Down to Earth’s June 1-15, 2026 issue, themed “Success Trap”, argues that Project Tiger’s numerical triumph has become a management crisis: a few flagship reserves are overcrowded while many stand nearly empty, funding has fallen in real terms, and human-wildlife conflict is rising.
[This is distinct from the State of India’s Environment 2026 report on Lantana and tigers covered in the June 12 daily edition; the DTE package is about reserve management, carrying capacity and funding.]
Cover Package
- India must now manage its conservation success (Ravi Chellam, June 4) - the case against fortress conservation; tigers thrive in human-dominated landscapes too
- Rethinking conservation: Project Tiger expanded but funding has not kept pace (DTE Staff, June 2) - real-terms budget decline and reserve understaffing
The Numbers That Frame the Crisis
| Indicator | Figure |
|---|---|
| Tigers | 1,411 (2006) to 3,682 (2022); India holds 70-75 percent of the world’s wild tigers |
| Tiger reserves | 9 (1973) to 58 now (~84,488 sq km) |
| Distribution skew | 5 reserves had zero tigers; 10 had fewer than 10 each (2022) |
| Tigers outside protected areas | 35-40 percent |
| Project Tiger budget | Rs 290 crore (2025-26 BE), worth only ~Rs 95 crore in 2008-09 terms |
| Understaffing (NTCA 2024) | 20 reserves short of anti-poaching staff; invasive species in 40 reserves |
Key Concepts
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Fortress conservation | Exclusionary model walling wildlife off from people via relocation |
| Carrying capacity | The maximum tiger density a habitat can sustain before dispersal and conflict rise |
| Source-sink dynamics | Productive “source” reserves seed near-empty “sink” reserves through dispersal |
| Tiger corridors | Connected habitat enabling gene flow between reserves |
| NTCA | National Tiger Conservation Authority, statutory body under the WPA 1972 (created 2006) |
Prelims Pointers
- Project Tiger launched 1973 with 9 reserves; now 58 reserves over ~84,488 sq km
- NTCA created by the 2006 amendment to the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, after Sariska’s 2004 local extinction (Panna lost its tigers by 2008)
- Tigers: 1,411 (2006) to 3,682 (2022)
- 35-40 percent of India’s tigers live outside protected areas
UPSC GS Relevance
- GS3: conservation, protected-area management, scheme financing
- GS2: statutory bodies (NTCA), implementation gaps
- GS4: ethics of conservation versus displacement of forest-dwelling communities
