As India’s tiger count rises, indigenous people demand land rights
- Country’s tiger population has grown to over 3,000 since flagship conservation ‘Project Tiger’ began 50 years ago
- However, some indigenous groups say conservation has led to uprooting of communities who have lived in forests for millennia
It was a celebratory atmosphere for officials gathered just hours away from some of India’s major tiger reserves in the southern city of Mysuru, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to much applause that the country’s tiger population has grown to over 3,000 since its flagship conservation programme began 50 years ago after concerns that the number of the big cats was dwindling.
“India is a country where protecting nature is part of our culture,” Modi proclaimed on Sunday. “This is why we have many unique achievements in wildlife conservation.”
Modi also launched the International Big Cats Alliance that he said will focus on the protection and conservation of seven big cat species – tigers, lions, leopards, snow leopards, pumas, jaguars and cheetahs.
Protesters, meanwhile, were telling their own stories on Sunday of how they have been displaced by wildlife conservation projects over the last half-century, with dozens demonstrating about an hour away from the jubilant atmosphere.
Project Tiger began in 1973 after a census found India’s tigers were fast going extinct through habitat loss, unregulated sport hunting, increased poaching and retaliatory killing by people. It is believed the tiger population was around 1,800 at the time, but experts widely consider that figure an overestimate due to imprecise counting methods in India until 2006.
Laws attempted to address the decline, but the conservation model centred around creating protected reserves where ecosystems can function undisturbed by people.
