Centre to introduce guidelines on relocation of tigers soon
Union environment ministry officials said success with the tiger relocation could be replicated elsewhere.
India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority will soon come out with guidelines or standard operating procedures (SOP) for the reintroduction of tigers that can used by other Tiger Range Countries, environment ministry officials said on Friday, hours after environment minister Bhupender Yadav spoke at the 4th Asia Ministerial Conference on tiger conservation organised by Malaysia and coordinated by the Global Tiger Forum.
Yadav said in his address that India achieved a remarkable feat by country’s doubling the tiger population from 2006 in 2018, fours years ahead of its goal. He said that the budgetary allocation for tiger conservation has increased from ₹185 crore in 2014 to ₹300 crore in 2022, and added that a Project Tiger-like model was being replicated for the lion, dolphin, leopard, snow leopard and other small wildcats, while the country is on the threshold of introducing cheetah in its historical range.
Ministry officials said success with the tiger relocation could be replicated elsewhere.
“We have successfully translocated a tiger in the western part of Rajaji Tiger Reserve last year. Similar reintroduction has been planned for Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. The SOP will be shared with all Tiger Range Countries,” said a senior environment ministry official who asked not o be named.
The Conservation Assured |Tiger Standards (CA|TS) accreditation has been already awarded to 14 tiger reserves in India (Manas, Kaziranga, Orang, Satpura, Pench, Kanha, Panna, Valmiki, Dudhwa, Parambikulam, Mudumalai, Bandipur, Anamalai and Sundarbans). CA|TS is a set of criteria which allows tiger sites to check if their management will lead to successful tiger conservation as per the international standards. Other than India, only one tiger reserve each in Russia and Nepal, and two in Bhutan have the CAITS status.
The 12 TRCs other than India are Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bhutan, Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, China, Malaysia, Russia, Nepal and Myanmar.
India has the highest number of tigers in the wild-- 2,967 tigers, or seven out of every 10 in the world, according to the All India Tiger Estimation Results released in 2019. The number reflects a 33% increase over 2014 when there were 2,226 tigers in the country.
