Last Update: 4 November 2017 PART - II

Project Tiger ET- 9

Project Tiger was conceived in the nascent seventies, out of concern for Indias dwindling wilderness. Its
contribution has been substantial. Moreover, the journey through these years has been one of significant
learning, providing an insight into the involved linkages between nature conservation and sustainable
community development. This opens new avenues for a wide-based conservation effort with peoples
support. To the ecologist of today, equally and justifiably, the tiger again is a symbol of the countrys
wilderness. The flow of nutrients through the complex web of nature in the forest ecosystems, culminates in
the tiger, Micro-organisms break up plant and animal residues to form humus which accounts for soil
fertility. The resultant diverse vegetation provides food to herbivorous insects, birds and mammals, besides
conserving soil and enriching water and weather regimes. Among a host of predators and scavengers that
thrive on this productivity, the striped feline stands supreme in most of our forests.
From the cold Himalayan high altitudes forests to the steaming coastal mangroves of the Sundarbans, from
the scorched and scrublands of Rajasthan to the lush evergreens of the south, the northeast, and from the flat
teral swamps to the rolling hard grounds of the peninsula, the tiger is very much at home. The will being of
the tiger is thus synonymous with the health of the Indian wilderness.

The architects of the Project, a special Task Force of the Indian Board for Wildlife, conscious of this, thus
enunciated its objective:
1) To ensure maintenance of a viable population of tiger in India and to preserve, for all time, areas of
biological importance as a national heritage for the benefit, education and enjoyment of the people.

The Project was launched in 1973, and this concern and the direction were strongly reflected in the message
for the occasion by the then Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, who regarded it as a truly national
endeavour and observed:
2) The tiger cannot be preserved in isolation. It is at the apex of a large and complex biotope. Its
habitat, threatened by human intrusion, commercial forestry and cattle grazing, must first be made
inviolate.

Background

An estimate placed the population of tigers in India at the turn of the century at 40,000. The first ever All
India Tiger Census in 1972, however, revealed that only 1,827 survived. Even if the earlier figure was an
exaggeration, the 1972 figure projected a dismal picture.

Mounting demographic pressure, gathering momentum towards the latter part of the last century, led to
progressive diversion of wilderness to agriculture. An awakened lust for shikar among the privileged
hunters took a heavy toll of wild animals. The totalitarian controls of the colonial-feudal era, nonetheless,
prevented the masses from such indulgence. In the post-Independence period even these controls crumbled.
Private forests and village pastures were rapidly reclaimed for agriculture, direction rural pressure of small
timber, firewood and grazing to hitherto sparingly utilised reserved forests. Hunting pressures both from
villages and cities, legal and illegal, went up. This depleted the prey bases of the tiger. As prey became
scarce for carnivores, they turned to killing cattle. In return the villagers poisoned the carnivores. Such
shrinkage and depletion of the wilderness coupled with direct eliminative pressures caused all wild animal
populations, including the tiger, to dwindle. At the IUCN General Assembly in Delhi, in 1969, serious
anxiety was voiced about the threat to several rare species and wilderness areas in India. Things began to
move thereafter because of an intensifying concern, spearheaded by the Indian Board for Wildlife.

1970 will be regarded as the cut-off year in the history of nature conservation in India. Wildlife had reached
its lowest ebb by then, but at the same time the full implications of this devastation began to be felt. In 1970
a national ban on tiger hunting was clamped and in 1972 the Wildlife Protection Act came into force.

The Project
The Task Force, which was then formulating the Project, was convinced that the Project Tiger must conform
to an ecosystem approach. But almost all the prospective tiger reserves were subject to ongoing human use,
indeed overuse and abuse. Besides commercial forestry the habitat was depleted on account of overgrazing,
rampant fires, impoverished water regimes and soil erosion. Interior settlements, on the one hand,
contributed to this jeopardy while on the other, villagers suffered damage to their crops and cattle from the
wild animals.

The general scheme of the Project, therefore, involved setting up of several tiger reserves, each of which
would include a core area free from all human use and a buffer area, in which conservation-oriented land
use was to be allowed. The reserves were finally chosen so as to include as many bio-geographic types of
areas as possible in the distribution range of the tigers in the country. The other consideration was the
amenability of the specific area to concerted conservation action.

Management plans were prepared for each reserve on the following principles:
Elimination of all forms of human exploitation and disturbance from the core and rationalisation of
such activities in the buffer;
Limitation of the habitat management to repair damage done by man with the aim of restoring the
ecosystem as close to its natural functioning as possible;
Researching facts about habitat and wild animals and carefully monitoring changes in flora and fauna.
Nine tiger reserves were established in 1973-74, with the pooled resources of the Central and State
Governments. The forestry operations in the core areas were also abandoned, quickly bringing tranquility.
Fieldwork for soil and water conservation and for habitat restoration commenced simultaneously. The effort
was initially supported with vehicles, boats, wireless sets and other equipment received through WWF
assistance. Later on it became a fully national endeavour with no external financial support. Technically it
remained a religiously guarded Indian venture at all stages conception, formulation and implementation.

In the eventful years that followed, the original reserves were improved by enlarging the core and buffer
areas and upgrading their legal status. Nine new reserves, two in 1979, four in 1983, one each in 1987, 1988
and 1990 have since been added, substantially enhancing the bio-geographic coverage of the Project. The
Project in its 27 reserves now encompasses a gross area of 37,721 sq. km.

Results

The launch of Project Tiger with an ecosystem approach was in itself a landmark as this signified far-
sighted recognition by the countrys leadership of the environmental ravages and of the need for urgent
remedial action. In the tiger reserves, the intensive protection and habitat development effort registered
striking successes.

