Tigers need protection along porous borders with Nepal, B'desh: Expert

The Terai Arc Landscape and the Sundarbans, one of the largest mangrove forests in the world, are major transboundary landscapes where the tiger needs special protection. Both landscapes have a porous border with Nepal and Bangladesh, respectively, and are reported routes for the illegal trade of tiger parts and products, warned wildlife biologist Sujeet Kumar Singh on Sunday.

Also, conflict is also one of the key issues in these human-dominated landscapes.

"In both the transboundary landscape inter-country pact is crucial for tiger conservation," Singh, who did research in genetics and evolutionary biology of big cats -- Bengal tiger, leopard and Snow leopard -- and the Himalayan brown bear, told IANS.

Believing that poaching is still one of the biggest threats to tiger conservation, but not like earlier which India faced in Sariska and Panna tiger reserves.

"I think after the Sariska and Panna incident, all stakeholders -- government, scientific institutions and NGOs -- are more alert. To conserve the tiger and its prey species, habitat management, and corridor maintenance are crucial. Though authorities concerned are working on it, still needs more science and technology intervention to monitor tiger poaching and preservation of its habitat and prey species," Singh, who is Assistant Professor with the Amity Institute of Forestry and Wildlife in Noida, said.

Rating 50 years of India's Project Tiger as one of the success stories of wildlife conservation, he told IANS the bureaucracy and scientific community both jointly monitor the tigers significantly.

"It is very obvious that bureaucracy has its own way of management. Hence it still needs more coordination between the bureaucracy and the scientific community."

On being asked: Don't you think India is spending too much money on tiger conservation than other wildlife species that are facing extinction threats?

At this, he replied, "Being an apex predator and umbrella species, it's very important to conserve the tiger which makes bases to protect all other species and their habitats.

"Hence, I have not agreed with this statement that India is spending too much money on tiger conservation. Similarly, India has launched Project Elephant and Project Snow Leopard too. Regarding other species, the dugong, great Indian bustard, and the sangai deer conservation programs are other examples of the trend of species conservation in India."

He said the Exercise of tiger population estimation is based on scientific methods and current figures are genuine.

"The credit for this goes to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the forest department, the Wildlife Institute of India, and NGOs. I think the government needs to plan to increase the habitat and connectivity among the habitat and maintain the metapopulation framework for tiger conservation," added Singh, who worked on the project conservation genetics of the Himalayan black bear in Uttarakhand.