Wildlife Conservation in India

Wildlife Conservation in India, like wild animals everywhere, now faces the threat of human pressure. And for India, the ready exploitation of her natural resources by humans is a long standing challenge. From time immemorial until very recently, wild life faced the threat of hunting and poaching because of wanton insensibility to all creatures other than man.

India is one of the most biodiverse regions of the world and contains three of the world’s 36 biodiversity hotspots – the Western Ghats, the Eastern Himalayas, and the Indo-Burma hotspot. It is one of the seventeen megadiverse countries.

The country has seven Natural World Heritage sites, eleven Biosphere Reserves in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves and thirty seven Ramsar Wetlands.

In response to decrease in the numbers of wild animals, human encroachment and poaching activities, the government of India established a system of national parks and protected areas in 1935, which was subsequently expanded. In 1972, India enacted the Wildlife Protection Act and Project Tiger to safeguard crucial habitat. Further, federal protections were promulgated in the 1980s.

Government of India in collaboration with UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Programme MAB Special schemes like Project Tiger (1973) and Project Elephant (1992) have been launched to conserve these species and their habitat in a sustainable manner.

Project Tiger 1973. The main objective of the scheme is to ensure maintenance of viable population of tigers in India for scientific, aesthetic, cultural and ecological values, and to preserve areas of biological importance as natural heritage for the benefit, education and enjoyment of the people. The tiger population in the country has registered an increase from 1,411 in 2006 to 1,706 in 2010.

Project Elephant was launched in 1992 to assist states having free ranging population of wild elephants. It was aimed at ensuring long- term survival of identified viable population of elephants in their natural habitat. The project is being implemented in 13 states.