Today is the 50th anniversary of Project Tiger, and we have a lot to feel proud about:
- India is home to nearly 70% of the all wild tigers
- We have 53 Tiger Reserves that together span over 75,000 sq. km
- From 1,411 in 2006 to 2,967 in 2018, India’s tiger numbers have doubled in a span of 12 years
But protecting tigers in isolated Tiger Reserves is not enough. Healthy, functional corridors, facilitating gene flow between tiger reserves, are crucial for the long-term survival of the species. The Wildlife Conservation Trust WCT believes that good quality wildlife corridors are a prerequisite for the long-term sustenance of tiger populations. In the past five years, WCT has intensively surveyed nearly 18,000 sq. km of corridors in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
Currently, with support from the SBI Foundation and DSP Investment Managers, WCT is meticulously conducting camera trapping surveys to determine the population of tigers in the Satpura-Melghat corridor, which spans over 4,000 sq.km., and connects two of the largest tiger reserves in Central India.
In the last 50 years, India has done exceedingly well in saving the tiger from the impending threat of extinction, by protecting the species within the boundaries of tiger reserves. However, in order to sustain this population, and to maintain natural dispersal of the species across vast landscapes, India will have to secure corridors.