Conservation News

A round-up of important news from the world of conservation.

- Dr. Dipankar Ghose

The All India Tiger Estimation (AITE) exercise has been going on in full swing across India’s Tiger Range States. This is being implemented through Phase I or on-ground surveys and Phase III or camera trapping by the State Forest Departments, together with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and NGOs such as WWF India, Wildlife Conservation Trust, Aaranyak and others. Exciting news about occurrence of tigers in northern part of West Bengal was reported this quarter. Photos of the tiger were captured in the Neora Valley National Park. It is to be seen whether those are resident tigers or if they have moved in from some other area. Tigers, though, haven’t been reported in the recent past from nearby areas in Sikkim and across the border in China.

The third National Wildlife Action Plan (2017-31 NWAP) of the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MoEF&CC) was published recently. The NWAP stressed on strengthening wildlife habitats in and extending Protected Areas. At the beginning of the second NWAP in 2002 (which ended in 2016), there were only about 400 Protected Areas in India covering an area around 1.56 lakh sq. km. Presently, there are 726 PAs in the country covering 1.60 lakh sq. km. The present NWAP also takes cognizance of impacts of climate change on wildlife populations and habitats, and suggests that climate adaptation needs to be taken up as an integrated task.