Project Tiger

Topic: Biodiversity and its Conservation · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 1 "Geographical Diversity of India"; Class 10, Ch 2 "Forest and Wildlife Resources"; Class 11, Ch 5 "Natural Vegetation"

Meaning

Project Tiger is a central government scheme. It was launched in 1973 with 9 tiger reserves to save the tiger and the large natural habitats it lives in. It matters because the tiger is an umbrella species, so protecting tiger land also protects forests, water sources and many other plants and animals. India now has 58 tiger reserves covering 84,487.83 sq km [2].

Explanation

Why it was needed (cause → result)

• Tigers fell sharply in number:
• Around 1900, India had about 55,000 tigers.

• By 1973, only 1,827 were left.

• Causes of the fall:

• Poaching (illegal hunting) for skins and bones. The bones are used in traditional Asian medicine.
• Shrinking habitat, as forests were cleared for farms, towns and projects.
• Less prey, because deer and wild pig were also hunted.

• A growing human population moving into forests.

• Why India mattered most: at that time, India and Nepal together held about two-thirds of the world's wild tigers. If India failed, the species could be lost.

The idea: save the habitat, not just the animal

• The aim was to protect "biotypes of sizeable magnitude".

• Biotype here means a whole natural habitat: its plants, its animals and the links between them.

• Umbrella species: an animal that needs a very large area. If you protect it, you also protect everything else living in that area.

• A tiger needs a big forest.
• That forest also shelters deer, elephants, birds, insects and plants.
• The water sources and soils of the area are protected too.

Parts of a tiger reserve

• Core area (also called critical tiger habitat):
• Kept free of human use. It is only for wildlife.

• Total core area in India: 46,701.29 sq km [2].

• Buffer area:

• The ring of land around the core. Some human use is allowed, and local people live here.
• It takes pressure off the core.

• Total buffer area: 37,786.54 sq km [2].

• Core + buffer = 84,487.83 sq km [2]. NCERT calls this figure "core habitat", but it is really the core and buffer added together.

Who runs it and how it is checked

• National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA): a statutory body (a body created by an Act of Parliament) that runs Project Tiger.
• It was set up under Section 38L(1) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. This section was added by the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2006 [7].
• It came into force on 4 September 2006 [7].

• Chairperson: the Union Environment Minister. Vice-Chairperson: the Minister of State for Environment. Three Members of Parliament are also members [7].

• What NTCA does:

• Approves the Tiger Conservation Plan that every reserve must prepare.
• Runs the Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE), a regular check that scores how well each reserve is managed (protection, staff, funds, relations with local people).

• Runs the All India Tiger Estimation (AITE) together with the Wildlife Institute of India.

• All India Tiger Estimation: a national tiger count held every 4 years.

• Camera traps (cameras fixed on trees that take a photo when an animal walks past) photograph tigers.
• Every tiger's stripe pattern is unique, like a fingerprint, so each one can be counted.
• Pugmarks (paw prints), scat (droppings) and prey surveys are also used.

Year	Tigers
1973	1,827
2006	1,411
2018	2,967
2022	3,682 (mean); 3,167 (minimum)

• In the 2022 count, tiger numbers grew by 6.1% a year [3]. India now has about 75% of the world's wild tigers.

Where it occurs

• Operates across India. It is run by the NTCA under the Union Environment Ministry. It started in 1973 and got its legal backing in 2006 [7].
• The first nine reserves (1973), 16,339 sq km:
• Corbett, Uttarakhand: Shivalik foothills, on the Ramganga river.
• Manas, Assam: foothills on the Bhutan border, on the Manas river (a tributary of the Brahmaputra).
• Melghat, Maharashtra: Satpura hills, Amravati district.
• Palamau, Jharkhand: Chota Nagpur plateau.
• Ranthambore, Rajasthan: where the Aravallis meet the Vindhyas.
• Similipal, Odisha: Mayurbhanj district.
• Sundarbans, West Bengal: mangrove delta of the Ganga–Brahmaputra.
• Kanha, Madhya Pradesh: Maikal hills.

