The vision document ‘Tiger@2047’ is a comprehensive one. While focussing on the issues like human-wildlife conflict, it also moots concepts like Tiger Towns, satellitic micro core, and ‘Janata’ insurance for peripheral dwellers. Besides, there are several other steps envisaged to be taken under different themes. The document mentions that Tiger Town should be supported in collaboration with Ministry of Urban Development. This is proposed to foster sustainability of traditional small towns proximal to tiger reserves. According to some officials, the concept of Tiger Towns will instill a sense of pride among locals, instead of them treating tiger as problem for them. The actions envisaged in a ‘Tiger Town’ have been linked to urban/rural cover management to avoid wildlife shelter/cover along green spaces, community stewardship along forest interface borders to facilitiate preventive and control actions.

 

Asked about the idea of ‘Tiger Towns’, Dr Rajesh Gopal, Chairman of the expert committee that has prepared the vision document for strengthening Project Tiger, said that it was still at conceptual stage, but entailed emphasis on cleanliness in tune with Nature. The expert committee headed by Dr Rajesh Gopal comprised of Dr Amit Mallick, Inspector General of Forests, NTCA, as Member Convenor. The committee members included experts like Nitin Kakodkar, retired Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Maharashtra; Dr Y V Jhala, Scientist, Wildlife Institute of India; Tilottama Verma, Additional Director, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau; Ravi Singh, Chief Executive Officer of WWF-India; Dr Madhu Verma, senior environmental economist; retired IFS officers namely B K Singh, V K Melkani, and R K Singh; and Chief Wildlife Wardens of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala, Uttarakhand, and Assam. Another interesting idea in the ‘Amrit Kaal Ka Tiger Vision -- Tiger@2047’ document is satellitic micro core. The concept entails considering cropland parcels contiguous wiith river stretches/forest edges, non-tiger/elephant corridors, forest patches of 50 Hectare or more as ‘satellitic micro core’. Nitin Kakodkar, retired Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Maharashtra and member of the expert committee, told ‘The Hitavada’ that such areas could be described as ‘stepping stones’, that is patches with lesser population, for transient tigers. In case of Vidarbha, he added, Ghodazari could be an ideal satellite core area for Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve. Such satellitic micro core areas will be focus of intensive monitoring of human-wildlife conflicts, without embarking on wildlife fostering actions, states the document.

 

As far as ‘Janata’ insurance for peripheral dwellers is concerned, Kakodkar said that the idea was to reassure people in some respects. “Locals have to bear the brunt of human-wildlife conflict. So, they have to be assured in some respects so that they get motivated to take the side of conservation,” he added. Interestingly, preference is proposed to be given to locals in recruitment of frontline cadre, as part of providing ecologically viable livelihood options to locals. For field formations, several strengthening actions have been envisaged under the theme of human-wildlife conflict. These include setting up 24x7 control room fully equipped with communication facilities and Rapid Response Teams, state-of-the-art preventive and control measures on the lines of Uttar Pradesh’s masterplan in this regard, maintaining a daily dashboard of wildlife mortality and livestock crop depredation. Another aspect is maintaining monthly charts of human-wildlife conflict score in the GIS domain and syncing it with MSTrIPES data. MSTrIPES is ‘Monitoring System for Tigers: Intensive Protection and Ecological Status’ under NTCA. It is a platform where modern technology is used to assist effective patrolling, assess ecological status and mitigate human-wildlife conflict in and around tiger reserves, states NTCA. MSTrIPES uses GPS, GPRS, and remote sensing to collect information from the field, create a database using modern Information Technology-based tools, analyses the information using GIS and statistical tools to provide inferences that allow tiger reserve managers to better manage their wildlife resources.

 

Besides, the vision document envisages day-to-day plotting of the presence of the big cat, elephant and wildlife near human settlements. Evolving village cluster level radio hubs for broadcasting day-to-day hourly alerts by trained local community stewards towards movement of tiger/elephant and other wild animals in vulnerable areas is an important vision point, apart from support for human-wildlife conflict control room. While addressing habitat welfare factors, some measures have been suggested. These include computing habitat carrying capacity for tigers, limiting habitat development actions with respect to prevailing tiger carrying capacity, adopting ‘micro core’ approach for reviving low density areas, prescribing threshold alerts vis-a-vis buffer-to-core ratio, ensuring special protection during monsoon and pinch periods, and also addressing human-wildlife conflict in sync with non-timber forest produce collection.