Wildlife Conservation India Project #51283

Protect India's Tigers And Promote Co-Existence

by Born Free Foundation

Protect India's Tigers And Promote Co-Existence

Project Report | Jun 1, 2023
Workshops for women help reduce human-tiger conflict

By Natalie Blachford | Project Leader

Participants of the project with staff from BNHS

Workshops for women in India help reduce human-tiger conflict

Thanks to your support, Born Free partner the Satpuda Landscape Tiger Partnership (SLTP) has helped deliver a series of sensitisation programmes for women in India, to help reduce human-tiger conflict.

Delivered by Bombay Natural History Society in association with Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, the programme in Chandrapur has already brought about a positive change in the mindset of local women towards forests and wildlife, including the magnificent tigers.

As with many communities living in the areas surrounding India’s tiger reserves, the locals living around Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve regularly enter the forests for their livelihood and sustenance needs, which can lead to confrontation with tigers.

With women more likely to be responsible for the collection of forest resources than men, the sensitisation workshops were help for a total of 449 women from 11 villages, which have all faced incidences of cattle and even human deaths as a result of tiger conflict.

Presentations were given on water-forest relations, human-wildlife conflict and the importance of tiger tourism, while important topics like participation of women in the conservation of the forest, their dependency on the forest, their problems to mitigate daily needs, schemes run by the forest department, and alternatives for the betterment of the women by using self-help group schemes, were also discussed.

After the programme was completed, a follow up was carried out that found the participants had a much better understanding of tigers, and how they can be beneficial rather than harmful, as well as being better aware of degradation of the forest caused by cattle grazing, and the relationship between the forest and water.

One of the participants, Kunda, said: “Initially, we were unaware of the programme’s objective. We thought that the people who arranged the programme are from the forest department and they will tell us not to go into the forest for the resource collection.

“But after listening to the lectures and presentations, we realised that this programme is arranged for us to explain why the forest is important to us and why we should save it. We should use more and more LPG which is provided by the forest department for cooking to avoid visiting the forest for our safety. Karkare Sir and Madam also gave emphasis on our sustenance through various livelihood options. This was the first program I ever attended in which I got remarkable information about the importance of wildlife, man-animal conflict, and how a woman could survive through various opportunities without going to the forest.”

Participant Kunda

Women collecting wood from the forest

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Feb 9, 2023
Tiger numbers in India increasing - thanks to you!

By Natalie Blachford | Project Leader

Two tigers in the Panna Tiger Reserve

The past few months have been busy for the Satpuda Landscape Tiger Partnership (SLTP), which is directly supported by your donations to Protect India’s Tigers and Promote Co-Existence, and we are delighted to have good news to share with you!

As SLTP approaches its 20th year anniversary, we are proud to report that, together with the many other conservation outfits operating in the region, there has been an increase in tiger numbers from an estimated 1,411 in 2006 to 2,967 today, more than doubled the number recorded since our work began there.

Although a success story, increasing numbers of carnivores in a finite landscape that is increasingly fragmented and isolated from other tracts of suitable tiger habitat, and heavily settled and used by millions of people, leads to other challenges, namely the need to mitigate and reduce the resulting increasing conflict with people. The partnership will continue to do its crucial work, in all corners of the landscape, for the benefit of tigers and people alike.

Annual SLTP seminar in Melghat Tiger Reserve

SLTP’s annual two-day seminar took place this year in January 2023 in a very remote location – while being one of the largest tiger reserves in Central India, Melghat Tiger Reserve is a very undulating terrain (‘ghat’ means mountain pass) and thus not a popular location with tourists because of the difficulty in sighting wildlife.

A total of 35 partner representatives and team members came together for three nights at the Muthwa Community Resource Center, established and managed by SLTP partner Nature Conservation Society Amravati (NCSA).

Esteemed invitees included Ms. Jayoti Banerjee, the Field Director of MTR, Mr. Hemant Kamdi the Assistant Inspector General of the Forest from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), renowned conservationist and wildlife expert, Dr MK Ranjitsinh Jhala, and Born Free’s Head of Conservation Dr Nikki Tagg. A number of very productive high-level discussions took place, and future directions of the network were considered.

Discussions were had with Dr Ruth DeFries representing the Network for Conserving Central India (NCCI) for its inclusion as the 9th partner of the SLTP network – it was agreed that will be invaluable for information sharing and for ensuring adequate monitoring and evaluation of our work.

Stall-feeding cattle for conflict mitigation

Established as a trust in 1994, The Corbett Foundation (TCF) works across important conservation landscapes in India, such as the Terai Arc Landscape, Central Indian Landscape, Brahmaputra Flood Plains, and Western Ghats among others and has reached over 650 villages.

As part of Born Free Foundation’s SLTP, TCF is implementing an innovative and brand-new stall-feeding project in the buffer zone of Kanha Tiger Reserve.

As part of this project, fodder is grown and harvested within the participating village lands, and participating cattle owners are encouraged to bring their cattle to specially designed stalls for them to feed on the fodder, instead of taking them to free graze in the Tiger Reserve as traditionally done – but where cattle are at risk of injury and death by leopards and tigers.

This reduced conflict enables farmers to coexist with big cats, and by easing the grazing pressure of the forests allows regeneration of natural vegetation for herbivores – tigers’ natural prey – and a decrease in diseases spread to wild animals from domestic ones.

Want to keep up to date with all the latest news from the SLTP network?

The brand-new SLTP website Saving India's Tigers | Satpuda Landscape Tiger Partnership (savingindiastigers.org) launched this quarter, with historical and up-to-date information about the network and the work of the constituent partners.

Thank you for your continued support for this vital conservation programme.

Attendees at the SLTP Seminar

Exploring the Melghat Tiger Reserve

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Oct 13, 2022
Community initiatives in the Panna Tiger Reserve

By Victoria Lockwood | Project Leader

Wild tiger

October 2022: Community initiatives in the Panna Tiger Reserve

Thank you for choosing to support our work to protect India’s tigers and promote co-existence.

In this update, we look closely at Satpuda Landscape Tiger Partnership (SLTP) partner, the Bagh Aap Aur Van Trust (BAAVAN), which works on conservation initiatives in the Panna Tiger Reserve Landscape.

BAAVAN was set up to protect wildlife, forests and people, with the main objective to work closely with local communities to encourage, support and promote community-based nature conservation.

The team’s focus areas include conducting nature education programs with a view to creating tiger friendly communities around Panna Tiger Reserve; undertaking engagement initiatives to encourage people to adopt sustainable livelihoods which are better for them financially and also for the surrounding forests; and understanding the impact of conservation actions on the forest and wildlife of the area via surveys and studies.

Supported by Born Free, recent projects undertaken by the trust have focused on introducing the community to good animal husbandry practice, working with local people to generate awareness of the impact of free range grazing of cattle on their productivity versus stall feeding. The aim is to reduce grazing pressure on forests (and therefore reduce human-tiger conflict) while increasing the milk production of cattle.

Other key initiatives have included conducting wildlife surveys, assessing the impact of increased tourism activities in the area, and running education programmes for students in fringe areas of Panna Tiger reserve.

Looking forward, BAAVAN aims to continue its work with children and aims to provide them basic nature education.This will all help to conserve India’s precious population of wild tigers.

Thank you for your continued support for this vital conservation programme.

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