Lok Sabha Question No. 2136 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-11-29
Subject: Illegal Deforestation and Mining
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: C.S. PUTTARAJU

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2136

TO BE ANSWERED ON 29.11.2016

## Illegal Deforestation and Mining

## 2136.  SHRI C.S. PUTTA RAJU:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether it is  a  fact  that  illegal  deforestation  and  mining  in  various  parts  of  the  country  has forced the tigers to come out of the reserved areas and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the Government is contemplating to take any steps to protect the tigers; and
- (c) if so, the details thereof and the action taken so far, in this regard?

## ANSWER

MINISTER  OF  STATE  (INDEPENDENT  CHARGE)  FOR  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND CLIMATE CHANGE

(SHRI ANIL MADHAV DAVE)

- (a) In  so  far  as  tiger  reserves  are  concerned,  no  such  report  of  illegal  deforestation  and mining has been received.  Tigers do disperse and become transient mostly owing to ethological  reasons.    Disturbances  of  any  kind  viz.  large  projects,  big  infrastructure creation  as  well  as  linear  projects  might  cause  fragmentation  of  habitat,  thereby affecting behavioral pattern of tiger.
- (b) & (c) The Government of India through the National Tiger Conservation Authority has taken a number of milestone initiatives to protect and conserve tiger and other wildlife.  The details are at Annexure-I.

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## ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (b)  &  (c)  OF  THE LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2136 ON ILLEGAL DEFORESTATION AND MINING DUE FOR REPLY ON 29.11.2016

Milestone initiatives taken by the Government of India through the National Tiger Conservation Authority to protect and conserve tiger and other wildlife

## Legal steps

1. Amendment of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 in 2006 to provide enabling provisions for constituting the National Tiger Conservation Authority under section 38 IV B and the Tiger and Other Endangered Species Crime Control Bureau under section 38 IV C.
2. Enhancement of punishment for offence in relation to the core area of a tiger reserve or where the offence relate to hunting in the tiger reserves or altering the boundaries of tiger reserves, etc.
3. Comprehensive  guidelines  under  section  38O  1  (c)  of  the  Wildlife  (Protection)  Act,  1972 issued for Project Tiger and Tourism in Tiger Reserves on 15 th October, 2012.

## Administrative steps

4. Constitution  of  the  National  Tiger  Conservation  Authority  (NTCA)  with  effect  from  the  4 th September, 2006, for strengthening tiger conservation by, interalia, ensuring normative standards in tiger reserve management, preparation of reserve specific tiger conservation plan, laying down annual audit report before Parliament, constituting State level Steering Committees under the Chairmanship of Chief Ministers and establishment of Tiger Conservation Foundation.
5. Constitution of a multidisciplinary Tiger and Other Endangered Species Crime Control Bureau (Wildlife Crime Control Bureau) with effect from the 6 th June, 2007 to effectively control illegal trade in wildlife.
6. Strengthening of antipoaching activities, including special strategy for monsoon patrolling, by providing  funding  support  to  tiger reserve  States,  as  proposed  by  them,  for  deployment  of antipoaching squads involving ex-army personnel or home guards, apart from workforce comprising of local people, in addition to strengthening of communication and wireless facilities.
7. In-principle  approval  has  been  accorded  by  the  National  Tiger  Conservation  Authority  for creation of new tiger reserves, and the sites are: Ratapani (Madhya Pradesh), Sunabeda (Odisha) and Guru  Ghasidas  (Chhattisgarh).    The  State  Governments  have  been  advised  to  send  proposals  for declaring the following  areas  as  tiger reserves:  (i)  Suhelwa  Wildlife  Sanctuary  (Uttar Pradesh),  (ii) Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary  (Goa),  (iii)  Srivilliputhur  Grizzled  Giant  Squirrel  /  Megamalai  Wildlife Sanctuaries / Varushanadu Valley (Tamil Nadu), (iv) Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary (Arunachal Pradesh), (v)  Cauveri-MM  Hills  Wildlife  Sanctuary  (Karnataka)  and  (vi)  Nandhaur  Wildlife  Sanctuary (Uttarakhand).
8. Rajaji  National  Park  (Uttarakhand),  Orang  National  Park  (Assam)  &  Kamlang  Wildlife Sanctuary  (Arunachal  Pradesh)  have  been  declared  /  notified  as  48 th ,  49 th &  50 th Tiger  Reserves. Besides  the  recently  notified  tiger  reserves  include:  Kawal  (Telangana),  Sathyamangalam  (Tamil Nadu), Mukandra Hills (Rajasthan), Nawegaon-Nagzira (Maharashtra), Amrabad (erstwhile Nagarjunasagar  Srisailam  Tiger  Reserve  portion)  (Telangana),  Pilibhit  (Uttar  Pradesh)  and  Bor (Maharashtra).
9. The revised Project Tiger guidelines have been issued to State Governments for strengthening tiger conservation, which apart from ongoing activities, inter alia, include financial support to States

