BHUBANESWAR: India’s 50-year-long tiger conservation efforts not only helped the big cat population grow but also resulted in reduced carbon emission by preventing deforestation, claims a global study.
The study by six conservation scientists from the National University of Singapore and the Princeton University of USA found that tiger protection measures led to an estimated USD 110.29 million in carbon emission savings between 2001 and 2020.
As per the latest enumeration, the country has an estimated tiger population of 3,167, the headcount went up by 1,756 in one-and-a-half decades. Between 2018 and 20122, the number rose by 6.7 per cent.
The scientists evaluated the forest carbon storage co-benefits of India’s conservation policies and Project Tiger along with activities of apex bodies like the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) which are crucial to the long-term survival of tigers and the persistence of their associated habitats.
They also studied biodiversity outcomes in 162 protected areas (PAs) with tiger presence, which included both treated and untreated reserves and found that 6,558 hectares of forest cover - equivalent to one million metric tonnes of carbon emissions avoided - was saved from deforestation between 2007 and 2020 in the TRs. Of the 45 tiger reserves that underwent the conservation policy intervention, 15 showed significant but mixed results and 11 among them exhibited significant ‘avoided deforestation’ since 2007.
The three most valuable reserves in terms of ecosystem service valuation were Nawegaon-Nagzira in Maharashtra, Similipal-Hadagarh in Odisha and Udanti-Sitanandi in Chhattisgarh. The three worst-performing reserves in terms of additional emissions were Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh, Anamalai in Tamil Nadu and Dampa in Mizoram.
“Avoided carbon emission from tiger reserves that prevented deforestation was 1.28 metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e). These protected reserves provided ecosystem services through climate change mitigation of USD 110.29 million based on a USD 86 per tonne social cost of carbon estimate in India,” said the study that was published in the recent issue of Nature Ecology and Evolution Journal added.
“The tiger habitat management interventions with the goal of conserving biodiversity could provide ancillary climate change mitigation benefits. It helped quantify the downstream benefits on climate mitigation targets by further incentivising species conservation programmes and achieving climate action through the avoided social cost of the loss of natural ecosystems,” stated the study.