Abstract
The latest tiger census conducted in India during the year 2014 shows that it harbours 57% of the global tiger population in 7% of their historic global range. At the same time, India has 1.25 billion people growing at a rate of 1.7% per year. Protected tiger habitats in India are geographically isolated and collectively holds this tiger population under tremendous anthropogenic pressure. These protected lands are in itself not enough to sustain the growing tiger population, intensifying human-tiger conflict as dispersing individuals enter human occupied areas. These factors – isolation and inadequate size of the protected lands harbouring tiger meta-populations, highlight the need to connect tiger habitats and the importance of corridors beyond protected lands. It is imperative to conserve such corridors passing through private lands to safeguard the long-term survival of the tigers in India. The goal of long-term tiger conservation in India lies in smartly integrating tiger conservation concerns in various sectors where tiger conservation is not the priority. To effectively tap into all these resources, we propose a “Triage of Means” strategy. Here we do not prioritize species, populations or sites due to the non-availability of conservation resources. Instead, we aim to prioritize from available resources (means to achieve conservation) from other sectors where tiger conservation is not the focus. We outline how to prioritise resources available from various sectors into conservation by prioritizing issues hampering tiger conservation beyond protected habitats.
Highlights
India harbors over half the global tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) population within just 7% of their historic range (Jhala et al, 2015)
The key strategy of the triage of means that we present is to harness resources available from several areas, which typically lie in the purview of different ministries of the Central Government of India (GoI)2
We believe that triage is more than just focusing on single species conservation, but more broadly prioritizing of conservation actions when resources are scarce
Summary
India harbors over half the global tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) population within just 7% of their historic range (Jhala et al, 2015). A recent corridor study has identified 9371 km of area outside PAs that are crucial for the dispersal and movement of tigers in the Eastern Vidarbha Landscape (EVL) in Central India (Mondal et al, 2016) This area includes reserve forest, unprotected forests, and privately owned lands covered by forested or agricultural landuse. To effectively tap into all these resources and public will, we must follow an unconventional triage approach as a means to prioritize alternative funding streams This we call, “triage of means”: a process where we channel available resources by prioritizing from among various schemes of government ministries/departments for tiger corridor conservation. Such indirect funds can be leveraged by mainstreaming the conservation agenda in these sectors
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