Biodiversity & Environment
Awards for Tiger Conservation
- 27 Nov 2020
- 7 min read
Why in News
The Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR - Uttar Pradesh) has bagged international award TX2 for doubling the number of tigers in the past four years.
- Also, the Transboundary Manas Conservation Area or TraMCA (India-Bhutan border) has received the Conservation Excellence Award for 2020.
- Earlier, India’s 2018 Tiger census (once in every four years) had set a Guinness record for being the largest camera-trap wildlife survey.
Key Points
- About the Awards:
- Launched recently, these awards were open to submissions from any site in a tiger range country that has achieved remarkable measurable progress since 2010.
- Site: An area having a functional tiger population, legally designated as a "site" under national legislation.
- Award winners were announced on 23rd November 2020 - the 10 year anniversary for the global TX2 goal.
- Sites will receive a small financial grant to be used to further tiger conservation.
- TX2 Award: It goes to one site that has achieved remarkable and measurable increase in its tiger population since 2010.
- Conservation Excellence Award: This award recognises one site that has achieved excellence in two or more of these five themes:
- Tiger and prey population monitoring and research (tiger translocation/prey augmentation),
- Effective site management,
- Enhanced law enforcement & protection & ranger welfare improvement,
- Community based conservation, benefits and human-wildlife conflict mitigation and
- Habitat and prey management.
- Launched recently, these awards were open to submissions from any site in a tiger range country that has achieved remarkable measurable progress since 2010.
TX2 Goal
- The TX2 goal is a global commitment to double the world's wild tigers by 2022.
- The goal has been set by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) through the Global Tiger Initiative, Global Tiger Forum and other critical platforms.
- All 13 tiger range governments came together for the first time at the St Petersburg Summit (Russia -2010) where they committed to double the number of wild tigers by 2022.
- Tiger Range Countries include India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
- Tiger (Panthera Tigris) is categorised as ‘Endangered’ under the IUCN Red List and is listed under Appendix I of CITES.
- Global Tiger Day is observed on 29th July across the world.
- India’s Project Tiger was launched in 1973 with 9 tiger reserves. Tiger has been listed under ‘Schedule I’ of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
- Pilibhit Tiger Reserve:
- Location: Pilibhit district, Lakhimpur Kheri District and Bahraich District of Uttar Pradesh
- The northern edge of the reserve lies along the Indo-Nepal border while the southern boundary is marked by the river Sharada and Khakra.
- Declaration: PTR was declared in 2014-15 on the basis of its special type of ecosystem with vast open spaces and sufficient feed for the elegant predators.
- PTR is one of the finest examples of the exceedingly diverse and productive Terai ecosystems (low-lying land at the foot of the Himalayas).
- Features:
- The study done by Wildlife Institute of India (WII) shows that Dudhwa-Pilibhit population has high conservation value as it represents the only tiger population with the ecological and behavioral adaptations of the tiger unique to the Terai region.
- It is home to a habitat for over 127 animals, 326 bird species and 2,100 flowering plants.
- Wild animals include tiger, swamp deer, Bengal florican, hog deer, leopard, etc.
- It has high sal forests, plantation and grasslands with several water bodies.
- Bagged TX2 Award: The number of tigers in the reserve area has gone up to 65 from 25 in the period of just four years (2014-18).
- Other Protected Areas in Uttar Pradesh:
- Dudhwa National Park
- Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary
- Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary
- Sur Sarovar (Keethan) Bird Sanctuary
- Location: Pilibhit district, Lakhimpur Kheri District and Bahraich District of Uttar Pradesh
- Transboundary Manas Conservation Area:
- Formation: It was conceptualized in 2011 with the vision to jointly develop and manage a transboundary conservation area between Bhutan and India, for the benefit of people and wildlife.
- Features:
- The TraMCA landscape with an area of over 6500 sq. km forms a vital mosaic of conservation spaces across the Eastern Himalayas, and covers the entire Manas Tiger Reserve in India, four protected areas in Bhutan and also two biological corridors.
- The Manas Tiger Reserve in India and Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan form the core of this biologically outstanding trans-boundary region that is home to tigers, elephants, rhinos and more than 1,500 species of mammals, birds and vascular plants.
- The Manas River flowing through Royal Manas National Park and Manas National Park also makes both parks an important watershed area in the region.
- The landscape and its surroundings support over 10 million people in India and Bhutan with its services.
- Bagged Conservation Excellence Award: For efforts to increase the tiger population. The recognition was for the TraMCA comprising the 500 sq. km. Manas National Park in Assam and the 1,057-sq. km. Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan.
- The number of Tigers in the Indian Manas increased from 9 in 2010 to 25 in 2018 while that in the Bhutan Manas more than doubled from 12 in 2008 to 26 in 2018.