‘I do not buy the claims that Project Tiger has been a spectacular success in recent times’ Premium

“We should have clear-cut goals and aim for that and have measurements to show if we are heading towards the goal or not,” believes leading tiger expert Dr. K. Ullas Karanth, who was part of the recent Nature inFocus Festival, a three-day event in Bengaluru, celebrating nature, wildlife, and conservation.

“We should have clear-cut goals and aim for that and have measurements to show if we are heading towards the goal or not,” believes leading tiger expert Dr. K. Ullas Karanth, who was part of the recent Nature inFocus Festival, a three-day event in Bengaluru, celebrating nature, wildlife and conservation.

Karanth, the first biologist to radio-collar wild tigers in India back in 1990, has never had any qualms about expressing his opinion, even unpopular ones such as the need to get rid of a man-killing animal immediately, rather than attempt to capture and translocate it. “Conservation is about saving rare species,” he points out. “It is not about saving every individual animal. We must have that clarity,” says the Emeritus Director of the Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bengaluru.

In an interview with The Hindu, he talks about his scepticism about current tiger conservation strategies, the complexities of human-animal conflict and why the cheetah project was doomed from the start.