{"id":190,"date":"2019-03-06T10:37:26","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T10:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/esp03.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/?post_type=chapter&p=190"},"modified":"2019-04-16T07:10:09","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T07:10:09","slug":"wild-life-conservation-projects-in-india","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/esp03\/chapter\/wild-life-conservation-projects-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Life conservation projects in India"},"content":{"raw":"\r\n
\"epgp<\/a>\r\n<\/span><\/div>\r\n\r\n1. Introduction<\/strong>\r\n

Wildlife means the entire flora and fauna growing in wild and not domesticated. It includes animals, plants and microorganisms, which are not domesticated by humans.<\/em> Wildlife is an important component of biodiversity. India is unique in diversity of both its wild animal and vegetation. But due to rapid industrialization, increasing population & pollution and high demand of food, hunting etc. has led to over exploitation and extinction of some well-known animals and plants from this nation. For prevention of extinction of species, conservation efforts have been initiated. India has started wild life conservation programmes since 1930 with the establishment of Jim Corbett National Park<\/strong>. A large number of Projects have been initiated by the Govt. of India to save animal biodiversity and prevent the extinction. Wildlife conservation is the attempt to protect endangered animal and plant species, along with their natural habitat. The present module focuses only on the various animal conservation projects in India. The conservation projects discussed are:<\/p>\r\n1.\u00a0\u00a0 Project Tiger\r\n\r\n2.\u00a0\u00a0 Project Elephant\r\n\r\n3.\u00a0\u00a0 Project Hangul\r\n\r\n4.\u00a0\u00a0 Project Snow Leopard\r\n\r\n5.\u00a0\u00a0 Project One Horn Rhino\r\n\r\n6.\u00a0\u00a0 Project Ganges Dolphin\r\n\r\n7.\u00a0\u00a0 Project Crocodile\r\n\r\n8.\u00a0\u00a0 Project Cheetah\r\n\r\n9.\u00a0\u00a0 Project Sea Turtle\r\n\r\n10.\u00a0\u00a0 Vulture Conservation\r\n\r\n2. Project Tiger<\/strong>\r\n

\u2018Project Tiger\u2019 is one of the most successful conservation projects not only in India but also globally. The project was launched in the year 1973, based on the recommendations of a task force, set up by the then Prime Minister of India Mrs. Indira Gandhi. When the project was first initiated, 9 tiger reserves were settled to be covered under the project tiger. With the time, these have increased to 50 (December 2016) and covered almost 71027 km2area. It is spread in 18 states and covers around 2.21% of the geographical area of our country. Corbett National Park was the first national park of India to come under Project Tiger on April 1st,\u00a0The names of tiger reserves with their states are shown in <\/span>Table 1<\/strong> and map in <\/span>Figure<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\"\"\r\n

Table 1: Tiger Reserves in India (Source: Project Tiger)<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\r\n

The tiger (Figure 1<\/strong>) is a national animal of our country. It is a symbol of an intrinsic part of our culture. The world tiger day is celebrated every year on 29 July. The largest tiger reserve in India is Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve.<\/p>\r\n

For improving of project strength, National Tiger Conservation Authority has been also set up in different states to monitor the project. National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is constituted to regulate project tiger at national level. It is an administrative body of project tiger. In 2006, 1,411 tigers are reported in India, which increased to 1,706 in 2011 and 2,226 in 2014. In 2016, according to World Wildlife Fund and Global Tiger Forum, the total number of wild tigers has increased to 3,891.<\/p>\r\n

Tiger Conservation is the most significant wildlife project of India. Govt. of India provides all the financial and technical support through the Project Tiger. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) provides all the important decisions and funding support through \u2018Project Tiger\u2019. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has also been carried out for independent assessment of tiger reserves which is based on 45 parameters designed by the World Commission on Protected Areas. The Govt. of India is continuously coming forth to take immediate steps to implement the major recommendations from the task forces for strengthening efforts towards protection of tiger, convicting wildlife criminals, checking poaching, and reducing the smuggling of body parts of tigers in the international market.<\/p>\r\n\"\"\r\n

Project Elephant (PE) was launched in February 1992 to provide financial and specialized help to significant elephant states among the nation for the security of elephants, their environments, habitats and corridors (Figure 3).<\/strong> The project additionally covered the issues of human-elephant conflict and welfare of domesticated elephants. Currently, 32 Elephant Reserves (ERs) are existing and occupied 69,583 square kilometers area. The list of state-wise Elephant Reserves with area is shown in Table 2<\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n3.1. The Major objectives of Project Elephant (PE):<\/strong>\r\n