Wildlife protection: Project Tiger and beyond

The Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 is the central law for wildlife conservation in India. It provides for protected areas, national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, conservation reserves and community reserves, and it lists species in schedules that determine the level of protection and the penalties for hunting or trade. The Act also created the framework for authorities that manage protected areas and for the regulation of zoos and of trade in animal articles.

Project Tiger, launched on 1 April 1973 from Jim Corbett National Park, was India's first major species conservation programme. It created tiger reserves, each with a core area kept as inviolate as possible for tigers and a buffer where human use is regulated, and it linked tiger protection to the protection of whole habitats, since a tiger needs large prey populations, water and connected forests. The National Tiger Conservation Authority, constituted in 2006 as a statutory body under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, now oversees the programme, and tiger population estimation is carried out periodically, with the 2022 estimation reporting an increase over 2018.

Project Elephant, launched in 1992, applies a similar landscape approach to elephants, focusing on corridors that let herds move between habitats, and on reducing human-elephant conflict, which kills people, crops and elephants each year. Conflict management, through early warning, barriers, compensation for crop and property loss, and habitat restoration, is now as important as anti-poaching, because successful conservation increases animal numbers near farms and villages.

Other programmes widen the picture. The Asiatic lion, confined largely to Gir in Gujarat, the one-horned rhinoceros in Assam, and the snow leopard in the high Himalaya each have dedicated conservation efforts. The reintroduction of cheetahs at Kuno National Park, beginning in September 2022 with animals brought from Africa, revived a species extinct in India since the mid-twentieth century and reopened debates about reintroduction science, habitat suitability and cost.

The enduring lesson is that species protection works through landscapes and people. A reserve that ignores the villages around it will face conflict and encroachment; a programme that gives local people a stake, through employment, tourism income and compensation, stands a better chance of lasting.