for  enhanced  village  relocation  or  rehabilitation  package  for  people  living  in  core  or  critical  tiger habitats  (from  Rs.  1  lakh  per  family  to  Rs.  10  lakhs  per  family),  rehabilitation  or  resettlement  of communities  involved  in  traditional  hunting,  mainstreaming  livelihood  and  wildlife  concerns  in forests outside tiger reserves and fostering corridor conservation through restorative strategy to arrest habitat fragmentation.

10. A  scientific  methodology  for  estimating  tiger  (including  co-predators,  prey  animals  and assessment of habitat status) has been evolved and mainstreamed.  The findings of this estimation and assessment are bench marks for future tiger conservation strategy.
11. The  18  tiger  States  have  notified  the  core/critical  tiger  habitat  (40459.12  sq.  km.),  and  the buffer/peripheral area (31362.45 sq.km.) of all the 50 tiger reserves in the country, under section 38V of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended in 2006.
12.        Regional  Offices  of  the  National  Tiger  Conservation  Authority  are  operational  at  Nagpur, Bengaluru and Guwahati headed by an Inspector General of Forests.

## Financial steps

13. Financial  and  technical  help  is  provided  to  the  State  Governments  under  various  Centrally Sponsored Schemes, such as 'Project Tiger' and 'Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats' for enhancing the capacity and infrastructure of the State Governments for providing effective protection to wild animals.

## International Cooperation

14. India has a bilateral  understanding with Nepal on controlling trans-boundary illegal trade in wildlife and conservation, apart from a protocol on tiger conservation with China.
15. A protocol has been signed in September, 2011 with Bangladesh for conservation of the Royal Bengal Tiger of the Sunderban.
16. A sub-group on tiger and leopard conservation has been constituted for cooperation with the Russian Federation.
17. India  is  the  founder  member  of  the  Global  Tiger  Forum  of  Tiger  Range  Countries  for addressing international issues related to tiger conservation.
18. During the 14 th meeting of the Conference of Parties to CITES, which was held from 3 rd to 15 th June,  2007  at  The  Hague,  India  introduced  a  resolution  along  with  China,  Nepal  and  the  Russian Federation,  with  direction  to  Parties  with  operations  breeding  tigers  on  a  commercial  scale,  for restricting  such  captive  populations  to  a  level  supportive  only  to  conserving  wild  tigers.    The resolution  was  adopted  as  a  decision  with  minor  amendments.  Further,  India  made  an  intervention appealing to China to phase out tiger farming and eliminate stockpiles of Asian big cats body parts and  derivatives.    The  importance  of  continuing  the  ban  on  trade  of  body  parts  of  tigers  was emphasized.
19. Based on India's strong intervention during the 62 nd meeting of the Standing Committee of the Convention  on  International  Trade  in  Endangered  Species  of  Wild  Fauna  and  Flora  (CITES)  at Geneva from 23-27 July, 2012, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora Secretariat has issued a notification No. 2012/054 dated the 3 rd September, 2012 to Parties  to  fully  implement  Decision  14.69  and  report  to  the  Secretariat  by  25  September,  2012 (Progress made on restricting captive breeding operations of tigers etc.).
20. The 3 rd Asia Ministerial Conference (3 AMC) was organized in New Delhi from 12-14 April
2016.  Inspired by the statement of Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, during this conference that

