Rehabilitation of Communities Involved in Traditional Hunting outside Tiger Reserves

Year End Review
Ministry of Environment and Forests
Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Monday, December 29, 2008

National Tiger Conservation Authority is strengthening anti-poaching activities, including special strategy for monsoon patrolling, by providing funding support to Tiger Reserve States, as proposed by them, for deployment of anti-poaching squads involving ex-army personnel / home guards, apart from workforce comprising of local people, in addition to strengthening of communication / wireless facilities.

The revised Project Tiger guidelines have been issued to States for strengthening tiger conservation, which apart from ongoing activities, interalia, include funding support to States for enhanced village relocation/rehabilitation package for people living in core or critical tiger habitats (from Rs. 1 lakh/family to Rs. 10 lakhs/family), rehabilitation/resettlement of communities involved in traditional hunting, mainstreaming livelihood and wildlife concerns in forests outside tiger reserves and fostering corridor conservation through restorative strategy to arrest habitat fragmentation.

An area of 26749.097 sq.km. has been notified by 14 Tiger States (out of 17) as core or critical tiger habitat under section 38V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended in 2006 (AP, Arunachal, Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Orissa and West Bengal). Three tiger States (Bihar, Chhattisgarh and UP) have taken a decision for notifying the core or critical tiger habitats (4264.282 sq.km.). The State of Madhya Pradesh has not identified/notified the core/critical tiger habitat in its newly constituted tiger reserve (Sanjay National Park and Sanjay Dubri Wildlife Sanctuary).

Memorandum of Understanding developed for better/concerted implementation of conservation inputs through tiger reserve States.

A scientific methodology for estimating tiger (including copredators, prey animals and assessment of habitat status) has been evolved and mainstreamed. The findings of this estimation/assessment are bench marks for future tiger conservation strategy.

Intervention made in CITES for suggesting benchmark for restricting captive breeding of tigers to a level supportive to wild tiger conservation.

As a part of “active management” initiative to strengthen wild tiger conservation, a male tiger and a tigress have been reintroduced in the Sariska Tiger Reserve (Rajasthan), based on a recovery strategy suggested by the Wildlife Institute of India. The tigers are being closely monitored by radio telemetry.

The policy initiatives announced by the Finance Minister in his Budget Speech of 29.2.2008, interalia, contains action points relating to tiger protection. A one time grant of Rs. 50.00 crores has been provided to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for raising, arming and deploying a Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF). The proposal, finalized on the basis of discussion with States, other enforcement agencies and MHA, has been discussed in the EFC meeting.

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