Tiger reserve

Geography glossary

Also called: Critical tiger habitat · Topic: Biodiversity and its Conservation · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

A tiger reserve is an area notified by the State Government, on the advice of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), under Section 38V of the Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972, to protect tigers and their habitat. It has two parts. The first is an inviolate core, called the critical tiger habitat (an area kept free of human use). The second is a buffer zone around the core, where people and wildlife share the land.

Tiger reserves form the base of Project Tiger (1973). India's tiger count rose from 1,411 (2006) to 3,682 (2022), which is about 75% of the world's wild tigers.

Explanation

Why tiger reserves were needed (cause → response → result)

  • Cause: tigers were dying out
  • There were about 55,000 tigers around 1900. By 1973 only 1,827 were left.

  • The causes were poaching for skins and bones (used in traditional Asian medicine), shrinking habitat, less prey and a growing human population.

  • Response: protect the whole habitat, not just the animal

  • Project Tiger (1973) set out to protect whole "biotypes", meaning complete living habitats.

  • The tiger is an umbrella species (an animal whose large home range covers many other species). Saving the tiger's forest also saves the deer, birds, plants and rivers in it.

  • Result: a network of reserves

  • There were 9 reserves (16,339 sq km) in 1973.
  • Today there are 58 reserves with 84,487 sq km of core area (verify current).

The two zones

  • Core or critical tiger habitat
  • This is the strictly protected inner zone. It is chosen on scientific grounds and kept inviolate (free of human settlement and use).
  • It is often made up of existing national parks and sanctuaries.

  • People living inside may be moved out, but only voluntarily, with consent and compensation. Since Project Tiger began, 257 villages have been relocated. About 591 villages with 64,801 families are still inside notified cores.

  • Buffer zone

  • This is the land around the core. Habitat protection here is lighter.
  • Local people keep their livelihoods, and the zone absorbs pressure before it reaches the core.
  • It also lets tigers spread out of the core.

Who runs it: the institutional set-up

  • NTCA
  • A statutory body created by the 2006 amendment to the Wildlife Act. It is chaired by the Environment Minister.

  • It approves each reserve's tiger conservation plan and audits how reserves are managed.

  • State Government

  • Formally notifies the reserve and manages it through its Forest Department.

  • All India Tiger Estimation

  • A tiger count done every 4 years using camera traps.
  • 1,411 (2006) → 2,967 (2018) → 3,682 (2022; minimum 3,167).
  • Madhya Pradesh has the most tigers, followed by Karnataka and Uttarakhand.

What a reserve needs to work

  • Enough prey. Tigers will not stay where food is short. A 2022 report found that Buxa had a low number of wild prey animals.
  • Freedom from poaching. Sariska lost all its tigers to poaching by 2004–05.
  • Corridors. Tigers need safe strips of forest so they can move between reserves.
  • Restocking where tigers have vanished. Tigers can be moved in from other reserves:
  • Sariska was restocked from Ranthambhore.
  • Panna was restocked from Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Pench.

Where it occurs

  • The first nine reserves (1973):
  • Corbett (Uttarakhand)
  • Manas (Assam)
  • Melghat (Maharashtra)
  • Palamau (Jharkhand)
  • Ranthambore (Rajasthan)
  • Similipal (Odisha)
  • Sundarbans (West Bengal)
  • Kanha (Madhya Pradesh)

  • Bandipur (Karnataka)

  • Notable reserves:

  • Corbett: India's first national park (1936, as Hailey National Park) and the place where Project Tiger was launched.
  • Sundarbans: a mangrove reserve whose tigers swim in salt water.
  • Similipal (Mayurbhanj, Odisha): known for black (melanistic) tigers.
  • Manas (Assam, on the Bhutan border): a World Heritage Site that was on the danger list from 1992 to 2011.
  • Kaziranga (Assam): became a tiger reserve in 2006.
  • Sariska (Aravallis, Alwar, Rajasthan): in 2008 it received India's first tiger relocation, with tigers moved in from Ranthambore.
  • Panna (Madhya Pradesh): tigers were brought back after 2009.
  • Periyar (Idukki and Pathanamthitta, Kerala): lies around the Mullaperiyar dam lake.
  • Sathyamangalam: in Erode district, Tamil Nadu.

  • Buxa (West Bengal): its tigers went unrecorded for nearly three decades. It is now receiving tigers from Valmiki Tiger Reserve, Bihar.

  • World: India and Nepal once held about two-thirds of the world's wild tigers. India now holds about 75%.

Don't confuse with

  • Biosphere reserve: a UNESCO Man and the Biosphere idea, run in India as a central government scheme. It has three zones (core, buffer and transition) and is not declared under the Wildlife Act. A tiger reserve is notified under the Wildlife Act (Chapter IV-B).
  • National park / wildlife sanctuary: these are separate protected-area categories under the Wildlife Act. A tiger reserve is a larger layer drawn over them, with a core and a buffer. Its core often contains national parks or sanctuaries.
  • Eco-sensitive zone: a buffer of up to 10 km around any protected area, notified under the Environment (Protection) Act 1986. A tiger reserve's buffer zone comes under the Wildlife Act.
  • Critical tiger habitat vs tiger reserve: the critical tiger habitat is only the core of a reserve. The reserve is the core plus the buffer.

Prelims Hooks

  • The State Government notifies a tiger reserve on NTCA's advice. The NTCA does not notify reserves itself.
  • The NTCA became a statutory body through the 2006 amendment to the Wildlife Act. It is chaired by the Environment Minister.
  • Project Tiger began in 1973 with 9 reserves. The first was Corbett, and there are now 58 (verify current).
  • Tiger count: 3,682 (2022). States with the most tigers, in order: Madhya Pradesh > Karnataka > Uttarakhand.
  • Reserve–feature pairs:
  • Similipal: black tigers
  • Sundarbans: mangrove tigers
  • Sariska: first relocation (2008, from Ranthambore)

  • Manas: World Heritage Site on the Bhutan border

  • Trap: tiger = Endangered on the IUCN Red List and in Schedule I of the Wildlife Act. These are two separate lists.

Mains Points

  • Successes: the umbrella-species approach protects whole ecosystems. Tiger numbers have more than doubled since 2006 (1,411 → 3,682). Sariska and Panna show that a reserve can be restocked after its tigers are lost.
  • Limits:
  • Poaching wiped out Sariska's tigers.
  • Reserves have weak prey bases and too few staff, as in Buxa.
  • Tigers need corridors to move between reserves.
  • Human–tiger conflict on the edges of reserves.

  • Unregulated tourism buildings inside reserves damage the habitat.

  • Community rights vs an inviolate core: about 591 villages are still inside cores. Relocation has to be voluntary and fairly paid for, in line with the Wildlife Act and the Forest Rights Act 2006. If it is not, local support for tigers turns into conflict.

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