Government taking measures to reduce human-tiger negative interactions

Pashu Sandesh, 10 December 2019

Government is adopting a 3 pronged strategy to manage human-tiger negative interactions. This information was provided by Minister of State, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Babul Supriyo in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha. The strategy adopted by the Government is as follows:-

• Material and logistical support: Funding support through the ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger, is provided to tiger reserves for acquiring capacity in terms of infrastructure and material, to deal with tigers dispersing out of source areas.  These are solicited by tiger reserves through an Annual Plan of Operation (APO) every year which stems out from an overarching Tiger Conservation Plan (TCP), mandated under Section 38 V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.  Inter alia, activities such as payment of exgratia and compensation, periodic awareness campaigns to sensitize, guide and advise the general populace on man-animal conflict, dissemination of information through various forms of media, procurement of immobilization equipment, drugs, training and capacity building of forest staff to deal with conflict events are generally solicited. 

• Restricting habitat interventions: Based on the carrying capacity of tigers in a tiger reserve, habitat interventions are restricted through an overarching TCP.  In case tiger numbers are at carrying capacity levels, it is advised that habitat interventions should be limited so that there is no excessive spillover of wildlife including tigers thereby minimizing man-animal conflict.  Further, in buffer areas around tiger reserves, habitat interventions are restricted such that they are sub-optimal vis-à-vis the core/critical tiger habitat areas, judicious enough to facilitate dispersal to other rich habitat areas only.

• Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs): The National Tiger Conservation Authority has issued the following three SOPs to deal with man-animal conflict which is available in public domain:
• To deal with emergency arising due to straying of tigers in human-dominated landscapes
• To deal with tiger depredation on livestock
• For active management towards the rehabilitation of tigers from source areas at the landscape level.

The three SOPs inter alia include the issue of managing dispersing tigers, managing livestock kills so as to reduce conflict as well as relocating tigers from source areas to areas where the density of tiger is low so that conflict in rich source areas does not occur.

In technical collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India,  the National Tiger Conservation Authority has also published a document titled ‘Eco-Friendly measures to mitigate impacts of Linear infrastructure on wildlife’ to safeguard these corridors from linear infrastructure development besides sensitizing user agencies which inter alia include Indian Railway Traffic Service Probationers, National Highways Authority of India personnel, Indian Railway Engineers, besides others.

An amount of Rs. 370 crores, Rs. 345 crores and Rs. 350 crores were allocated during the financial years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 respectively, while an amount of Rs. 350 crores have been allocated for the current financial year under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger.