Senior tiger conservationist Dr YV Jhala explains to Asmita Sarkar how India fixed its dwindling tiger numbers by easing the big cat’s movement in natural corridors
The condition and dwindling numbers of the ferocious and big cats of India has been on the minds of many conservationists and has been the topic of many documentaries as well. In India, in the last decade, the number of tigers has gone up so much so that the 2011 tiger census showed a 30 per cent increase. The latest census began in January 2018 and it is expected that it would safely exceed 3,000.
“In the 80s and 90s, the numbers were dwindling because of international demand. We lost tigers to poaching. Around 2006, the government implemented initiatives that have been successful to a great extent in stopping that,” said Dr YV Jhala, a senior professor and scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India. “There has been an increase in numbers and they’re safer now. As long as there is demand and a market for tiger body parts, which is mostly in China and international sanctions have failed in that aspect, poaching will carry on but the birth rate now is higher than the rate of poaching,” he said.
Infrastructure and development have to some extent required relocating tigers, which Jhala said is not a problem at all as long as natural corridors are made for their movement instead of doing it artificially. “We have mastered the art of transferring tigers. If tigers are allowed to go to these areas themselves it’s better than us relocating them. It’s more effective if done through linked forests since the genetic material of the biota can be moved easily as well. You can move tigers artificially but you can’t move other biota like deer, butterfly, plants,” he added.
Revival of tiger numbers has been stable through most tiger reserves, he said except in problem areas like Palamu tiger reserve in Jharkhand, Buxa in West Bengal,Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh and Indravati in Chhatisgarh, which are affected by the Maoist insurgency.
India and Nepal are the only two countries where tiger populations have increased. “The conservation policy is working. The government has created space for tigers by giving incentives to the mostly tribal populations living in core areas to move out voluntarily by offering every adult in a family Rs 10 lakh. It is better for them too since they have access to every modern facility. Tigers and man don’t mix well at all. If they can kill cattle, they can kill humans too,” he added. The policy has worked out in Corbett, Bhadra, Kanha and most of the 50 other tiger reserves across the country.
(On July 29, International Tiger Day 2018, Sony BBC Earth will be telecasting two documentaries Return of the Tiger and Tiger-Spy in the Jungle, starting 11am)