WORLD TIGER DAY: Study Material for PSC exams Government Jobs current affairs

This 29th July marked 5th International Tiger Day to raise awareness of tiger conservation. This is observed as both a celebration and awareness day , decided at the Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit in 2010. The goal of Tiger Day is to promote the protection and expansion of the wild tigers habitats and to gain support through awareness for tiger conservation.

WORLDWIDE

1) According to a report we have lost 97% of all wild tigers in a bit over 100 years, instead of 100,000, as few as 3000 live in the wild today, last year it was 3200.

2) Tigers lost 93% of their natural habitat due to the expansion of cities and agriculture by humans.

3) Tigers are native of ASIA and not AFRICA as commonly believed.

INDIA AND THE TIGER CONSERVATION

1) India has special role to play in tiger conservation with tiger being India’s national animal apart from being an endangered species.

2) India is now home to more than 70 percent of the world's tiger population.

3) To protect them the Govt. of India had launched “Project Tiger” on 1st April 1973 in  Palamau Tiger Reserve.

4) Project Tiger is the largest species conservation initiative of this kind , started with only 9 reserves in 1973-74 its now extended to a total of 48.

5) Tiger reserves are developed as breeding nuclei, from which surplus animals would migrate to adjacent forests.

6) A Tiger Task Force was constituted on the recommendation of the National Board of Wild Life chaired by PM.

7) Under this a statutory authority with LEGAL BACKING and ADMINISTRATIVE POWER called National Tiger Conservation Authority(NTCA) was established in the year 2006 (amendments in wild life protection act 1972).

8) Minister for Environment and Forests holds the chairmanship of NTCA. The Authority has eight experts including tribal, apart from three Members of Parliament of whom two are elected by the House of the People and one by the Council of States. The Inspector General of Forests (in charge of project Tiger) is the ex-officio Member Secretary. Rest are the  professionals having relative experience in the field of environment and species conservation.

9) Main functions of NTCA includes laying down standards ,guidelines and the conservation plans .It also prepares an annual Report, which is laid in the Parliament along with the Audit Report.

10) There is a provision of setting up State level Steering Committees under the Chairmanship of respective Chief Ministers to have a state specific plan which in turn will coordinate with central body and work equally in the direction of conservation.

TIGER CENSUS 2014

1) This is conducted in every 4 years to to gauge the success of conservation efforts, find change in tiger population and their ecosystem for better planning.

2) Census was carried out by NTCA in collaboration with State Forest Dept., National Conservation NGOs and Wild Life Institute of India.

3) 2014  report was titled as “Status of Tigers ,Co-predators, Prey and their Habitats 2014”.

4) The census used images of tigers captured by cameras and computer assisted analysis of tiger stripes (as each has distinct stripes like we humans have finger prints) on the images to count the number of tigers.

WHAT DOES THE REPORT SAYS?

1) Tiger population in India has increased by 30.5% since the last estimate of 2010.

2) Karnataka hosts maximum no. of tigers followed by Uttarakhand.

3) Odissa , Uttarpradesh and AP are the only three states where fall in tiger population has been observed due to various reasons.

CONCLUSION

Though the increasing number of tigers is exciting ;providing adequate forest areas, avoiding animal human conflicts, vigilance and limiting poaching still remain as roadblocks in achieving what needs to be done to conserve this mighty animal. Recently there has been much debate by the environmentalists on the constructions of Highways passing through the forests ,home of tigers as in the case of NH7 passing through Kanha national park(M.P.) where racing and honking disturbs the tranquility of the forest. The solution to all these problems lies in empathy and belief in sustainable development supported by law.

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Author: Palak Tiwari, a freelancer writer based in Bhopal