India’s tiger diplomacy
With the latest global census pegging the big cat population at 3,890, the tally marks a significant turnaround from the last (2010) worldwide estimate when the number of tigers in the wild hit an all-time low of about 3,200. And in a landmark speech at the recently concluded event, deliberating on ways and means of preserving tiger habitat and preventing illegal poaching, Indian Premier Narendra Modi underlined the necessity of christening tiger landscapes as “Natural Capital” to synergize big cat conservation with the much-needed economic development agenda.
Putting an end to the growth versus tiger conservation debate, Modi clarified categorically that he does not view tiger conservation as “anti-growth” or a “drag on development.” Rather Modi, who as the chief minister of Gujarat proactively ensured speedy arrest and conviction of poachers responsible for killing 8 lions in the protected Gir Forest in 2007, insisted on defining conservation as a mean to achieve development targets. Setting a new paradigm Modi asserted, “We can achieve a framework to foster proactive engagement of industry for conservation” and went on to add “the natural capital denoting the stock of natural system should be treated at par with capital goods. Our economy needs to be viewed as a subset of a larger economy of natural resources and ecosystem services which sustain us.”
Indeed, as the number of big cat has shrunk drastically from 100,000 in 1900 and India alone holding more than half of the present-day tiger population, with 2,226 tigers roaming in reserves across the country, New Delhi must ensure that the high-level political commitments made during the conference do not go to waste. India’s tiger conservation technique is a universally adaptable model that can be replicated with necessary fine-tuning in accordance to local needs in nations, which have been lagging in protecting the tiger habitat within their sovereign territories.
Apart from vigorous anti-poaching patrolling — over 72 forest rangers have died in India between 2012 and 2014 along with numbers of junior staff — it also includes providing adequate compensation to the farming community or rural folks, experiencing injury or loss from tigers, for preventing retaliatory killing of big cats. Besides, New Delhi has invested lavishly in sustainable tourism around tiger reserves and its huge success has incentivized officials to consider expanding the reserve system further. In fact, the incentive to conserve this iconic predator, under constant threat from habitat loss and greed of poachers seeking tiger body parts for sale in thriving black markets, and the eco-system it lives within is equally lucrative because nature tourism has been growing at a fast pace and a healthy tiger in a well-visited reserve is worth an estimated $750,000 a year in tourism revenues, says a report compiled by Travel Operators for Tigers (TOFT) — an international campaign advocating responsible tourism as a way to save the tigers.
And as per a National Tiger Conservation Authority report titled “Economic Valuation of Tiger Reserves in India 2015” the six most popular sanctuaries generate revenue worth INR1.5 trillion annually. According to Indian Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma, the country recorded a revenue collection of $1 billion in foreign exchange from exclusively tiger tourism purpose in the financial year 2014-15.
As experts say, non-uniformity in the rise of tiger population in the wild across the globe is a worrying sign. While India, Nepal, Bhutan and Russia have counted more tigers in their latest surveys, Southeast Asian nations did not make any progress on this count and have even faltered in implementing conservation techniques or keeping a watch on the number of tigers by launching scientific census at regular interval. Fortunately, inspired by Modi’s clarion call 13 tiger range countries adopted the New Delhi resolution on tiger conservation by way of which the leaderships committed to framing development policies and programs with a conservation lens, so as to usher a win-win situation for both tigers and human being. Very rightly the declaration promised to accelerate implementation of the global and national tiger recovery programs, align economic development agenda with tiger conservation, recognize the value of tiger habitats for ecosystem services and climate change, leverage global and national funding as well as technical support, lay adequate emphasis on recovery of tiger populations in areas with low big cat densities, strengthen government-to-government co-operation, increase knowledge-sharing and use of high-end technology including smart tools to protect tiger habitat. Building on the past commitments of tiger range countries, the New Delhi resolution appropriately set a pathway for the next six years to successfully implement Tx2 goal to double wild tiger numbers by 2022.
Most importantly, as India’s Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar declared, New Delhi is willing to cooperate with any country, which does not have or has lost its tiger population in the course of history, to create tiger habitat, build capacity for tiger conservation and impart relevant training to wildlife personnel. However, there are some hitches that Modi need to address through smart tiger diplomacy. And the most important of all is to free the India-based Global Tiger Forum, one of the coordinating bodies tasked with implementing summit decision, from bureaucratic inertia, make it widely representative by loosening Indian stranglehold and relocate office to Southeast Asia for expanding international acceptability.
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