1 week Ago By Iram Siddique
Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government has given in-principal approval to a new scheme for development of buffer zones in nine tiger reserves. It has a separate budgetary allocation of Rs 145 crore for three financial years starting this fiscal. Titled ‘Development of Buffer Zones in Tiger Reserves’, the scheme is part of efforts to reduce man-animal conflict and strengthen conservation work.
The move Tuesday comes at a time when the tiger population in the state has increased significantly, from 526 tigers in 2018 to 785 in 2022, according to the National Tiger Census, though a high number of tiger fatalities were also reported last year. Forest officials in Madhya Pradesh estimate that nearly 30 percent of the total tiger population is found outside the tiger reserves. Informing about the cabinet decision, Deputy Chief Minister Rajendra Shukla said key activities undertaken as part of the scheme would include installation of chain-link fencing in ecologically sensitive buffer zones, wildlife protection and fire safety measures, health monitoring and treatment of animals, development of grasslands and water resources, along with skill development training for local communities.
Regarding the need for separate fund allocation for conservation activities in buffer zones, a senior forest official said that at present, conservation activities in tiger reserves are carried out through funds allocated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). Of the total funds provided by the NTCA, 60 percent come from the central government while the remaining 40 percent are contributed by the state, he said, explaining that the problem with funds coming through the NTCA is that they are focused on conservation activities in the core of the forest, while buffer zones suffer from paucity of funds. “Also, the Centre’s share which used to come in two instalments is now staggered into four.
Even the first instalment comes only in August, after the request is made in April itself,” said the senior forest official, adding that this delay in release of funds affects conservation activities that are time-bound and need to happen before the monsoon. In a bid to meet this shortfall of funds, the Madhya Pradesh forest department depended on its national park development funds, he said. But even these piecemeal measures proved to be insufficient, with rising cases of both tiger deaths and human casualties over the years.
Madhya Pradesh saw the highest number of 46 tiger fatalities in 2024, followed by 43 in 2023, 34 in 2022 and 42 in 2021, according to the NTCA. Further, eight persons were reported killed after being attacked by tigers in 2024-25, while 23 such deaths were reported in 2023-24 and 16 in 2022-23. “Funds specific to conservation activities in buffer zones would allow field directors to identity hotspots and subsequently enforce measures to prevent man-animal conflict,” L.
Krishnamoorthy, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (APCCF) Wildlife Protection, told ThePrint. Also Read: Dead tiger found buried in MP’s Bandhavgarh, 2 arrested for laying snare made of electrical wires The forest department has written to the field directors of all nine tiger reserves to come up with measures that can be enforced to reduce man-animal conflict in their buffer zones. It has also urged the field directors to develop model villages with innovative conservation efforts which can be replicated elsewhere.
According to Krishnamoorthy, the idea is to allow innovative interventions to be developed on the field which are specific to the area, instead of a uniform policy being formulated at the top level and pushed on the ground. Field directors ThePrint spoke to said they have begun undertaking surveys to identify existing hotspots or emerging hotspots, whether it is for crop-raid, animal attacks or forest fires. “We have been collating data for the past 10 years to understand the villages that are historic hotspots and those that can become hotspots in the future.
Using this data, we are looking at implementing interventions such as solar fencing across fields in a cluster model, instead of putting them up around fields of individual farmers,” Ravindra Mani Tripathi, field director of Kanha Tiger Reserve, told ThePrint. Forest officials are also working to tie up with vocational training institutes to enroll local youth from villages affected by crop-raiding and man-animal conflict. “There is a need for trust-building with villagers, and these skill-training programmes will create employment and help in that direction.
If we can support the villagers better, there will be more trust,” said Tripathi. According to forest officials, in villages prone to crop-raiding, it is often seen that resentment of villagers towards wildlife leads to higher cases of forest fires. Thus, the new scheme lays special emphasis on skill development of youth.
Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve field director Amit Dubey said there is need for better conservation efforts in villages along the river Banas. “The river Banas flows through both core and buffer areas of the reserve. There is ample tiger movement around it and there are many villages along the river.
These villages are suspectable to becoming hotspots of man-animal conflict without proper interventions,” he told ThePrint. “We would be working to develop a model to protect these areas.” (Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui) Also Read: Kerala govt orders capture of tiger that killed woman in Wayanad forest, ‘dead or alive’ var ytflag = 0;var myListener = function() {document.
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