Alwar/Satkosia : Unlike tiger reserves such as Sariska in Alwar and Panna in Madhya Pradesh, where India’s tiger reintroduction and population recovery programmes have seen immense success, Satkosia in Odisha and Rajaji in Uttarakhand are yet to see similar results, according to a new report.
The reintroduction initiative, which began in 2008 at Sariska, helped increase the population from zero to 56 as of now.
At Panna, the programme, which kicked off in 2009, led to the rise in tiger population from zero to 88.
However, at Satkosia, where two tigers were reintroduced in 2018, the current population is zero. Note that there was already a tiger present at the site before the beginning of the initiative.
At Rajaji (western part), where five tigers were introduced in 2020, the population currently remains the same. No tigers inhabited the location before the reintroduction.
These are findings of the ‘Reintroduction and Recovery of Tigers in India’, which is one of the three reports released by Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav Sunday .
The report documents India’s experience in restoring tiger populations through planned reintroduction and supplementation programmes at 12 different sites.
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Speaking at the launch of the report, Sanjay Kumar, the Additional Director General of Forests (ADGF) for Project Tiger said, At Satkosia, the country’s first interstate reintroduction programme took place, under which tigers were brought from Madhya Pradesh to Odisha.
However, we did not get the expected results. One reason for this could be that we could not win the local communities’ confidence regarding the initiative.
According to the report, the lesson from the Satkosia initiative’s failure was that the recipient site must possess adequate prey populations, secure and inviolate habitats, effective protection mechanisms, ecological connectivity, and social acceptance among local communities before initiating translocation.
In his speech, Kumar pointed out that at Rajaji, where there is a lack of connectivity between the western and eastern parts, the tiger population has not increased since the 2020 reintroduction.
Rajaji highlights the importance of supplementation in restoring isolated populations, while emphasising the need for prey recovery, habitat connectivity, protection, and long-term monitoring for successful tiger recovery, the report said.
