Report of the Tiger Task Force - PRS

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TIGER TASK FORCE REPORT JOINING THE DOTS ■handled by the director, Project Tiger, it isessential to strengthen the directorate withautonomy and personnel.6. The director, Project Tiger, should be delegatedpowers to deal with states under Section (3) of theWildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, especially for theenforcement of Project Tiger guidelines.7. The role of director, Project Tiger, should not beconfined to tiger reserves. Instead, it shouldextend to other crucial forest areas as well whichhave viable tiger populations.8. A state steering committee for Project Tigershould be created, with the chief minister of thetiger range state as its chair.9. Management committees should be set up for eachprotected area. These committees will include localcommunity representatives, NGOs and researchers.10. Create a sub-cadre of wildlife specialists andprofessionals.11. Independent audits of each reserve must beconducted annually; the information generatedmust be placed in the public domain.12. Build collaborative networks with researchers tomonitor change.Protection1. Each reserve must have a specific and detailedstrategy for protection. The independentmonitoring of the reserve must include anassessment of the enforcement mechanisms inplace and the patrolling efforts of field staff, sothat policy interventions can be designed.3. A clear strategy for protection is needed inthe northeastern reserves, where local people willbe the only ones capable of traversing andprotecting the area. There should also be a clearstrategy for the reserves controlled by naxalitesand other insurgent groups, where armedintervention by security forces might be the onlyoption.4. Further recruitment of staff — foresters as well asguards — should be reserved for local villagers.The criterion for recruitment should be amendedso that it relaxes the formal educationalqualifications needed for these positions andinstead, values skills in jungle craft. In addition,there should be provision for in-service trainingfor locally recruited staff.5. Institutionalise training so that each reserve hasskilled and committed personnel.6. Disincentives and rewards based on independentmonitoring should be built into the system. Theincentives must be withdrawn in reserves thatscore low on the rating chart. This should be donewith complete transparency so that it is not seenas political or discriminatory. In fact, this movewill be a test for the independence and rigour ofthe independent assessment as well.7. Investments in basic facilities should be made forthe frontline staff:a. Housing camps in neighbouring districttowns, usually where the project headquarteris based, for families so that the education oftheir children can be secured;b. Free rations for guards living in the camps.This practice is followed by many protectionforces and helps in their work.8. A staff welfare fund can be created for eachreserve, out of the income from tourism. This canbe used to supplement medical and other benefitsfor the staff.9. There must be an urgent review of the crisis inforestry services and steps that have been taken toaddress issues of training, personnel development,staff reviews and salaries.International trade in wildlife products1. Very proactive and strong measures are needed onthe matter of international trade in wildlife andwildlife products. The Union ministry must workto shape the agenda at the Convention onInternational Trade in Endangered Species ofWild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to ensure that theglobal market for tiger products is investigated.The international community must be put underpressure to combat and destroy this trade.2. A bilateral relationship must be built up withChina to combat the trade in tiger parts. Theenvironment minister should take the lead bydiscussing and developing this relationship withhis Chinese counterpart, and this dialogue mustbe kept alive and ongoing. It is critical that Indiatakes the leadership on this issue and does notleave it to global institutions which are provinginadequate in this regard.Action plan for change 147
■ JOINING THE DOTS TIGER TASK FORCE REPORTDomestic wildlife crime1. The wildlife crime bureau must be set upimmediately, based on the modificationssuggested in the report:a. At the central level, a strong bureau is neededwith a capacity to develop a country-widedatabase of wildlife crime to enablecoordination, investigation and legal followup.b. At the state level, there must be a node of thewildlife crime bureau with the capacity toboth investigate and to follow up on thecrime.c. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) mustbe given the responsibility to investigateorganised wildlife crime and to take overcharge of certain special cases, for instance,the Sansar Chand case.d Regional forensic facilities must be set up toinvestigate wildlife specimens and theevidence in wildlife crime.e. The wildlife crime bureau must be made astatutory body under the Wildlife (Protection)Act, 1972 to make it effective and give itautonomy.2. The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 should beammended as suggested in the report, so that theprovisions related to crime are tightened andmade more stringent, particularly for designatedcritically endangered species. This will providefor deterrence for criminal actions against thesespecies and result in speedier trials.Innovative protection1. Identify the major hunting tribes and communitiesin proximity to, or operating in, a reserve. Eachpark authority must work to develop plans to usethe expertise of these hunters for protection as wellas for gathering basic ecological information.2. The independent monitoring of each park mustevaluate the work done by the park managementon working with its forest-dependent traditionalhunting communities. The park management andProject Tiger must work on locale-specificapproaches with these communities. These effortsshould be supported and carefully monitored, sothat the learning can be disseminated and canbecome practice.The science1. The Tiger Task Force has reviewed the revisedmethodology proposed by the Project Tigerdirectorate and the Wildlife Institute of India forestimating/monitoring tiger status and its habitat,and endorses the approach. It hopes that thenational tiger estimation, which is to beconducted from November 2005, will be doneusing this evolved methodology.2. The Project Tiger directorate must set up ascientific expert group immediately withexpertise in relevant technical disciplines foroverseeing the process. This group should workfrom the very inception of the process and assistin suggesting appropriate ways of analysing andinterpreting the data.3. All efforts should be made to encourage andfacilitate intensive research and monitoringstudies of source population of tigers using avariety of tools — photo-identification andmonitoring, camera traps, radio-telemetry and DNAbasedgenetic studies in different landscape units.4. The work in the field of molecular techniques forestimation needs to be supported. Encourage theWildlife Institute of India and the Centre forCellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) to take onpilot programmes at a landscape level using thistechnique. The CCMB should be asked to provideinputs in the development of moleculartechniques for identification of individual tigers.5. The inclusive, open approach that we advocatedepends crucially on free access to allinformation, except where very evident securityconcerns are involved. In modern times, thiswould be best ensured by posting all pertinentinformation on the Web, in English as well as inall Indian languages.148 Action plan for change
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THE REPORT OF THE TIGER TASK FORCEJ
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