- According to a survey, Orang tiger reserve in Assam, which has the smallest core, is host to 28 big cats, thus having the highest density nationally.
- The count was revealed during phase IV of the all-India tiger estimation programme of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
About Orang National Park:
- Orang national park is located on the northern banks of Brahmaputra in Assam and the park has 100-odd rhinos in 79.28 sq km area.
- It is also known as the mini Kaziranga National Park (IUCN site) since the two parks have a similar landscape made up of marshes, streams and grasslands.
- The park has a rich flora and fauna, including great Indian one-horned rhinoceros, pigmy hog, elephants, wild buffalo and tigers. It is the only stronghold of rhinoceros on the north bank of the Brahmaputra river.
- Though known for rhinos, Orang is also a tiger habitat and has been declared tiger reserve covering an area of 492.46 sq km on February this year.
- The park forms contiguous landscape with Kaziranga, connected through numerous sand islands on Brahmaputra.
- Also Kaziranga’s tiger population is connected to Orang through sand islands system and forms a single largest landscape of big cat population in the state. This landscape also includes Loakhowa and Burachapori wildlife sanctuaries.
What is the structure of a tiger reserve?
- The tiger reserves are constituted on a core/buffer strategy.
- The core areas have the legal status of a national park or a sanctuary.
- The buffer or peripheral areas are a mix of forest and non-forest land, managed as a multiple use area.
Number of tigers in India:
- India is home to 70 percent of tigers in the world.
- According to World Wildlife Fund and Global Tiger Forum, in 2006, there were 1,411tigers which increased to 1,706 in 2011 and 2,226 in 2014.
- The total number of wild tigers has gone up to 3891 in 2016.
What are the major threats for tigers in India?
The major threats for tigers in India are as follows:
Poaching:
- In 2017, already 22 cases of poaching-related deaths have come to light.
- Poaching and the illegal trade is the biggest and most concerning threat that the world’s remaining wild tigers face.
- Demand for tiger skin, bone and other body parts, involves poaching and trafficking.
Loss of habitat:
- An increase in human populations throughout tiger range countries has resulted in tiger habitats being reduced.
- Only 7% of the tiger’s historical range is intact today and tiger habitats are left in isolated areas.
- This results in small pockets of tiger habitat surrounded by human populations.
Loss of Prey Species:
- Tiger preys species like deer and pigs, which are often poached and overhunted leading to devastating consequences for tigers.
- An inadequate supply leads to poor health condition and of food forces tigers to increase their range when searching for a meal.
Human-Wildlife Conflict:
- As the human population continues to increase, people encroach farther into historic tiger habitat.
- As a result, human and wildlife conflicts can lead to revenge killings and result in negative attitudes toward tigers that hinder future conservation efforts.
What are the initiatives by the government for conservation of tigers?
The initiatives by the government for conservation of tigers are as follows:
‘Project Tiger’:
- Project Tiger’ has been launched by the Government of India in 1973 under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change
Current status:
- From 9 tiger reserves since its formative years, the Project Tiger coverage has increased to 50 at present, spread out in 18 of tiger range states.
Aims and objectives:
The aims and objectives of ‘Project Tiger’ are as follows:
- To alert the States about any danger as and when required.
- To transmit backward / forward linkages of information relating to poachers.
- To advise the States for combing forest floor to check snares / traps.
- To perform supervisory field visits through the National Tiger Conservation Authority and its regional offices.
- To use information technology for improved surveillance (e-Eye system) using thermal cameras launched in Corbett.
- To launch tiger reserve level monitoring using camera trap to keep a photo ID database of individual tigers.
- To prepare a national database of individual tiger photo captures to establish linkage with body parts seized or dead tigers
- To assist States to refine protection oriented monitoring through monitoring system for tiger’s intensive protection and ecological status (M-STrIPES)
- To provide grant through NTCA for patrolling in tiger rich sensitive forest areas outside tiger reserves
National Tiger Conservation Authority:
- The National Tiger Conservation Authority is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
- It is constituted under provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended in 2006, for strengthening tiger conservation, as per powers and functions assigned to it under the said Act
Aims and objectives:
The aims and objectives of National Tiger Conservation Authority are as follows:
- Providing statutory authority to ‘Project Tiger’ so that compliance of its directives becomes legal.
- Fostering accountability of Center-State in management of Tiger Reserves, by providing a basis for MoU with States within our federal structure.
- Providing for an oversight by Parliament.
- Addressing livelihood interests of local people in areas surrounding Tiger Reserves.
Powers and functions:
The powers and functions of National Tiger Conservation Authority are as follows:
- To approve the tiger conservation plan prepared by the State Government under sub-section (3) of section 38V of this Act.
- To evaluate and assess various aspects of sustainable ecology and disallow any ecologically unsustainable land use such as, mining, industry and other projects within the tiger reserves.
- To lay down normative standards for tourism activities and guidelines for project tiger from time to time for tiger conservation in the buffer and core area of tiger reserves and ensure their due compliance.
- To provide for management focus and measures for addressing conflicts of men and wild animal.
- To emphasize on co-existence in forest areas outside the National Parks, sanctuaries or tiger reserve, in the working plan code.
- To provide information on protection measures including future conservation plan, estimation of population of tiger and its natural prey species, status of habitats, disease surveillance, mortality survey, patrolling, reports on untoward happenings and such other management aspects as it may deem fit including future plan conservation.
Tiger Task Force:
- In 2005, The Prime Minister of India set up the Tiger Task Force to strengthen the conservation of Tigers in the country.
Aims and objectives:
The aims and objectives of Tiger Task Force are as follows:
- To look into the various problems of tiger conservation and suggests methods for its improvement.
- To check poaching of tigers and all the illegal practices followed in the wildlife sanctuaries.
- To improve the method of counting and forecasting the tigers.
- To educate the local indigenous population inhabitant in the parks towards the conservation of tigers.
- To expand the undisturbed areas for tigers by reducing the human activities in that area.