At a time, when man-tiger conflicts are increasing across the country with perpetual loss of habitat areas, a study conducted by University of Kent, UK, has revealed that the major forest dwelling community of Gujjars in the Terai Arc landscape (one of the prolific big cat areas in the world), is willing to shift out of their traditional forest homes.
This result has opened up new potentials for recovery of wild tiger population. While evaluating the ecological and habitat needs of wildlife in the region along with addressing the socio-economic needs and priorities of the Gujjars, the research has suggested that recovery of wild tiger populations can be achieved up to about 68 per cent.
The study called, “Identifying realistic recovery targets and conservation actions for tigers in a human-dominated landscape using spatially explicit densities of wild prey and their determinants “was conducted in the Western Terai Arc landscape, of the country. The research team includes Bibhash Pandav from Wildlife Institute of India (WII) besides Abishek Harihar and Douglas C. MacMillan from Durrell Institute for Conservation and Ecology , University of Kent. The study has been conducted in two parts.
In the first part of the research, the team found that by reintroducing tigers into the section of the landscape that lacks connectivity to high density tiger populations, there was the potential to increase tiger populations substantially. This should however be compounded with targeted actions to recover important tiger prey base species at specific sites across the landscape,
The Terai-Arc landscape, including the protected areas of Corbett Tiger Reserve and Rajaji National Park is fragmented into two disjunct units identified as Tiger Habitat Blocks, with poor or no connectivity because of anthropogenic disturbances.
The results from the second part following from the observations of the first came out with encouraging results. The study shows “an overwhelming preference” among Gujjars households interviewed for resettlement outside the forests. This signaled an unexpected opportunity to expand inviolate habitat for tigers in a specific human-dominated landscape by meeting larger livelihood issues for local people, such as better access to education and health services, the study says.
“With targets to double tiger numbers by 2,022, the study can mark a significant change in planning tiger conservation strategy in India and even across other tiger range countries as well. likewise, it can provide an objective framework for conservationists and policy makers to focus their conservation priorities on ways to delineate inviolate core and areas of coexistence, says Principal Researcher, Abishek Harihar.
Even if not for other tiger range countries, the study (at least in this case) has established that policy makers have the potential to create a win-win solution for both tigers and local communities, in such cases of relocation, said the experts.