19th Meeting of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)

What is the News?

The 19th Meeting of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) was held under the chairmanship of Union Minister for Environment, Forest & Climate Change.

What are the key highlights of the meeting?

Tiger Reserves and their Conservation

Currently, India has  51 Tiger Reserves and efforts are being made to bring  more areas under the Tiger Reserve network.

14 Tiger Reserves have been accredited under CA|TS and NTCA is working on getting other Tiger Reserves evaluated for CA|TS accreditation.

Tiger reserves are not just for tigers because more than 35 rivers originate from these areas, which are crucial for water security.

In North Eastern States, there is a problem of use of air guns for indiscriminate killing of birds and animals. For this, the Ministry has advised states to organise awareness programs so that people can surrender their airguns.

On regulation of tourism activity in the Tiger Reserves, the ministry said that there should be one core area which should be sacrosanct and vehicular movement in the reserve should be one way.

Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetah in India

The cheetah became extinct in independent India in 1952. Now it is all set to return.

As part of the plan, the ministry will be translocating around 8-12 cheetahs from South Africa, Namibia and Botswana to Kuno Palpur National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

This could be the world’s first intercontinental cheetah translocation project.

Release of Water Atlas 

The Ministry of  Environment, Forest & Climate Change has released a Water Atlas. The atlas maps all the water bodies in the tiger-bearing areas of India.

The atlas contains information about presence of such bodies in several areas including the Shivalik Hills and Gangetic plain landscape, Central Indian Landscape and Eastern Ghats, Western Ghats landscape etc.

The atlas has been put together using remote-sensing data and Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping.

Source: This post is based on the articles:

– ‘19th Meeting of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)’ published in PIB on 6th Jan 2022.

– ‘Cheetahs will be reintroduced by the end of the year: Environment minister’ published in TOI on 6th Jan 2022.