Report of the Tiger Task Force - PRS

TIGER TASK FORCE REPORT JOINING THE DOTS ■and in other developmental projectsaround the park;f) tourist guides, trackers, intelligencegatherers, etc.The above list is indicative and notexhaustive. The management plan shouldinclude a detailed prescription forinvolving the local population in the parkmanagement, mitigating man-animalconflict with a view to improve theirquality of life.The existing provisions of the Wild Life(Protection) Act, 1972 provides for meeting allthe concerns and requirements of the local people.The only issue is its effective implementation,therefore, there is no need for any review/revision ofthe Act.The MoEF’s directions are in consonance and incompliance of Hon’ble Supreme Court’s orders andtherefore cannot/should not be withdrawn. It may bementioned that the Hon’ble Supreme Court in PradipKrishen v/s UOI (AIR 1996 SC 2040)+ has specificallydirected to complete settlement proceedingsexpeditiously.DISSENT NOTEANNEXURE -COBJECTION BY MR. VALMIK THAPAR – MEMBER TIGER TASK FORCE ON RESEARCH ANDSCIENCE TO BE INCORPORATED IN THE REPORTMr. Valmik Thapar Member of the Task Forcehas submitted the following note of decent inrelation to the recommendations on approaches to beadopted for monitoring tiger populations in thefuture.The past history of Project Tiger is strewn withfailures to reform the monitoring system due to a lackof attention to detail and ignoring of inputs formscientists seriously engaged with tiger conservationissues.Since then the proposed scheme has beenthoroughly examined and critiqued by leadingcarnivore ecologists who have specialized inpopulation survey methodologies for decades at thespecific request of the Task Force. These in putshave come from Dr. Ullhas Karanth, Dr. RaghuChundawath, Dr. M. D. Madhusudan, Dr. AJTJohnsingh, Dr. SP Goel, Dr. Yoganand (the lastthree are from the Wildlife Institute of India). Allthese analysis, have endorsed the broad idea ofProject Tiger taking up countrywide distributionsurveys of tiger under a new sampling-basedparadigm (instead of total count censuses). Butthey all have pointed out several flaws in theproposed scheme. Their critique covers the issue ofthe very design of the surveys in proposed stages,practical problems in implementing many of thesurvey methods in field conditions, problems ofanalysis as well as with the demonstrated examplefrom Satpura-Maikal Pilot Project which actually hasnot implemented the occupancy estimationapproach. Given this Valmik Thapar stronglybelieves that a technical panel of experts proposed bythe Task Force should examine all these aspects ofthe proposed methodology before it is implementedin order to resolve the problems that are admitted toexist with this protocol. This should be done withina time frame of just 3 months. Such a processwill ensure the removal of any flaws and errorswhich may be present and prevent costlyexpenditures from taking place before the methodhas been vetted. This safeguard will be vital to thisnew step we are taking.Therefore Valmik Thapar disagrees with theview that the protocol regarding tiger estimationshould be implemented immediately and even beforethe technical panel has a chance to examine andimprove it.Annexures 175