BENGALURU: The tiger population is recovering in the Malnad landscape despite economic development, the world’s longest-running tiger research project (1986-2017) says. In the past five decades, tiger recovery in Malnad has occurred in an overall socioeconomic context. If conservation strategies are crafted to align better with people’s aspirations and the development process, this landscape can support more than 1,300 tigers.
Scientists from the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS) in Bengaluru have documented tiger recoveries over the past 30 years, across 38,000 sqkm Malnad landscape of Karnataka. They include the four clusters of Anshi-Dandeli, Bhadra-Kudremukh, Bandipur- Nagarahole and BRTCauvery. This study outlines the results of ecological research, as also conservation intervention over three decades by CWS. As per their scientific assessment, tiger habitat occupancy remained unchanged across an area of 14,000 sqkm, out of 21,000 sqkm of potential habitat.
Add to this, tiger numbers rose from about 70 to 391, primarily in a few wildlife reserves with long histories of law enforcement. If future tiger recovery efforts can be optimised, Malnad can potentially support up to 1,300 wild tigers, the study stated. Dr K Ullas Karanth, leading tiger biologist and lead author of the study said, “The key to bringing back tigers and other threatened species lies in apportioning land wisely, separating nature preservation and human development, recognizing the need for effective law enforcement, encouraging non-governmental conservation efforts and accepting the reality that wildlife conservation must succeed under the mandate for economic and technological progress.”
Tiger recovery in the Malnad region has occurred amid significant human population growth, rising life expectancy and overall poverty reduction, induced by technological progress and demographic transition. These factors had both negative and positive impacts on conservation. This study proposes costeffective strategies to recover tigers and other threatened carnivores in a social context, and recommends that ‘conservation’ be seen as distinct from ‘development’.
Co-author N Samba Kumar adds, “There is a potential to recover tiger populations through informed management actions, and much scope for increasing carrying capacity for tigers in the forests of Malnad through protection of tigers and habitats.”
“Our work at CWS for more than three decades demonstrates the role that science and conservation play in sustaining wildlife amid human aspirations,” says co-author Krithi Karanth. The study, titled ‘Tigers against the odds: Applying macro-ecology to species recovery in India’ was authored by K Ullas Karanth, N Samba Kumar and Krithi Karanth, and appeared in the journal Biological Conservation.