"India launches initiative for tiger conservation outside protected reserves"
Tigers Outside Tiger Reserves (TOTR)
MoEFCC initiative for science-driven tiger conservation in landscapes beyond formal reserves.
National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)
Statutory body under WPA Amendment 2006 overseeing all tiger reserves under MoEFCC.
India's tiger conservation architecture rests on two foundational pillars: the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), 1972, which prohibited hunting and regulated forest use, and Project Tiger, launched on 1 April 1973, which created a network of dedicated reserves with inviolate core zones and buffer areas. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), established under the WPA Amendment of 2006, gave statutory teeth to this framework, placing oversight of all tiger reserves under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). This institutional architecture proved transformative: from a low of approximately 1,411 tigers in 2006, India's population recovered to 3,682 by 2022, making the country home to over 70% of the world's wild tigers.
The reserve network itself expanded from 9 reserves covering 18,278 sq km in 1973 to 58 reserves spanning 84,488 sq km, accounting for roughly 2.6% of India's landmass. India also met the TX2 goal of the St. Petersburg Declaration (2010) — doubling wild tiger populations by 2022 — ahead of schedule. This recovery, widely regarded as one of the most successful wildlife conservation programmes globally, has now generated a second-order challenge: the growing proportion of tigers dispersing beyond protected boundaries into human-dominated landscapes.
Tigers are territorial carnivores requiring extensive home ranges — typically 60–100 sq km for females and up to 200 sq km for males. When core habitats within reserves reach saturation, younger or subordinate individuals are naturally displaced outward. The NTCA estimates that 35–40% of India's tiger population now lives outside designated Tiger Reserves, distributed across reserve forests, community lands, and agricultural fringes. The 2022 All-India Tiger Estimation recorded tiger presence across 212 forest divisions, far exceeding the 58 formal reserves.
This dispersal is ecologically healthy — it signals robust breeding populations and functional corridors — but it creates governance complexity. Tigers moving through villages, farms, and road networks inevitably encounter people, leading to human fatalities, livestock depredation, prolonged rescue operations, and heightened public anxiety. …
Among the following Tiger Reserves, which one has the largest area under 'Critical Tiger Habitat'?
The term 'M-STrIPES' is sometimes seen in the news in the context of
Consider the following pairs:
1.Dampa Tiger Reserve : Mizoram
2.Gumti Wildlife Sanctuary : Sikkim
3.Saramati Peak : Nagaland
Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?
From the ecological point of view, which one of the following assumes importance in being a good link between the Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats?
With reference to the Tigers Outside Tiger Reserves (TOTR) initiative, consider the following statements:
1.It is being piloted across 40 forest divisions in 9 states.
2.The initiative was launched by the National Tiger Conservation Authority independently of the MoEFCC.
3.The 2022 All-India Tiger Estimation recorded tiger presence across 212 forest divisions.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) was established under which of the following?
Assertion (A): India achieved the TX2 goal of doubling its wild tiger population ahead of the 2022 deadline set by the St. Petersburg Declaration.
Reason (R): The NTCA's source-sink translocation programme was the primary driver of India's tiger population recovery since 2006.
Which of the following is correct?
Want the full note, Prelims Facts & MCQ answers?
Create a free account — takes less than a minute.
Create free account