- The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) recently urged 19 states to prioritize relocating villagers from core tiger zones, citing the slow progress of village relocation as a concern for tiger conservation.
- The letter highlighted 591 villages with 64,801 families still residing in core zones, impacting tiger reserves. Since 1973, 257 of these villages comprising 25,007 families have been relocated.
- The “core zone” refers to the portion in a tiger reserve where tribals cannot live and activities such as hunting and collecting forest produce are banned.
- There is a concentric circle outside the “core zone” called the buffer zone where these restrictions are eased but regulated.
- The Wildlife Protection Act says that core zones are to be inviolate and these must be made so by coaxing residents to voluntarily relocate on mutually agreed terms and conditions.
| National Tiger Conservation Authority: • NTCA is a statutory body established under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 in 2005 for strengthening tiger conservation in India. • It was created as part of the Project Tiger initiative, launched in 1973 to protect Bengal tigers from extinction. • The minister in charge of the Ministry of Environment and Forests acts as a Chairperson, the MoS acts as Vice-Chairperson. • It monitors tiger populations, habitat management, and human-wildlife conflicts, while also ensuring the voluntary relocation of communities from core tiger habitats to maintain inviolate areas essential for tiger survival. |
Dig Deeper: Read about the Dholpur-Karauli Tiger Reserve.
