Lok Sabha Question No. 3405 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-12-16
Subject: Tiger Attack
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Shri Bhausaheb Rajaram Wakchaure

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

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO 3405

TO BE ANSWERED ON 16.12.2024

## Tiger Attack

## 3405. SHRI BHAUSAHEB RAJARAM WAKCHAURE:

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

- (a) whether there is an atmosphere of panic among people due to tiger attack in Shirdi Parliamentary Constituency and such incidences are increasing continuously, if so, the details thereof including the number of people injured/died by such attacks in the State of Maharashtra, district-wise;
- (b) whether the Government has taken or proposes to take any steps to catch the tiger and  release  them  in  Tadoba  Andhari  Tiger  Reserve  area  in  Chandrapur  district  of State or any other Tiger Reserve in order to solve the problem of tiger attacks and provide relief to the local people from such attacks; and
- (c) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI KIRTI VARDHAN SINGH)

- (a) As reported by the States, the frequency of human-wildlife negative interactions is under control  and  the  marginal  rise  in  some  areas  is  on  account  of  chance  encounters  with  dispersing wildlife.

As  reported  by  the  State  of  Maharashtra,  human  death  due  to  tigers  (Tiger  Reservewise/Division-wise) during the year 2024 (upto 30.6.2024) are as under:-

|   S. No. | State       | Tiger Reserve/ Division   |   No. of human deaths |
|----------|-------------|---------------------------|-----------------------|
|        1 | Maharashtra | Gadchiroli                |                     3 |
|        1 | Maharashtra | Alapalli                  |                     2 |
|        1 | Maharashtra | Central Chanda            |                     1 |
|        1 | Maharashtra | Bramhapuri                |                     4 |
|        1 | Maharashtra | Ballarshah                |                     3 |
|        1 | Maharashtra | Nagpur TR Division        |                     1 |
|        1 | Maharashtra | Bhandara                  |                     1 |
|        1 | Maharashtra | Bor                       |                     1 |
|        1 | Maharashtra | Sahyadri                  |                     0 |
|        1 | Maharashtra | Melghat                   |                     0 |

| Pench            |   2 |
|------------------|-----|
| Nawegaon Nagzira |   0 |
| Tadoba Andhari   |   4 |
| Total            |  22 |

(b) & (c) No such proposal has been received from the State Government of Maharashtra.  The Government of India, through the National Tiger Conservation Authority, has advocated a three pronged strategy to manage human-wildlife 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 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 Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats.

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