With India set to host the first global summit on big cats early next month, in which representatives of over 90 countries are expected to adopt a ‘Delhi Declaration’ on protection of seven big cats, Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav, in an e-mail interview with Nikhil Ghanekar, said that having a separate free-ranging population of Asiatic Lions is under consideration. The translocation of Asiatic Lions from Gujarat to Madhya Pradesh has not been implemented despite Supreme Court’s orders, but Yadav said states concerned are being consulted. He also said that under Project Cheetah, the intention is not to keep the spotted cats in enclosures permanently.
Apart from the Delhi declaration, is the Indian government and IBCA secretariat working on specific projects to translocate big cats from India’s forests to countries (other than Cambodia) to help them revive their population?
Countries like Kazakhstan have initiated tiger reintroduction but as far as IBCA is concerned, no proposal for sourcing big cats from India has been received.
India’s Asiatic Lions continue to remain an island population, with Gujarat refusing to translocate lions to Madhya Pradesh, despite Supreme Court’s orders to move some to Kuno National Park. With zoonotic diseases and contagious ones like CDV still a threat, what is the union government doing to urge Gujarat government to nudge it towards translocation?
The conservation and long-term security of the Asiatic lion is a matter of national importance. Over the years, significant conservation efforts by the Government of Gujarat, supported by the Government of India, have resulted in a steady recovery of the Asiatic lion population and expansion of its distribution within the Greater Gir landscape.
At the same time, the importance of securing geographically separated populations as part of long-term species conservation has also been recognized in various scientific and policy discussions. The issue of establishment of an additional free-ranging population has been under consideration in consultation with the concerned State Governments, scientific institutions and expert bodies.
The Government of India continues to support scientific assessment, disease surveillance, habitat preparedness, prey augmentation and inter-agency coordination relating to lion conservation. Measures relating to wildlife health monitoring, veterinary preparedness and surveillance for infectious diseases have also been strengthened in recent years in view of emerging wildlife health concerns globally.
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Conservation decisions involving translocation of large carnivores require careful consideration of ecological, genetic, veterinary, social and management-related factors, along with coordination between the concerned State Governments. The Government remains committed to ensuring the long-term conservation and ecological security of the Asiatic lion through a science-based and consultative approach.
Official and independent scientists have shown that increasingly, in high density tiger bearing regions such as Central India, parts of Terai, and parts of Western Ghats, tigers are living across mixed landscapes. How does the government plan to tackle this issue beyond sanctioning funds under Tigers outside Tiger Reserves?
India’s tiger conservation strategy has progressively adopted a landscape-based approach, recognizing that tiger conservation cannot remain confined only to notified tiger reserves. Findings from the All India Tiger Estimation exercises and field monitoring indicate that several tiger-bearing landscapes across Central India, the Terai Arc and the Western Ghats support tiger presence in territorial forests, corridors and other multiple-use areas adjoining tiger reserves.
This reflects both the recovery of tiger populations in the country and the importance of maintaining habitat connectivity between source populations. Accordingly, NTCA, in coordination with State Governments, has been strengthening conservation and management interventions beyond the boundaries of tiger reserves through a combination of policy support, financial assistance, habitat management, protection measures and monitoring.
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The “Tigers Outside Tiger Reserves” initiative is one component of this broader framework. Support is also being provided under Project Tiger for corridor conservation, anti-poaching infrastructure, habitat improvement, conflict mitigation, eco-development activities and strengthening protection in adjoining forest divisions and dispersal areas.
Standard Operating Procedures for conflict management, straying tigers and emergency response mechanisms have also been issued from time to time to States.
More recently, dedicated support for managing tigers outside tiger reserves has also been extended to eastern Maharashtra, where rapid response teams, early warning systems, drones, wireless communication and monitoring infrastructure are being strengthened in territorial forest divisions witnessing increasing tiger dispersal.
A fallout of tigers outside tiger reserves has been conflict with humans, and poaching. Even as tiger numbers in Vidarbha and Madhya Pradesh remain large, and despite a healthy reproduction rate, poaching rings threaten them. What steps have been taken to tackle this crime?
