50 years of Project Tiger: India considers translocating a few big cats to Cambodia

‘Project Tiger’, which began in 1973 at the Corbett national park, completes 50 years on April 1 this year. Tigers have gone locally extinct in Vietnam and Laos as well but officials in the Union environment ministry said the other countries have shown no interest in similar translocations. Tigers disappeared from the Cambodian landscape due to excessive poaching and loss of habitat, said officials. In late 2017, the Cambodian Prime Minister had announced the country’s plan to reintroduce the big cat.

“The translocation of our tigers to Cambodia is under consideration. This has never been done in India before, although we have been translocating tigers within the country as and when it has been required. For instance, we will be translocating tigers from Corbett (Uttarakhand), which has the largest tiger population in India, to Rajaji National Park in the same state. If we finally decide on translocating tigers to Cambodia, it will be done based on IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) protocol,’’ said member secretary, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), S P Yadav.

An Indian delegation has already made a preliminary visit to Cambodia and a team from Cambodia has visited India for negotiations.

“We will have to look at many factors before taking a decision. To begin with, we have to verify whether the reasons for tiger disappearance in Cambodia have been addressed, whether they have the requisite facilities and infrastructure to support the tiger,’’said Yadav.

The ministry also announced on Friday a three-day international summit to commemorate 50 years of ‘Project Tiger’, which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 9 at Mysuru in Karnataka. The ‘mega-event’, from April 9-11, will be attended by all state environment ministers and officials as well as representatives of international wildlife conservation and protection organisations and non-profits.

At the event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release the much awaited tiger estimation (census) data for 2022 — the fifth cycle assessment of Tiger population in the country. At the time of its launch in 1973, ‘Project Tiger’ included nine tiger reserves spread over 18,278 sq km. Today, there are 53 tiger reserves covering more than 75,000 sq km (approximately 2.4% of the country’s geographical area) across India. With the current population of about 3,000 tigers, India harbours more than 70% of global wild tiger population, which is increasing at an annual rate of 6%.

“The success of India in conserving and doubling its wild tiger population in a span of about 12 years, much before the targeted year of 2022, as per St. Petersburg Declaration, is commendable, especially when the tiger is a highly threatened animal globally due to the high, illegal demand of its body parts. The significant gains made under ‘Project Tiger’ have made it one of the most successful conservation projects for the carnivore in the world,’’said Yadav. More tiger reserves  are in the process of being declared or added to the existing list, said the official.

Yadav added that India has the largest number of CAT-accredited tiger reserves in the world at 17.

Compensation for voluntary village relocation has also been enhanced from Rs 10 lakh per family to Rs 15 lakh in order to aid tiger conservation.

Apart from the latest tiger estimation numbers, the ministry will also release “Management Effective Evaluation (2022) of Tiger Reserves, Amrit Kal ka Vision for Tiger conservation and the release of a Rs 50 commemorative coin on ‘Project Tiger’.