Project Tiger and the tiger reserves

Detail

1. Why India needed Project Tiger

• The fall in numbers: around 1900 India had an estimated 55,000 tigers. By 1973 only 1,827 were left.
• Causes of the decline:
• 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 pushing into forests.

• Global weight: at that time India and Nepal together held about two-thirds of the world's surviving wild tigers. So India's success or failure decided the future of the species.

2. Project Tiger (1973): the idea

• Project Tiger was launched in 1973. Its aim was not only to save one species. It was to protect "biotypes of sizeable magnitude".

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

• The tiger works as an umbrella species. This is a species that needs such a large area that protecting it also protects all the other plants and animals living there.

• The tiger needs a large forest → the forest also shelters deer, elephants, birds, insects and plants → water sources and soils in that area are protected too.

• Reserve design: each reserve has a core area and a buffer area.

• Core area (also called critical tiger habitat): kept free of human use, only for wildlife.
• Buffer area: lies around the core. Limited human use is allowed and local people live there, so it softens the pressure on the core.

3. The first nine reserves (1973)

• Project Tiger began with 9 reserves covering 16,339 sq km.

Reserve	State (today)	Landscape / spatial anchor
Corbett	Uttarakhand	Shivalik foothills of the Himalaya, on the Ramganga river
Manas	Assam	Foothills on the Bhutan border, on the Manas river (a Brahmaputra tributary)
Melghat	Maharashtra	Satpura hills, Amravati district
Palamau	Jharkhand	Chota Nagpur plateau
Ranthambore	Rajasthan	Where the Aravallis meet the Vindhyas
Similipal	Odisha	Mayurbhanj district, northern Odisha
Sundarbans	West Bengal	Mangrove delta of the Ganga–Brahmaputra on the Bay of Bengal
Kanha	Madhya Pradesh	Maikal hills of central India
Bandipur	Karnataka	Western Ghats–Nilgiri area, southern Karnataka

• Reserves the Class 10 text names as examples: Corbett (Uttarakhand), Sunderbans (West Bengal), Bandhavgarh (Madhya Pradesh), Sariska (Rajasthan), Manas (Assam) and Periyar (Kerala).

4. Growth of the network

• India now has 58 tiger reserves [2].
• Core area: 46,701.29 sq km. Buffer area: 37,786.54 sq km. Total: 84,487.83 sq km [2].

• (NCERT: 58 reserves, 84,487 sq km, called "core habitat", in 18 states. The 84,487 sq km figure is actually core plus buffer.)

• Newest reserves:

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

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

• Growth from 1973 to 2025: from 9 reserves to 58, and from 16,339 sq km to 84,487.83 sq km [2].

5. National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)

• NTCA is the 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, added by the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2006 [7].

• Both the amendment and the NTCA came into force on 4 September 2006 [7].

• Members: the Union Environment Minister is Chairperson. The Minister of State for Environment is Vice-Chairperson. It also includes three Members of Parliament, the Environment Secretary and others [7].

• What it does:
• Approves the Tiger Conservation Plan that each reserve must prepare.
• Audits reserves through the Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE). This is a regular check that scores how well each reserve is managed (protection, staff, funds, relations with local people).

• Runs the All India Tiger Estimation, together with the Wildlife Institute of India.

• Where it came from: the loss of Sariska's tigers led to the Tiger Task Force (2005). Its recommendations included giving Project Tiger legal and administrative powers and creating a Wildlife Crime Control Bureau [7][8].

6. All India Tiger Estimation (AITE)

• The All India Tiger Estimation is a national tiger count held every 4 years.
• Camera traps (cameras fixed on trees that take a photo when an animal passes) photograph tigers. Each tiger's stripe pattern is unique, like a fingerprint, so individuals can be counted.
• Field signs (pugmarks, scat) and prey surveys are added.

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

• 2022 cycle:
• The tiger population grew at 6.1% a year [3].
• India has about 75% of the world's wild tigers.
• Top states (2022): Madhya Pradesh 785 → Karnataka 563 → Uttarakhand 560 → Maharashtra 444 [3].
• Gains: central India, and the Shivalik hills and Gangetic plains [3].
• Losses: the Western Ghats showed local declines [3].

• Small or falling populations: Mizoram, Nagaland, Jharkhand, Goa, Chhattisgarh and Arunachal Pradesh [3].

• The 2026 round is under way.

