Indian PM approves tiger protection force

The Indian prime minister has approved the creation of a "tiger protection force" after new research revealed that the country's tiger population had fallen to less than half of its 2002 levels.

A survey by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) estimates the current tiger population of India to be just 1,300-1,500, down from 3,642 tigers in 2001-02 when the institute's last study found that 1,576 tigers were in reserves, and 2,066 were estimated to be in the forest outside the protected areas.

The new two-year study, which was funded and monitored by the National Tiger Conservation Authority and involved the 17 Indian states with tiger populations, was presented last week to the National Wildlife Board, which is chaired by the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh.

It found that while the tiger population in reserves and protected areas has changed marginally, it has "sharply declined" in forest areas outside the reserves.

"This is due to degradation of habitat and various other limiting factors," the study said.

Thirty years ago India set aside over 30 tiger reserves controlled by Project Tiger (now the National Tiger Conservation Authority). Initially it was hailed as a great success, but in the last few years hundreds of tigers have been poached from under its officials' noses.

The report warned that the protection status in these reserves was "not up to the desired level", because of staff vacancies, ageing of staff and a policy of non-recruitment in several states with tiger populations.

"The results of the ongoing survey being conducted by the WII, in its efforts to estimate and evaluate tiger populations … needs to be discussed, particularly in relation to urgent follow-up action that is required to be taken in areas that have shown serious losses of wild tigers," the report stated.

After being presented with the findings of the report last week, ministers approved a raft of proposals to strengthen tiger conservation, including the creation of a "tiger protection force".

This would be made up of ex-army personnel and a native workforce, "complementing the efforts of field staff and existing protection initiatives".

Mr Singh also issued an urgent call for a senior police officer to head the recently created National Wildlife Crime Bureau, which was set up to stop tiger killings and punish poachers.

The majority of tigers that disappear in India - and other countries - are killed either by poachers supplying body parts to the lucrative traditional Chinese medicine market or by farmers and villagers who have to compete with the tigers for the same habitat.

The report also recommended speeding up the relocation of villages from within tiger reserves, filling empty park ranger posts and laying out "eco-tourism" guidelines to benefit local populations.

Conservationists praised the government's reaction to the report. Alan Rabinowitz, the executive director of the Great Cat programme of the International Wildlife Conservation Society, said he thought using retired army officers to patrol tiger sanctuaries was an excellent idea.

"One of the problems which we've had, globally, in the protection of areas and against poaching, is our normal wildlife guards are not well enough trained to deal in combative situations and too often it's the guards who get killed," he said.

Conservationists have long feared that the number of tigers in India was falling — and that previous estimates were too high.

"The earlier tiger census figures were exaggerated because there was a tendency that if you are a manager of a tiger reserve, if you did a census and showed a lower number, your knuckles were rapped," said Belinda Wright, the director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

India, she said, needed better enforcement, infrastructure, training and accountability for its Wildlife Crime Bureau to be truly functional."This is not just an issue for India. The whole world is watching to see how India deals with this crisis. We are talking about the most charismatic mammal on this planet," she said.

The last major tiger census relied on estimating the population by examining footprints. The current study uses camera "traps" triggered by passing animals, as well as hundreds of wildlife officers tracking the animals through droppings and footprints, the institute said.

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