Lok Sabha Question No. 1947 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-12-19
Subject: Funds for Project Tiger
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Pocha Brahmananda Reddy

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1947

TO BE ANSWERED ON 19.12.2022

## Funds for Project Tiger

## 1947.  SHRI POCHA BRAHMANANDA REDDY:

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

- (a) the States where Project Tiger is being implemented at present;
- (b) the details of budgetary allocation to Project Tiger during the last three years;
- (c) the details  of funds released to the State Governments under Project Tiger during the last three years; and
- (d) the measures taken to prevent the increasing man-tiger conflict and to protect the tigers from unnatural deaths?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

- (a) The  Project  Tiger  is  being  implemented  in  18  tiger  range  States,  and  the  details  are  at Annexure-I.
- (b) The details of budgetary allocation to the ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger, during the last three years are as under:
- (c) The  details  of  funds  released  to  the  State  Governments  under  the  ongoing  Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger during the last three years is at Annexure-II .
- (d) The  Government  of  India,  through  the  National Tiger  Conservation  Authority, has advocated a three pronged strategy to manage human-tiger negative interactions as follows:-
- (i) Material and logistical support: Funding support through the ongoing Centrally Sponsored  Scheme  of  Project  Tiger,  is  provided  to  tiger  reserves  for  acquiring capacity in terms of infrastructure and material, to deal with tigers dispersing out of source areas.  These are solicited by tiger reserves through an Annual Plan of Operation  (APO)  every  year  which  stems  out from  an  overarching  Tiger Conservation Plan (TCP), mandated  under Section 38 V  of the Wildlife (Protection)  Act,  1972. Inter  alia, activities  such  as  payment  of  ex-gratia  and

| Year    |   (Rs. in crore) Budget Allocation |
|---------|------------------------------------|
| 2019-20 |                             282.57 |
| 2020-21 |                             195    |
| 2021-22 |                             220    |

compensation,  periodic  awareness  campaigns  to  sensitize,  guide  and  advise  the general  populace  on  man-animal  conflict,  dissemination  of  information  through various forms of media, procurement of immobilization equipment, drugs, training and  capacity  building  of  forest  staff  to  deal  with  conflict  events  are  generally solicited.

- (ii) Restricting habitat interventions :  Based on the carrying capacity of tigers in a tiger reserve, habitat interventions are restricted through an overarching TCP.  In case  tiger  numbers  are  at  carrying  capacity  levels,  it  is  advised  that  habitat interventions should be limited so that there is no excessive spill over of wildlife including tigers thereby minimizing man-animal conflict.  Further, in buffer areas around tiger reserves, habitat interventions are restricted such that they are suboptimal vis-à-vis the core/critical tiger habitat areas, judicious enough to facilitate dispersal to other rich habitat areas only.
- (iii) Standard  Operating  Procedure  (SOPs): The National Tiger Conservation Authority  has  issued  following  three  SOPs  to  deal  with  human-animal  conflict, which are available in public domain:
- i.  To  deal  with  emergency  arising  due  to  straying  of  tigers  in  human dominated landscapes
- ii. To deal with tiger depredation on livestock
- iii. For active management towards rehabilitation of tigers from source areas at the landscape level.

The  three  SOPs inter alia include the issue of managing  dispersing  tigers, managing  livestock  kills  so  as  to  reduce  conflict  as  well  as  relocating  tigers  from source areas to areas where density of tiger is low, so that conflict in rich source areas does not occur.

Also as per Tiger Conservation Plans need based and site-specific management interventions are undertaken by the tiger reserves for improving the quality of wildlife habitat and funding support for these activities is provided under the ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger.

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Annexure-I

ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (a)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED  QUESTION  NO.  1947  ON  FUNDS  FOR  PROJECT  TIGER  DUE  FOR REPLY ON 19.12.2022

## Details of tiger range States, where Project Tiger is being implemented

|   Sl. No. | State             |
|-----------|-------------------|
|         1 | Andhra Pradesh    |
|         2 | Arunachal Pradesh |
|         3 | Assam             |
|         4 | Bihar             |
|         5 | Chhattisgarh      |
|         6 | Jharkhand         |
|         7 | Karnataka         |
|         8 | Kerala            |
|         9 | Madhya Pradesh    |
|        10 | Maharashtra       |
|        11 | Mizoram           |
|        12 | Odisha            |
|        13 | Rajasthan         |
|        14 | Tamil Nadu        |
|        15 | Telangana         |
|        16 | Uttarakhand       |
|        17 | Uttar Pradesh     |
|        18 | West Bengal       |

*****

Annexure-II

ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (c)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED  QUESTION  NO.  1947  ON  FUNDS  FOR  PROJECT  TIGER  DUE  FOR REPLY ON 19.12.2022

Details of funds released to the State Governments under the ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger during the last three years (Rs. in lakhs)

| Sl. No.   | State             |   2019-20 |   2020-21 |   2021-22 |
|-----------|-------------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| 1         | Andhra Pradesh    |    114.48 |    266.51 |    292.11 |
| 2         | Arunachal Pradesh |    846.31 |    803.76 |    869.08 |
| 3         | Assam             |   2198.76 |   2513.9  |   1476.75 |
| 4         | Bihar             |    562.84 |    628.89 |    552.72 |
| 5         | Chhattisgarh      |    358.53 |    471.16 |    355.85 |
| 6         | Jharkhand         |   1432.07 |    128.45 |    195.06 |
| 7         | Karnataka         |   2252.03 |   2118.01 |   2956.7  |
| 8         | Kerala            |    607.07 |    402.88 |    868.78 |
| 9         | Madhya Pradesh    |   3501.91 |   2551.26 |   3523.52 |
| 10        | Maharashtra       |   7220.39 |   3098.03 |   2991.06 |
| 11        | Mizoram           |    337.7  |    161.53 |    374.13 |
| 12        | Odisha            |   1303.32 |    680.07 |   1056.86 |
| 13        | Rajasthan         |   1203.19 |   1008.89 |    841.05 |
| 14        | Tamil Nadu        |   1586.91 |   1336.14 |   1576.22 |
| 15        | Telangana         |    359.91 |    351.97 |    543.26 |
| 16        | Uttarakhand       |   1242.49 |   1671.3  |   1463.71 |
| 17        | Uttar Pradesh     |   2289.18 |    923.29 |   1304.85 |
| 18        | West Bengal       |    758.47 |    333.96 |    708.28 |
|           | TOTAL             |  28175.6  |  19450    |  21950    |

*****