Protect India's Tigers And Promote Co-Existence

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.

Links:

• Satpuda Landscape Tiger Partnership
• Adopt a Tiger with Born Free