'conservation of  tigers is not  a  choice, it is  an  imperative', to achieve the concrete results of ensuring the conservation of tigers in the wild and their habitats by 2022, the representatives of the Governments of the Tiger Range Countries resolved to:

-  Accelerate implementation of the Global Tiger Recovery Programme (GTRP)/National Tiger  Recovery  Programme  (NTRP)  and  agreed  actions  from  the  above-mentioned declarations, review and update priority and differentiated action plans, and track progress through mutual and systematic reporting and evaluation.
-  Align development and tiger conservation in a mutually complementary manner by  reorienting development strategies to mainstream the concerns of tiger conservation, such as  by  integrating  tiger  and  wildlife  safeguards  in  infrastructure  at  the  landscape  level, developing partnerships with business groups, and  strong  engagement  with  local stakeholders.
-  Leverage funding and technical support from international organisations, bilateral and multilateral financial institutions, foundations, civil society organisations, private sector, and climate funds, in addition to TRC governments.
-  Recognise and enhance the importance of tiger habitats by promoting them as providing ecosystem services, as  engines of economic growth and helping to address climate change.
-  Emphasize  recovery  of  tiger  populations  in  areas  with  low  tiger  densities and restoration in areas  from which they have been extirpated by using successful programs of tiger reintroduction and rehabilitation of their habitats and prey.
-  Strengthen co-operation at the highest levels of government to combat wildlife crime, address the  demand for tiger products, and increase formal and informal transboundary coordination.
-  Enhance  knowledge  sharing  and  capacity  development  for  all  stakeholders  and increase  the  use  of  technology ,  including  smart  tools,  monitoring  protocols,  and information systems, to  improve management effectiveness.

## OTHER MISCELLANEOUS STEPS

21. Creation  of  Special  Tiger  Protection  Force  (STPF): The  Special  Tiger  Protection  Force (STPF) has been made operational in the States of Karnataka (Bandipur), Maharashtra (Pench  and Tadoba-Andhari) and Odisha (Similipal), out of 13 initially selected tiger reserves, with 60% central assistance under the ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger.  In-principle approval has been accorded for creation of the said force in Nawegoan-Nagzira, Melghat (Maharashtra), Kawal and Amrabad (erstwhile Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve portion) Tiger Reserves (Telangana).
22. In collaboration with TRAFFIC-INDIA, an online tiger crime data base has been launched, and Generic Guidelines for preparation of reserve specific Security Plan has been evolved.
23. Implementing a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with tiger States, linked to fund flows for effective implementation of tiger conservation initiatives.
24. Steps  taken  for modernizing  the  infrastructure  and  field protection,  besides  launching 'Monitoring system for Tigers' Intensive Protection and Ecological Status (M-STrIPES)' for effective field patrolling and monitoring.
25. Steps  taken  for  no-cost  involvement  of  Non-Governmental  Experts  in  the  all  India  tiger estimation.
26. Initiatives taken for improving the field delivery through capacity building of field officials, apart from providing incentives.
27. As a part of active management to rebuild Sariska and Panna Tiger Reserves where tigers have become  locally  extinct,  reintroduction  of  tigers  and  tigresses  have  been  done.    The  successful reintroduction of wild tigers in Sariska is a unique exercise and is the first of its kind in the world. The reintroduced tigresses are breeding.  The tiger reintroduction initiative at Panna (MP) has been very successful.
28. Special advisories issued for in-situ build up of prey base and tiger population through active management in tiger reserves having low population status of tiger and its prey.
29. All India Tiger, Co-predators and Prey Estimation, 2014:The third round of country level tiger  status  assessment  completed  in  2014,  with  the  findings  indicating  an  increase  with  a  tiger population estimate of 2226 (lower and upper limits being 1945 and 2491 respectively), as compared to the last country level estimation of 2010, with an estimate of 1706 (lower and upper limits being 1520-1909 tigers), and 2006 estimation, with an estimate of 1411 (lower and upper limits being 1165 and 1657).  At present, India has around 70% of tiger population and its source areas amongst the 13 tiger range countries in the world, owing to its long history of conserving the species through Project Tiger (2.18% of country's geographical area spread out in 50 tiger reserves in 18 States).
30. Management  Effectiveness  Evaluation  (MEE) :  A  report  on  Management  Effectiveness Evaluation  (MEE) of Tiger Reserves was released on January, 2015, containing the third round of independent assessment based on refined criteria done in 2013-14 for 43 tiger reserves.  Out of 43 tiger reserves, 17 were rated as 'very good', 16 as 'good' and 10 as 'fair'.
31. Providing special assistance for mitigation of human-tiger conflicts in problematic areas.

## Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

32. A  'Standard  Operating  Procedure'  for  dealing  with  tiger  deaths  has  been  issued,  based  on advisories of Project Tiger / National Tiger Conservation Authority, with inputs from Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, State officials and experts, fine tuned to meet the present challenges.
33. A  'Standard  Operating  Procedure'  for  dealing  with  straying  tigers  in  human  dominated landscape has been issued.
34. A  'Standard  Operating  Procedure'  for  disposing  tiger/leopard  carcass/body  parts  has  been issued.
35. A Standard Operating Procedure has been issued to deal with orphaned / abandoned tiger cubs and old / injured tigers in the wild.
36. A 'Standard Operating Procedure' has been issued to deal with tiger depredation on livestock.
37. A 'Standard Operating Procedure' has been issued for active management towards rehabilitation of tigers from source areas at landscape level.
38. Launching of Phase-IV tiger reserve level, continuous monitoring of tigers using camera traps and building up data on photo captures of individual tigers.
39. Launching the creation of a national repository of camera trap photo IDs of individual tigers.
40. In-principle approval for use of CAMPA funds towards village relocation from core areas.
41. Under active management, permission accorded for translocation of wilded / straying tigers / tigresses from high to low density reserves within States.
42. Field level workshops for capacity building of field officers to deal with straying tigers.

## Recent Steps

43. On  completion  of  e-surveillance  project  in  Corbett  Tiger  Reserve  (Uttarakhand),  central assistance (100%) has been provided for installing 24X7 e-surveillance at Kaziranga Tiger Reserve (Assam) and fringe of Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary (Madhya Pradesh).
44. Economic Valuation of six tiger reserves done in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Forest Management.  Similar exercise is being done for 10 more tiger reserves.
45. Trial of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for monitoring done in the Panna Tiger Reserve (Madhya Pradesh), in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India and now has plan to extend to other tiger reserves too.
46. Assessment of Status, Density and Change in Forest Cover in and around tiger reserves of the Shivalik Gangetic Plain Landscape done in collaboration with the Forest Survey of India.
47. A Rhino Task Force has suggested measures to strengthen rhino protection in the Kaziranga Tiger Reserve.
48. In-principle approval has been accorded for creation of Rhino Protection Force at Kaziranga Tiger Reserve.
49. Supporting a health insurance scheme for forest guards in Kaziranga Tiger Reserve.
50. Fostering  a  voluntary  group  'Friends  for  Rhino'  for  eliciting  public  support  for  rhino conservation with active local participation around Kaziranga Tiger Reserve.
51. Initiative  taken  for  collaboration  with  National  Remote  Sensing  Agency  (NRSA)  towards evolving an alert system in tiger reserves prone to natural disasters.
52. A joint  report  with  Nepal  and  Bangladesh  has  been  brought  out  on  the  assessment  of  tiger status in the terai arc landscape.
53. Initiative taken for collaboration of National Tiger Conservation Authority and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau towards an online tiger / wildlife crime tracking / reporting system in tiger reserves.
54. Guidelines for security audit of the tiger reserves have been finalised and is getting validated.
55. Tiger rich areas outside tiger reserves are being monitored or bestowing CA|TS certification.

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