(a) whether a number of villagers have been killed in tiger attacks in the country, especially in the Gadchiroli Parliamentary Constituency of Maharashtra State;
(b) if so, the State-wise details thereof particularly of Gadchiroli Parliamentary Constituency during the last three years; and
(c) whether the Government has taken or proposes to take any steps to protect the villagers from tiger attack and if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)
(a) & (b) Yes sir, people have been killed due to the human-tiger conflict events in the country. As per the details furnished by the State of Maharashtra there have been two human deaths in the last three years due to tiger attack in Gadchiroli Parliamentary Constituency. The details of human deaths due to tiger attacks as reported by the States are given at Annexure-I.
(c) The Government of India, through the National Tiger Conservation Authority, has advocated a three pronged strategy to manage human-tiger negative interactions as follows:-
(i) Material and logistical support: Funding support through the ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger, is provided to tiger reserves for acquiring capacity in terms of infrastructure and material, to deal with tigers dispersing out of source areas. These are solicited by tiger reserves through an Annual Plan of Operation (APO) every year which stems out from an overarching Tiger Conservation Plan (TCP), mandated under Section 38 V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Inter alia, activities such as payment of ex-gratia and compensation, periodic awareness campaigns to sensitize, guide and advise the general populace on man-animal conflict, dissemination of information through various forms of media, procurement of immobilization equipment, drugs, training and capacity building of forest staff to deal with conflict events are generally solicited.
(ii) Restricting habitat interventions: Based on the carrying capacity of tigers in a tiger reserve, habitat interventions are restricted through an overarching TCP. In case tiger numbers are at carrying capacity levels, it is advised that habitat interventions should be limited so that there is no excessive spill over of wildlife including tigers thereby minimizing man-animal conflict. Further, in buffer areas around tiger reserves, habitat interventions are restricted such that they are sub-optimal vis-à-vis the core/critical tiger habitat areas, judicious enough to facilitate dispersal to other rich habitat areas only.
(iii) Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs): The National Tiger Conservation Authority has issued following three SOPs to deal with human-animal conflict, which are available in public domain:
i. To deal with emergency arising due to straying of tigers in human dominated landscapes
ii. To deal with tiger depredation on livestock
iii. For active management towards rehabilitation of tigers from source areas at the landscape level.
The three SOPs inter alia include the issue of managing dispersing tigers, managing livestock kills so as to reduce conflict as well as relocating tigers from source areas to areas where density of tiger is low, so that conflict in rich source areas does not occur.
Also as per Tiger Conservation Plans need based and site-specific management interventions are done for improving quality of wildlife habitat for which funding is provided under the ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger.
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