 with an aim to revive the tiger population in India. The project mainly focused on protecting the remaining refuges of tigers in the form of Tiger reserves.
The tiger reserves were based on the concept of core and buffer areas. The core areas are completely prohibited zones for development activities, and their sole purpose is to create inviolate spaces for tigers. The buffer areas are multi-purpose zones where some development activities are allowed, without disturbing the main aim of conservation of tiger habitat.
The core areas of tiger reserves became a good breeding ground for tigers in India. The tiger population rose from 1411 in 2006 to 3682 in 2022. These core areas became so successful that tigers started to disperse outside the core areas in search of space and resources.
Read Also: From Kuno to Gandhi Sagar: India Studies How Cheetahs Coexist with Other Predators
Today, India has around 70% of the world’s tigers. Some of the tiger reserves are overflowing, and tigers are moving into buffer zones and adjoining territorial forests.
In certain areas, Tigers have also adapted well to live outside core areas in human-dominated landscapes. For instance, the Bhopal-Ratapani-Kheoni landscape has more than 96 tigers. Most of these tigers have adapted to fragmented landscapes and human presence. These tigers have adapted by becoming nocturnal, and so they are often called Urban Tigers of Bhopal.
However, when tigers disperse out of tiger reserves, it also creates situations of conflict and danger of tiger mortality due to poaching, accidents or human-tiger conflict. Between 2014 and 2019, over 225 people lost their lives due to tiger attacks. Most of these attacks happened outside tiger reserves, where tigers were searching for their lost territory.
To protect the increasing population of tigers in India, we have to move beyond the core-buffer approach to a core-buffer-corridor approach. We need to protect the habitat quality of corridor areas connecting our tiger reserves.
With healthy corridors, the core and buffer areas of reserves will act as sources of metapopulation of tigers, and corridors will provide quality habitat to dispersing tigers.
We need a landscape approach, where tigers can move freely between tiger reserves, and this needs our intervention in the protection of corridors between tiger reserves. For instance, in the Khana-Pench corridor there are many villages and road infrastructure that restrict the movement of tigers. The radio-collar studies show that tigers still use this corridor, but there are bottlenecks in the form of state and national highways and rising biotic pressure.
If we could relocate some villages from these corridor areas and provide mitigation structures over roads and highways, we can conserve the whole landscape where there would be ample space for dispersing tigers.
The Connecting Tigers report by NTCA identifies around 72 corridors to connect the major breeding populations of tigers in India. In MP alone, there are around 13 major corridors that need protection and mitigation measures.
So, we need a shift in mindset about tiger protection. We need a landscape and metapopulation approach, where tiger reserves serve as healthy breeding grounds, and adjoining and corridor territorial forests and some revenue areas provide passage for tiger movement and space for temporary shelter.
The MoEFCC has also launched the Tiger Outside Tiger Reserve initiative with an initial focus on around 40 major territorial divisions. Territorial divisions should not just focus on green cover and plantations, but rather on rejuvenating the habitat which can sustain a healthy prey base and allow healthy tiger movement.
So, India can protect tigers outside tiger reserves by raising social conscience about tigers’ importance in ecological balance, taking steps to reduce wildlife conflict, implementing robust compensation schemes in case of conflict and protecting the corridors between tiger reserves. The Bhopal Urban Tiger project is a classic case study to show that it is completely possible to conserve a healthy tiger population in human-dominated landscapes.
Read Also: How Goat Farming Can Protect Small Farmers from Economic Shocks
