Most of the protected areas of the big cats are saturated; robust conflict management be put in place 

Big cats are dispersing in new territories from their secured occupancy areas in India. Wildlife conservation is a practice to protect flora and fauna and their prime habitats. Today, 987 protected areas in India (national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, conservation reserves and community reserves), cover about 5.3 per cent of the nation’s geographical areas.

These protected areas include five Asiatic Lion Reserves in Gujarat, 52 Tiger Reserves in 18 states and 385 protected areas in 30 leopard states and Union Territories. Status of key wildlife species or apex predator as part of habitat is an indicator of health and resilience of natural ecosystems. Today, Management effectiveness evaluation indicates that the majority of the protected areas have poor conservation status due to intense biotic pressure, including progressing human-encroachment and inadequate management inputs.

In India, management effectiveness achieved high standards in about one-tenth of the protected areas, which support fascinating mega-species such as tigers, Asiatic lions, elephants, rhinoceros and a few other critically endangered species. In fact, management and financial inputs in these protected areas are much higher than the rest of similar regions in the country.

Globally, there are seven big cats – tiger, lion, jaguar, puma, leopard, cheetah, and snow leopard. Tiger, lion, leopard, and snow leopard are found in India.

Introduction of the fifth big cat Cheetah in India in Rajasthan and Kuna National Park in Madhya Pradesh is at an advanced stage. Large scale poaching two decades ago had impacted tiger and leopard, but the constitution of the National Tiger Conservation Authority and National Wildlife Crime Bureau in 2006 provided effective support to their protection.

Numbers of big cats have declined consistently in Africa and Asia, but India has reversed the trend successfully by providing strict protection and secured habitats to them. In Asia, the number of big cats crashed in all countries, but increased in India.

Despite high human density and biotic pressure, the number of lions, tigers and leopards increased consistently in their secured habitats and started dispersing in new areas after their saturation in some of the Big Cat Reserves. At present, an Asiatic lion is found only in Gujarat in India, although Asia Minor was prime land for this royal predator 150 years ago.

In 2018, out of the global population of 3,850 tigers, about 2,960 were found in India and the rest of 850 individuals in over a dozen Asian countries. Similarly, out of 22,000 Asiatic leopards belonging to eight sub-species, 18,000 adult and sub-adult of the Indian leopards were estimated in India and the rest of 4,000 leopards in about three dozen countries in Asia.

Outcome of the focused conservation practices in Gir Lion Conservation Landscape is apparent. Asiatic lions had a single population in the world and its number was low, about 170 individuals in the 1960s. After the declaration of Gir Wildlife Sanctuary in 1965, there has been consistent focused conservation activities during the last five decades. Settlement of about two-third of maldharis, cattle rearing community, outside the Gir forests laid the foundation for recovery of wildlife ungulates there. As a result, the lion's number increased consistently and reached over 700 individuals in 2022 (676 lions in 2020).

Although the state government has expanded Lion Reserves and constituted five protected areas for lion conservation, its distribution range expanded beyond such zones from about 5,000 sq. km in the 1970s to over 16,000 sq. km. in five districts. At present, the number of lions outside the Gir Wildlife Protected Areas is more than the number within their boundaries.

Leopard population has also increased there. Over 1,350 big cats (lions and leopards) in the Lion Conservation Landscape in the four districts in Saurashtra have thrown a big challenge to management. With such a high concentration of big cats, man-leopard conflicts in the landscape are obvious, although a strong man-wildlife conflict response system has been placed there. Observing the present trend of lion’s dispersion, the Government has planned to launch “The Project Lion” for the long term (2022-2047) by securing and consolidating habitats and protecting lions in the expanding distribution range in 10 districts of Saurashtra.

Tiger conservation had ups and downs since the declaration of the Project Tiger in 1973. A large-scale poaching impacted the tiger. The supreme cat disappeared from a few of the tiger reserves and its number declined in other reserves. About 1,600 sub-adult and adult tigers (1411 in surveyed areas) were estimated in 2006. After the constitution of National Tiger Conservation Authority and National Wildlife Crime Bureau in 2006, scale of poaching was contained and tiger conservation was re-focused by expanding and consolidating tiger reserves. At present, tiger conservation activities intensified in 52 tiger reserves and compactness of the habitats improved by translocation and resettlement of villages from inside the core areas to other areas.

In 2018, about 2960 adult and sub-adult tigers were estimated in India which was about three-fourth of the global tiger population. Present ongoing counting of tiger, co-predators and prey using camera image capture and recapture method in 2022 indicates that tigers’ number has further improved. At present tiger occupancy area is over 89,000 sq. km. of the prime forests in 18 states of India.

The Indian leopard, the smartest big cat, exploited various development and conservation activities, including creation of a network of medium and minor irrigation dams, expansion of sugar-cane cultivation and tea-garden. Its number has consistently increased in 28 states and two Union Territories. In 2018, about 12,850 adult and sub-adult leopards were estimated in tiger landscapes in 18 tiger states.

If its number from all habitats in all leopard states and Union Territories are accounted for, the actual population would be over 18,000 adult and sub-adult leopards in India. In fact, only about one-third of the leopard population occurs in the protected areas in the countries and the rest in other forests and non-forests areas. It has been reported that a substantial number of the leopards breed in tea gardens, sugarcane fields, and prosopis thickets across the country. The present occupancy area of the Indian leopard may be over 310,000 sq. km., higher than the previous estimates.

One and a half dozen Tiger Reserves and five Lion Reserves in India are saturated with a number of super cats. Tigers and lions are dispersing in new areas, but getting suitable habitats to accommodate increasing numbers is a limitation. Another dark side of wildlife conservation is that the best forests in North East India and Dandakarany in four states - Chhatishgadh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Telangana have poor populations of tiger, leopard and other wildlife.

The Naxalite movement in these four states has depleted wildlife. If these areas are restored to their previous glory, it may not be difficult to manage a good number of tigers and leopards in India. If the present trend of recovery of the three big cats continues, securing and managing 1,000 Asiatic lions, 5,000 tigers and 25,000 Indian leopards in the Indian jungle is possible under intensive conservation and protection activities, although man-wildlife conflicts would turn into a serious management challenge.

To address emerging management challenges of man-wildlife conflict, a strong conflict response system needs to be placed in the areas.

(The author is a retired Indian Forest Service officer, and Gujarat State Member, National Board for Wild Life.)