7. The new frontiers

• Corridors: these are strips of forest that link one reserve to another. Tigers use them to move and find mates. Without them, small groups become inbred (breed among close relatives) and weak.
• Linear infrastructure: roads, railways, canals and power lines cut through corridors. They kill animals and split habitats.
• Human–tiger conflict: tigers attack people or cattle, and people take revenge. Main hotspots:
• Sundarbans: honey collectors and fishers enter mangroves.
• Terai: the belt of grassland and forest below the Himalaya, in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, which has dense villages.
• Central India: tigers moving out of reserves into farmland in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

8. Sariska Tiger Reserve: loss and return

• Location: Aravalli hills, Alwar district, Rajasthan. It has dry deciduous forest.
• Loss: all its tigers were poached by 2004–05.
• Response:
• The government set up the Tiger Task Force (2005) [8].
• The Task Force asked for priority relocation of four villages from the core: Haripura, Kankwari, Umri and Kiraska. Together they had about 1,800 people and 7,000 livestock [8].

• This crisis led to the 2006 amendment and the creation of the NTCA [7].

• Restocking: in 2008, tigers were moved here from Ranthambore. This was India's first tiger relocation.

• Community role: villagers around Sariska fought mining in the area by citing the Wildlife (Protection) Act.

9. Manas Tiger Reserve: survival through conflict

• Location: Assam, in the Himalayan foothills on the Bhutan border. It joins Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan.
• Statuses: it is a tiger reserve, an elephant reserve, a biosphere reserve and a UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 1985).
• Danger list (1992–2011):
• 1989: armed Bodo groups moved into the sanctuary. The damage was valued at about ₹5 crore (about US $1.6 million) [6].
• 1992–93: militancy was at its worst. 19 of the 31 ranger and guard posts were destroyed. Poachers then killed large numbers of animals [6].
• Rhinos: about 100 when it was listed → 39 by 1997 → none left by 2001 [6].

• It was removed from the danger list in 2011 [6].

• Special wildlife: golden langur, pygmy hog (the world's smallest wild pig) and wild water buffalo.

10. Periyar Tiger Reserve: elephants and people

• Location: the Cardamom and Pandalam hills of the Western Ghats, in Idukki and Pathanamthitta districts, Kerala.
• It lies around the lake formed by the Mullaperiyar dam (1895) on the Periyar river.
• Known for:
• Elephants.
• Community-based ecotourism, which employs former poachers as guides and forest guards. Their income now depends on protecting the forest, not hunting in it.

Prelims Hooks

• Project Tiger: 1973, started with 9 reserves (16,339 sq km). Today there are 58 reserves, 84,487.83 sq km in total. The core area is only 46,701.29 sq km [2].
• Latest reserves: 56th Guru Ghasidas–Tamor Pingla (Chhattisgarh), 57th Ratapani (MP), 58th Madhav (MP) [2][4][5].
• NTCA: created under Section 38L, WPA 1972, through 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). The order is 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].
• Original reserve to state matches: Palamau → Jharkhand; Similipal → Odisha; Melghat → Maharashtra; Bandipur → Karnataka. Bandhavgarh, Sariska and Periyar were not among the first nine.
• Sariska → Aravallis, Alwar, Rajasthan → lost all tigers by 2004–05 → restocked from Ranthambore (2008), the first relocation.
• Manas → World Heritage Site 1985 → in danger 1992–2011 → rhinos wiped out by 2001 [6] → home to the golden langur and pygmy hog.
• Periyar → Idukki and Pathanamthitta, Kerala → Mullaperiyar dam (1895) → ecotourism run by former poachers.

Mains Points

• Habitat over species (GS-III): Project Tiger uses the tiger as an umbrella species. Protecting 84,487.83 sq km of tiger land [2] also protects watersheds, carbon stocks and many other species. This supports India's 30×30 target under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (2022).
• Crisis led to reform: the loss of Sariska's tigers (2004–05) led to the Tiger Task Force (2005) [8]. That led to a legal NTCA in 2006 and a Wildlife Crime Control Bureau [7][8]. Numbers then rose from 1,411 (2006) to 3,682 (2022), about 6.1% a year [3].
• Uneven recovery: gains are concentrated in central India and the Shivalik–Gangetic plains. The Western Ghats and the North-East (Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh) are declining or low [3]. Policy needs to focus on corridors, safer road and railway design (wildlife crossings), and fair voluntary relocation of villages [8].
• Conflict and people: Manas shows how armed conflict can wipe out wildlife protection [6]. Periyar's ecotourism and the Sariska villagers' fight against mining show that local communities decide whether conservation lasts. Human–tiger conflict in the Sundarbans, the Terai and central India is the main challenge ahead.