Project tiger has been a roaring success. Now, the Big Cat will help propagate India’s climate action
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (File: PTI)
On April 9, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi releases the tiger census numbers for 2022 in Mysuru, Karnataka, to mark 50 years of Project Tiger, the Big Cat will become a mascot of India’s efforts to counter climate change.
A tiger is much more than just an exotic animal. A sustainable wild tiger population means that you have sustainable ecosystem services in place. This is crucial for the sustenance and well-being of humans. A sustainable tiger population will mean the tiger-bearing forests lock up carbon. A carbon sink is a natural way of absorbing carbon from the atmosphere, and trees are the best at this job.
The document that the PM will release — ‘Amrit Kaal Vision for Tiger Conservation’ – will chart the way forward for the next 25 years to coincide with 100 years of India’s independence, in 2047. Further, after the success of the 50 years of Project Tiger, the government is now aiming at a goal for next 50 years so as to ascertain and sustain a viable tiger population. The document would likely list the scientific methods to calculate the carrying capacity of habitats.
As part of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which are a set of actions to reduce emissions as part of global efforts to restrict temperature rise to 2 degrees compared to the pre-industrial era, India has committed to creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.
A former Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change officer, on the condition of anonymity, tells us, “a sustainable population of wild tigers ensures livelihood gains for a vast population. Government data shows that around 50 lakh man-days are generated by the Centre and various state governments annually by implementing the Tiger agenda.”
The tiger-bearing forests also provide the much-needed dilution effect against the distortion of zoonotic cycles. So, it’s a safeguard against the spread of pandemics. “It involves a lot of gains. So, the vision document will be synchronised with the CBD goals. Whatever happens in the country, it is something India is doing in the global context as well,” the official added.
Last year, at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15), countries had agreed to certain actions to address the disappearance of wild plants and animals from the globe. The most important among the goals is the conservation of 30% of the world’s land and oceans by 2030, commonly known as the 30X30 target.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) comprises 23 targets relating to restoring ecosystems and preventing species extinction, among others, as part of the efforts by the signatory countries to reverse biodiversity loss until 2030. India’s current National Biodiversity Action Plan is aligned with the Aichi Targets, which were the predecessors to the GBF.
(This story first appeared on news9live.com on Apr 8, 2023 and can be read here.)