• Bandipur, Karnataka: Western Ghats–Nilgiri area.

• Newest reserves:

• 56th: Guru Ghasidas–Tamor Pingla, Chhattisgarh (2024) [2][4]
• 57th: Ratapani, Madhya Pradesh (2024) [2][5]

• 58th: Madhav, Madhya Pradesh (2025) [2]

• Top tiger states (2022): Madhya Pradesh 785, Karnataka 563, Uttarakhand 560, Maharashtra 444 [3].

• Key case studies:
• Sariska (Aravalli hills, Alwar, Rajasthan): all its tigers were poached by 2004–05. In 2008 it was restocked with tigers from Ranthambore. This was India's first tiger relocation.
• Manas (Assam): a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985. It was on the "in danger" list from 1992 to 2011 because of armed conflict, and its rhinos were wiped out by 2001 [6]. It is home to the golden langur and the pygmy hog.
• Periyar (Idukki and Pathanamthitta, Kerala): lies around the lake of the Mullaperiyar dam (1895). It runs community ecotourism that employs former poachers as guides.

Don't confuse with

• Core area vs total reserve area: the 84,487.83 sq km figure is core + buffer. The core alone is only 46,701.29 sq km [2].
• NTCA vs Project Tiger: Project Tiger is the 1973 scheme. The NTCA is the statutory body created in 2006 to run it [7].
• Year of count vs year of release: the 3,682 figure comes from the 2022 count cycle (AITE 2022) [3]. It is not a "2023 count".
• First nine reserves vs NCERT examples: Bandhavgarh, Sariska and Periyar are named in the Class 10 text, but they were not among the first nine reserves of 1973.

Prelims Hooks

• Project Tiger: 1973, started with 9 reserves (16,339 sq km). Today there are 58 reserves covering 84,487.83 sq km [2].
• NTCA: created under Section 38L, WPA 1972, by the 2006 amendment, on 4 September 2006. The chair is the Union Environment Minister, not the Prime Minister [7].
• AITE 2022: 3,682 (mean) / 3,167 (minimum). Order of states: MP (785) > Karnataka (563) > Uttarakhand (560) > Maharashtra (444) [3].
• Trap: the Western Ghats showed declines in 2022, while central India and the Shivalik–Gangetic plains gained [3].
• Latest reserves: 56th Guru Ghasidas–Tamor Pingla (Chhattisgarh), 57th Ratapani (MP), 58th Madhav (MP) [2][4][5].
• Original reserve–state pairs: Palamau → Jharkhand; Similipal → Odisha; Melghat → Maharashtra; Bandipur → Karnataka.

Mains Points

• A crisis led to reform (GS-III):
• Sariska lost all its tigers in 2004–05. This led to the Tiger Task Force (2005) [8].
• The Task Force asked for legal powers for Project Tiger and a Wildlife Crime Control Bureau. This produced the statutory NTCA in 2006 [7][8].

• Tiger numbers then rose from 1,411 (2006) to 3,682 (2022), about 6.1% a year [3].

• Recovery is uneven across regions:

• Gains are concentrated in central India and the Shivalik–Gangetic plains.
• The Western Ghats and parts of the North-East (Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh) show declines or low numbers [3].

• Policy needs corridors (forest strips linking reserves, which stop small groups from becoming inbred), wildlife crossings on roads and railways, and fair voluntary relocation of villages [8].

• People decide whether conservation lasts:

• Armed conflict in Manas wiped out its rhinos [6]. Periyar's ecotourism with former poachers and the Sariska villagers' fight against mining show that local communities can protect forests.
• Human–tiger conflict in the Sundarbans (honey collectors and fishers), the Terai (dense villages below the Himalaya) and central India (tigers moving into farmland) is the main challenge ahead.
• Protecting 84,487.83 sq km of tiger land [2] also protects watersheds and carbon stocks. This supports India's 30×30 target under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (2022).

Related concepts

• National Tiger Conservation Authority
• All India Tiger Estimation
• Sariska Tiger Reserve
• Manas Tiger Reserve
• Periyar Tiger Reserve

Read more

• Project Tiger and the tiger reserves