Tiger corridors in Country  

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

The National Tiger Conservation Authority in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India has published a document titled “Connecting Tiger Populations for Long-term Conservation”, which has mapped out 32 major corridors across the country, management interventions for which are operationalised through a Tiger Conservation Plan, mandated under section 38V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.  The list of macro/landscape level tiger corridors are as under:

Sl. No. Landscape Corridor States/ Country
1. Shivalik Hills & Gangetic Plains
  1. Rajaji-Corbett
Uttarakhand
(ii) Corbett-Dudhwa Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Nepal
(iii) Dudhwa-Kishanpur-Katerniaghat Uttar Pradesh, Nepal
2. Central India & Eastern Ghats (i) Ranthambhore-Kuno-Madhav Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan
(ii) Bandhavgarh-Achanakmar Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh
(iii) Bandhavgarh-Sanjay Dubri-Guru Ghasidas Madhya Pradesh
(iv) Guru Ghasidas-Palamau-Lawalong Chhattisgarh & Jharkhand
(v) Kanha-Achanakmar Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh
(vi) Kanha-Pench Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra
(vii) Pench-Satpura-Melghat Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra
(viii) Kanha-Navegaon Nagzira-Tadoba-Indravati Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh
(ix) Indravati-Udanti Sitanadi-Sunabeda Chhattisgarh, Odisha
(x) Similipal-Satkosia Odisha
(xi) Nagarjunasagar-Sri Venkateshwara National Park Andhra Pradesh
3. Western Ghats (i) Sahyadri-Radhanagari-Goa Maharashtra, Goa
(ii) Dandeli Anshi-Shravathi Valley Karnataka
(iii) Kudremukh-Bhadra Karnataka
(iv) Nagarahole-Pusphagiri-Talakavery Karnataka
(v) Nagarahole-Bandipur-Mudumalai-Wayanad Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu
(vi) Nagarahole-Mudumalai-Wayanad Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu
(vii) Parambikulam-Eranikulam-Indira Gandhi Kerala, Tamil Nadu
(viii) Kalakad Mundanthurai-Periyar Kerala, Tamil Nadu
4. North East (i) Kaziranga-Itanagar WLS Assam, Arunachal Pradesh
(ii) Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong Assam
(iii) Kaziranga-Nameri Assam
(iv) Kaziranga-Orang Assam
(v) Kaziranga-Papum Pane Assam
(vi) Manas-Buxa Assam, West Bengal, Bhutan
(vii) Pakke-Nameri-Sonai Rupai-Manas Arunachal Pradesh, Assam
(viii) Dibru Saikhowa-D’Ering-Mehaong Assam, Arunachal Pradesh
(ix) Kamlang-Kane-Tale Valley Arunachal Pradesh
(x) Buxa-Jaldapara West Bengal

Further, a 3 pronged strategy to manage human-tiger negative interactions has been advocated as follows:-

  1. Material and logistical support: Funding support through the ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger, is provided to tiger reserves for acquiring capacity in terms of infrastructure and material, to deal with tigers dispersing out of source areas.  These are solicited by tiger reserves through an Annual Plan of Operation (APO) every year which stems out from an overarching Tiger Conservation Plan (TCP), mandated under Section 38 V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.  Inter alia, activities such as payment of ex-gratia and compensation, periodic awareness campaigns to sensitize, guide and advise the general populace on man-animal conflict, dissemination of information through various forms of media, procurement of immobilization equipment, drugs, training and capacity building of forest staff to deal with conflict events are generally solicited.
  1. Restricting habitat interventions: Based on the carrying capacity of tigers in a tiger reserve, habitat interventions are restricted through an overarching TCP.  In case tiger numbers are at carrying capacity levels, it is advised that habitat interventions should be limited so that there is no excessive spill over of wildlife including tigers thereby minimizing man-animal conflict.  Further, in buffer areas around tiger reserves, habitat interventions are restricted such that they are sub-optimal vis-à-vis the core/critical tiger habitat areas, judicious enough to facilitate dispersal to other rich habitat areas only.
  1. Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs): The National Tiger Conservation Authority has issued following three SOPs to deal with man-animal conflict which are available in public domain:
  1. To deal with emergency arising due to straying of tigers in human dominated landscapes
  2. To deal with tiger depredation on livestock
  3. For active management towards rehabilitation of tigers from source areas at the landscape level.

The three SOPs inter alia include the issue of managing dispersing tigers, managing livestock kills so as to reduce conflict as well as relocating tigers from source areas to areas where density of tiger is low, so that conflict in rich source areas does not occur.

In technical collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India,  the National Tiger Conservation Authority has also published a document titled ‘Eco-Friendly measures to mitigate impacts of Linear infrastructure on wildlife’ to safeguard these corridors from linear infrastructure development besides sensitizing user agencies which inter alia include Indian Railway Traffic Service Probationers, National Highways Authority of India personnel, Indian Railway Engineers, besides others.

An amount of Rs. 370 crores, Rs. 345 crores and Rs. 350 crores was allocated during the financial years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 respectively, while an amount of Rs. 350 crores has been allocated for the current financial year under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger.  Details of funds released under the ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger, during the last three years and the current year, State-wise, are at Annexure-I.

ANNEXURE-I

Funds released under the ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger, during the last three years and the current year, State-wise

S. No. State 2016-17

 

2017-18

 

2018-19

 

2019-20

(as on 21.11.2019)

 

1. Andhra Pradesh 173.49 232.49 217.992 114.480
2. Arunachal Pradesh 597.29 671.0222 929.762 737.080
3. Assam 1510.93 2309.608 1919.624 2198.760
4. Bihar 487.84 552.273 570.897 562.840
5. Chhattisgarh 626.57 1315.076 536.135 358.530
6. Jharkhand 323.76 338.62 367 172.070
7. Karnataka 3203.62 2308.846 2267.428 1985.950
8. Kerala 780.23 636.412 653.03 593.160
9. Madhya Pradesh 12885.6 11455.457 5343.89 2985.910
10. Maharashtra 8229.72 6524.165 11049.59 3709.550
11. Mizoram 301.55 215.316 318.842 0.000
12. Odisha 917.17 1646.127 1022.322 1303.320
13. Rajasthan 381.3 773.09 791.83 1164.030
14. Tamil Nadu 949.87 2551.058 2366.823 1387.700
15. Telangana 239.26 350.416 1115.65 333.701
16. Uttarakhand 1023.41 1187.439 685.336 1242.490
17. Uttar Pradesh 1057.05 820.074 1417.26 1793.960
18. West  Bengal 536.14 597.5808 719.01 480.280
19. AIL India Tiger Estimation (AITE) All Tiger Reserve States including Nagaland, Manipur and Goa. 0.00 14.93 24.8625 0.00
Total 34224.80 34500.00 32317.284 21123.811

(Rs. in Lakhs)

This information was provided by Minister of State, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Shri Babul Supriyo in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

 

 

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