Conservation of Tigers in

India

Sourabh Anand (10BCE0390)

Rishav Verma (10BCE0541)
 Tiger

 Member of Felidae family

 Native to much of eastern and southern Asia
 3.3 m in length and 300kgs in weight
 Life span – 10 to 15 years
 Historically, existed from Mesopotamia and
the Caucasus to East Asia
 Today only 7% of original habitat left
Extinct Subspecies
Bali tiger (Panthera tigris balica)
•limited to Bali
•Smallest of all tiger species

Javan Tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica)

•Limited to Indonesian island of Java

Caspian tiger (Panthera tigris virgata)

•Also known as Persian tiger or Turanian tiger
•Found in the Mid-East and Central Asia
Endangered status
•Poached for body parts to cater to illegal
markets

•Habitat loss due to depletion of forest cover

•In early 1900s, there were 40,000 tigers but now

only 1400s are left
Why Save Tigers?
•Well being of ecosystem
•To maintain life-support system
•Carnivores at the apex of food chain
•Acts as an umbrella species for
conserving biodiversity of forested
ecosystems
Questions relevant for Tiger
Conservation

•State of tiger habitat

•Population trend of tigers
•How many tigers left?
•Areas where population of tigers is
decreasing and why?
•What measures to be taken?
Method for Tiger census
•Pugmark census, followed since 1970
•Census is taken every 4 years
•Obtaining pugmark tracings, plaster casts and
Gait measurements
•Creating records and databases on this basis
•Continuous monitoring of individual tigers over
time
Project Tiger
•Under implementation since 1973 as
sponsored scheme of Govt. of India
•27 tiger reserves, covering area of
37,761 sq. km (1.14% of national
area)
•Population of 1498 tigers
•9th plan allocates 75 crores to Project Tiger
•Elimination of all forms of human exploitation
•Researching facts about habitats and wild animals
•Carefully monitoring flora and fauna
 Tiger Reserves
Name Year State area (in sq. km)
•Corbett 1973 Uttarakhand 821
•Kanha 1973 Madhya Pradesh 917
•Palamu 1973 Jharkhand 414
•Valmiki 1989 Bihar 840
•Dudhwa 1987 Uttar Pradesh 1094
•Sariska 1978 Rajasthan 681
•Nagarjuna sagar 1982 Andhra Pradesh 2527
•Mudumalai 2008 Tamil Nadu 321
Positive Signs of Project
Tiger
•Professionally prepared management plans implemented
with little deviations

•Anti-poaching camps and daily monitoring

•Evaluations based on IUCN standards

•Efficient networking with police, district administration and

other agencies
Concerns of Project Tiger
•Late release of central assistance, from
states to reserves

•Reduced manpower: ban on recruitment

resulting in vacancies and increasing
average age of staff

•Aging vehicles and equipments and

inadequate logistics
•Insurgency in Indravati, Nagarjuna sagar,
Manas, Palamu tiger reserves

•Loss of connectivity and fragmentation

in areas surrounding tiger resreves
Future
•Sustainable landscapes, rather than sustainable
management of protected areas

•Cadre building in forestry for human resource improvement

and specialisation

•Newer technologies for specific purposes, rather than

traditional ones
Refernces
wikipedia.org
projecttiger.nic.in
indianwildlifeportal.com
wildindia.com