Project Tiger is a tiger conservation effort, started by Government of India in 1973. It was launched to improve the dwindling population of Tiger and to restore the grassland ecosystem of India.
The project has been regarded to be one of the most successful conservation projects of the world. The project has been successful in protection, maintaining, and increasing the count of tigers in nature. The tiger census in 1972 revealed the existence of 1827 tigers. However, in 2023, India is the home of 3167 tigers, which is the highest among the 13 Tiger Range Countries in the world.
However, the critics have pointed out that the increase in the population of the tiger since the inception of the project has not been very reassuring. The amount of political effort, funds and legal framework that has gone into this has not given appropriate outcomes.
The limitations of the Tiger Project have been the following:
- The tiger population in certain geographical regions of India still depreciated, despite the major effort to conserve.
- The plan to reintroduce tigers from central Indian Forests to such areas where the population is dwindling, has led to homogeneity in the tiger genetic structure across the country.
- As Cheetal are the major prey for tiger, efforts to provide for prey base in varying ecosystems has majorly resulted in ‘Cheetalification’ of the tiger reserves.
- All the conservation efforts in Project Tiger are done by the government only. Wildlife Protection Act is very restrictive in nature. This has led to exclusion of the local communities and other sections from the conservation efforts.
However, the efforts by the government to conserve the population of the tiger has borne fruit. Trafficking of Tiger has been effectively controlled, public has become more aware and poaching has been prevented. These efforts have led to increase in the number of the tigers in the country, making Project Tiger a very successful project.
