Explained | Can we democratise tiger conservation in India? Premium

While not impressed with the numbers, scientists were happy Project Tiger was able to hold on to tiger populations. The 2023 preliminary report for the first time finds that this hold is slipping.

“It is like a big safari park,” a Russian scientist working on Siberian tigers whispered conspiratorially to us after his first visit to Ranthambore National Park in 1996. From his point of view, the Russian far-east was “real” wilderness. To him, all of our National Parks and Tiger Reserves were little more than glorified zoos or safari parks. But is this necessarily the reality of conservation in a country with 1.4 billion people? A country that still boasts of having a remarkable conservation history, with robust populations of large carnivores such as tigers and leopards, the only populations of Asiatic lion and greater one-horned rhinoceros, and the largest population of Asian elephants.

Much of the success of wildlife conservation in India has been attributed to the Wild Life (Protection) Act (WLPA), enacted 50 years ago by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to arrest the alarming decline of wildlife across the country. But as we celebrate 50 years of the Act, and of the marquee Project Tiger that helped bring back our national animal from the brink of extinction, we also need to reflect on what needs to change in conservation practice in India, so that we can preserve these wins and also plan ahead for the challenges in the next 50 years.

“Conservation amnesia”

The tiger number released on April 11, 2023, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the minimum estimate based on the tigers photographed during the survey. The final estimates will come in the next few months; authorities have indicated a 6% annual growth rate, so the expected number would be approximately 25-30% above the previous 2018-2019 estimate of 2,967 tigers.

Fifty years ago, India’s alarming revelation that tiger numbers had dropped below 3,000 shocked the world. India reacted by banning hunting and drafting one of the world’s strongest legal frameworks to protect its natural heritage. Fifty years later, more or less the same number is now met with celebration.

In science, a syndrome of shifting baselines is known as “conservation amnesia”. The new generation of wildlife managers mention only the figure of 1,400+ estimated in 2006 and so they were able to claim and celebrate the doubling of the tiger population in 2019. From the longer perspective of looking at 50 years of tiger conservation under Project Tiger, we have held onto the population but despite strong political support, funds, and the legal framework provided, the numbers do not reflect a great success.

Then again, just numbers do not paint the full picture. Many scientists, while not impressed by the figures, were happy that Project Tiger was able to hold on to tiger populations in most of the geographical regions where they existed at its inception. However, in the 2023 preliminary report, for the first time, we find that this hold is slipping away. We are now losing tigers from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and the Eastern ghats and from the Northeastern forests. With it, we lose genetic diversity unique to these geographical regions, dashing hopes of maintaining long-term population viability and natural recovery.