A bizarre incident took place for Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officers attending a mid-career training programme at the Environment Ministry earlier this month. They were surprised when a senior official handed them a peculiar task to identify and suggest improvements in the functioning of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) which oversees the implementation of ‘Project Tiger’.
The participating officers, with seven to nine years of experience, are learnt to have been explained that it is better to have criticism from within to improve administration. The task was handed out to them, as IFoS officers coming from different states often interact with the NTCA. The participating officers have been asked to submit suggestions by the end of the training programme in early November.
They were apparently surprised as the task is an indirect admission of shortcomings that the NTCA is facing. So, there is a need to reflect on the purpose for which the NCTA was established and the challenges it needs to overcome.
The NTCA, a statutory body established in 2006, is responsible for laying down conservation guidelines, monitoring tiger populations, approving Tiger Conservation Plans, providing financial and technical assistance to tiger reserves and coordinating with state governments. It is also supposed to oversee measures to prevent poaching, protect tiger habitats and address human-tiger conflicts.
According to the NTCA’s official portal, India currently has 53 tiger reserves across 18 states.
Despite considerable success in increasing India’s tiger population, the NTCA faces several institutional, administrative and ecological challenges like human-tiger conflict, habitat fragmentation caused by infrastructure projects putting pressure on forest habitats and disrupting wildlife corridors essential for tiger movement and genetic exchange.
Similarly, poaching and illegal wildlife trade, manpower shortage, poor coordination with states, and balancing conservation and development are a few major challenges which the NTCA is required to address.
Thus, the NTCA’s challenge is no longer confined to increasing tiger numbers, but it has also to ensure that population growth is supported by adequate habitat, sufficient prey, protected wildlife corridors and effective conflict-management mechanisms.
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