Why in news?

Recently, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav announced that Madhav National Park in Madhya Pradesh has been designated as India’s 58th tiger reserve. With this, Madhya Pradesh now has nine tiger reserves, the highest among all states. In comparison, Maharashtra has six, while Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka have five each.

What’s in today’s article?

• Rationale Behind Setting Up Tiger Reserves
• Key Aspects of Establishing a Tiger Reserve
• Significance of Madhav National Park

Rationale Behind Setting Up Tiger Reserves

• Decline in Tiger Population
  • Tigers were once abundant in India, with an estimated 40,000 tigers in the early 20th century. However, due to hunting, poaching, deforestation, and colonial timber exploitation, their numbers declined sharply.
  • By the 1960s, the population dropped to between 2,000 and 4,000, further worsened by gun licenses, increased forest access, and the fur trade.
• Conservation Efforts Begin
  • Recognizing the crisis, naturalists raised alarms, leading to the Indian Board for Wild Life (IBWL) recommending a ban on wild cat skin exports in 1969.
  • The same year, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified the tiger as an endangered species in its Red Data Book and called for a ban on tiger killings.
• Launch of Project Tiger (1973)
  • With tiger numbers plummeting to 1,863, the then PM Indira Gandhi set up an 11-member Task Force to devise a conservation strategy.
  • In August 1972, the Task Force proposed bringing key tiger habitats under Project Tiger, which was officially launched on April 1, 1973, at Corbett Tiger Reserve.
• First Nine Tiger Reserves
  • Initially, nine tiger reserves were established across different ecosystems:
    • Corbett (Uttarakhand); Palamau (Jharkhand); Simlipal (Odisha)
    • Sundarbans (West Bengal); Manas (Assam); Ranthambore (Rajasthan)
    • Kanha (Madhya Pradesh); Melghat (Maharashtra); Bandipur (Karnataka)
  • These reserves formed the foundation of India’s tiger conservation movement, ensuring habitat protection and population recovery.

Key Aspects of Establishing a Tiger Reserve

• Scientific Management Framework
  • Project Tiger, later replaced by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in 2006, introduced a structured approach to managing protected areas.
  • Every tiger reserve must follow a site-specific management plan, ensuring scientific conservation practices.
• Core and Buffer Zones
  • Tiger reserves are divided into:
    • Core Zone – Strictly protected habitat for tigers and wildlife.
    • Buffer Zone – Surrounding area with regulated human activities to support conservation efforts.
• Tiger Conservation Plans (TCPs): The NTCA guidelines ensure:
• Protection and habitat management for a viable population of tigers, prey, and co-predators.
• Ecologically compatible land use to connect tiger reserves and other protected areas.
• Corridor creation to maintain genetic diversity by linking source populations (where tiger numbers grow) to sink habitats (where numbers decline).
• Process of Declaring a Tiger Reserve
  • State Government submits a proposal to the Centre.
  • NTCA evaluates and recommends the proposal.
  • State Government officially notifies the area as a tiger reserve.
  • This structured process ensures the long-term conservation and sustainability of tiger populations in India.
• Funding Mechanism for Tiger Reserves
  • Centre-State Cost Sharing
    • General States: 60% of the funding is provided by the Central Government, while the remaining 40% is borne by the State Government.
    • Northeastern & Himalayan States: The Centre covers 90% of the cost, with States contributing 10%.

Significance of Madhav National Park

• Notified as a National Park in 1956 under the MP National Parks Act, 1955 with an initial area of 165.32 sq km.
• Now expanded to 355 sq km core area with a buffer zone of 4-6 sq km.
• Until 2023, there were no tigers; a male and two females were relocated, leading to a population increase to seven.
• Ecological & Strategic Importance
  • Functions as a key wildlife corridor linking the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (Rajasthan) and Kuno National Park.
  • Kuno hosts a captive cheetah population, raising concerns about predator competition for prey (deer population).
  • Madhya Pradesh leads India in tiger conservation with 785 tigers, yet the Kuno-Madhav division has historically been neglected.
  • Consolidated wildlife management is now focusing on both tigers and cheetahs in the region.
• Future Conservation Plans & Challenges
  • Proposal to relocate Asiatic lions from Gir (Gujarat) to Kuno, approved by the Supreme Court.
  • The government, in March 2023, raised concerns about lion-cheetah competition, delaying the relocation.
  • If lions are introduced, it could bring more national and international conservation funding.