Fire protection and habitat development activity, while more intensive in the core areas, also covered the
buffer areas. Restorative management and compensatory development resulted in rapid rejuvenation of
habitat conditions in the reserves. The recovery of ground and field level vegetation was quick and
phenomenal and if one entered a reserve from other adjacent forests, the difference was too obvious to be
missed. Water regimes improved. With streams retaining their flow longer and some once-seasonal
watercourses becoming perennial. Strikingly low monsoon-silt load in the streams of the reserves as
compared to that in streams of adjacent areas signified the success of soil conservation measures. Fire
protection not only led to increased fodder availability during the lean period in summer but also to
formation of humus on the forest floor, resulting in increased organic activity, efficacious nutrient cycling
and revitalized water regimes.

The great lesson learn, in the journey through these years, is the realisation of an urgent need to restore the
productivity of the depleted multiple use surrounds of wildlife reserves, through ecological development.
This alone can usher compatibility between the reserves and the neighbouring communities, at present
struggling for subsistence. This ultimately culminated in the launching of the Eco-development
Programme, In the buffer-area of the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve in 1988-89. This in fact marks the
second phase of the Project Tiger Scheme aiming at the creation of a satisfied human buffer around the tiger
reserves. Monitoring Steering Committee constituted under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister
regularly monitored the implementation of the Project Tiger. The guidelines for regulating tourism in tiger
reserve, emphasis on the management of buffer areas, integration of local population through eco-
development programmes, establishment of Nature Interpretation Centres and Veterinary Care Centres in
the Reserves are the outcome of regular monitoring. All these new targets are yet to befully achieved, but
the setting of well defined goals reflect the future course of Project Tiger.

The above background points to the fact that the status of tiger in the country is an index of the ecological
health of our wilderness and vindicates the relevance of the Project to our effort at environmental
resurrection.

Tiger Reserves in India

SL.No. Year of Name of Tiger Reserve State Area in Tiger
Creation Sq.Km. Population
(1997)
1. 1973-74 Bandipur Karnataka 866 75
Nagarhole Karnataka 643 N.A.
2. 1973-74 Corbett Uttar Pradesh 1316 138
3. 1973-74 Kanha Madhya Pradesh 1945 114
4. 1973-74 Manas Assam 2840 125
5. 1973-74 Melghat Maharashtra 1677 73
6. 1973-74 Palamau Bihar 1026 44
7. 1973-74 Ranthambhore Rajasthan 1334 32
8. 1973-74 Simlipal Orissa 2750 98
9. 1973-74 Sundarban West Bengal 2585 263
10. 1978-79 Periyar Kerala 777 39
11. 1978-79 Sariska Rajasthan 866 24
12. 1982-83 Buxa West Bengal 759 32
13. 1982-83 Indravati Madhya Pradesh 2799 15
14. 1982-83 Nagarjunasagar Andhra Pradesh 3568 39
15. 1982-83 Namdapha Arunachal Pradesh 1985 57
16. 1987-88 Dudhwa Uttar Pradesh 811 104
Katarniaghat Uttar Pradesh 551 N.A.
17. 1988-89 Kalakad Mundanthurai Tamil Nadu 800 28
18. 1989-90 Valmiki Bihar 840 53
19. 1992-93 Pench Madhya Pradesh 758 29
20. 1993-94 Tadoba-Andheri Maharastra 620 42
21. 1993-94 Bandhavagarh Madhya Pradesh 1162 46
22. 1994-95 Panna Madhya Pradesh 542 22
23. 1994-95 Dampha Mizoram 500 5
24. 1998-99 Bhadra Karnataka 492 N.A.
25. Pakui-Nameri Assam-Arunachal 1206 N.A.
26. Bori-Satpura-Panchmari Madhya Pradesh 1486 N.A.
27. 1998-99 Pench Maharastra 257 N.A.
Total 37761 1458

POPULATION OF TIGER IN THE COUNTRY

Sl.No. State/Union Territories TIGERS
 1972 1979 1984 1989 1993 1997
01. Andhra Pradesh 35 148 164 235 197 183
02. Assam 147 300 376 376 325 125
03. Bihar 85 110 138 157 137 -
04. Gujrat 8 7 9 9 5 1
05. Haryana - - 1 - - -
06. Himachal Pradesh - - - - -
07. Jammu & Kashmir - - - - -
08. Karnataka 102 156 202 257 305 395
09. Kerala 60 134 89 45 57 68
10. Madhya Pradesh 457 529 786 985 912 927
11. Manipur 1 10 6 31 * -
12. Meghalaya 32 35 125 34 53 63
13. Nagaland 80 102 104 104 83 -
14. Orissa 142 173 202 243 226 194
15. Punjab - - - - -
16. Rajashthan 74 79 96 99 64 58
17. Sikkim - - 2 4 2 4
18. Tamil Nadu 33 65 97 95 97 -
19. Tripura 7 6 5 - - -
20. Uttar Pradesh 262 487 698 735 465 475
21. West Bengal 73 296 352 353 335 361
22. Arunachal Pradesh 69 139 219 135 180 57
23. Goa, Daman & Diu - - - 2 3 6
24. Mizoram - 65 33 18 28 12
25. Andaman & Nicobar Island - - - - -
26. Dadra & Nagar Haveli - - - - -
27. Maharastra 160 174 301 417 276 257
28. Lakshadweep - - - - -
29. Chandigarh - - - - -
30. Delhi - - - - -
31. Pondichery - - - - -
Total : 1827 3015 4005 4334 3750 3186
Census could not conducted during 1993.