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Protection and monitoring mechanisms in tiger landscapes have been strengthened considerably over the years through coordinated efforts of NTCA, State Forest Departments and multiple enforcement agencies. Particular emphasis is being placed on strengthening protection in landscapes witnessing increasing tiger dispersal and breeding populations outside core tiger reserves, especially across parts of Central India.
A combination of field protection, technology-based surveillance, intelligence gathering and inter-agency coordination is being used to tackle poaching and illegal wildlife trade. Several tiger-bearing states have strengthened Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF) deployments, anti-poaching camps, wireless communication networks, patrolling intensity and surveillance systems through platforms such as M-STrIPES.
Many cheetahs continue to remain in enclosures and there is a lot of manpower and resources spent on their tracking, and to tranquillise them when they cross over into human-dominated landscapes. When will all enclosures cease to exist? And till when will authorities tranquillise cheetahs to get them back to forested landscapes, instead of letting them co-exist with humans?
Project Cheetah is still in an early and carefully managed phase of reintroduction, being implemented in accordance with the “Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetah in India” and subsequent adaptive management recommendations of the Cheetah Project Steering Committee and technical experts.
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The use of enclosures at present is part of a scientific acclimatization and monitoring process followed globally in carnivore reintroductions, particularly when animals are being introduced into a landscape after a long ecological absence. These enclosures help wildlife managers assess animal health, adaptation, ranging behaviour, hunting ability, social interactions, and response to local ecological conditions before full free-ranging conditions are established.
The intention is not to keep cheetahs in enclosures permanently. The Action Plan itself envisages a phased transition towards establishment of free-ranging populations and eventually a metapopulation across suitable landscapes. As more individuals settle, establish stable home ranges, and adapt to local conditions, the level of intensive management is expected to reduce progressively. However, the pace of this transition has to be guided by ecological realities, animal behaviour, prey availability, landscape conditions, and field-based scientific assessment rather than fixed timelines.
The project has already shown encouraging signs of adaptation and population growth. Since the start of the project, 29 cheetahs have been brought from Namibia, South Africa and Botswana, and India currently supports a population of 53 cheetahs, including 33 surviving India-born cubs/sub-adults. Several cheetahs are now free-ranging, and Indian-born cheetahs have also started reproducing under free-ranging conditions, which is an important ecological milestone for the programme. The recent expansion of the project to Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary and planning for additional landscapes such as Banni, Nauradehi and other identified sites are also part of the long-term metapopulation strategy envisaged under the project framework.
At the same time, occasional tranquilization and retrieval operations are sometimes necessary from the perspective of animal safety, human safety, veterinary intervention, genetic management, or conflict prevention. Large carnivores, especially during the initial phases of reintroduction, can disperse over large distances and occasionally move through human-use landscapes. Such dispersal behaviour is not entirely unexpected and has been documented in cheetah reintroduction programmes elsewhere as well.
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Importantly, coexistence does not mean complete absence of management intervention, particularly during the early establishment phase of a reintroduced population.
How do you see the role of indigenous communities in conserving big cats found in India? There have been instances in the past when communities living inside forests have been coerced or pressurized to move out of forests
Local and indigenous communities are integral to the conservation of big cats in India, particularly because many important wildlife habitats exist within lived-in and shared landscapes. India’s conservation experience has repeatedly shown that long-term success is strongest where local communities become active stakeholders in protection, monitoring and coexistence efforts.
Several conservation initiatives across the country demonstrate this approach. In the Gir landscape of Gujarat, Maldhari communities have coexisted with Asiatic lions for generations and continue to form an important part of the larger conservation landscape. In the Sundarbans, community participation in conflict mitigation, awareness programmes and local monitoring has been important in managing human-tiger interactions in a highly challenging ecosystem. In parts of Maharashtra and Central India, village-level awareness networks, rapid response teams and local participation in monitoring and conflict response have become increasingly important as tiger presence expands outside protected areas.
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India’s legal and policy framework recognizes that conservation and community welfare must proceed together. The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and Forest Rights Act, 2006 provide the broader framework within which conservation measures are implemented. Relocation from core/critical tiger habitats, wherever required for creating inviolate space for tiger conservation, is undertaken through a voluntary process with rehabilitation packages and livelihood support.
India’s experience has shown that conservation outcomes are strongest when local communities are treated not as external to conservation, but as important partners in securing wildlife landscapes for the future.
