India's Rising Tiger Population Comes at a Cost: Relocation of Villagers

In many places, human-tiger conflict has increased beyond tiger reserves outside the protected areas.

The country now has about 75 percent of the global tiger population.

(Photo: Made using Midjourney, directed by Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

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Last year, India completed 50 years of Project Tiger on a high. With big cat numbers jumping from 2,967 in 2018 to the current 3,682, and India becoming home to 75 percent of the global tiger population – the country's tiger conservation efforts have been exceptional.

How did we manage this? In one word – relocation.

To protect tigers, avoid human-animal conflicts, and provide enough room for tigers to breed, forest dwellers have been relocated from in and around tiger reserves for a while now.

Even now, several villages lying inside tiger reserves are on the relocation radar.

But, even as relocation has paid off and helped increase the tiger population, tigers now are increasingly finding their way outside the protected areas.

For instance, the 2022 Tiger Census report noted that Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh needed to mitigate conflicts with tigers due to their increasing populations outside protected areas.

At a time when tigers are increasing outside protected areas, the question arises if relocation should continue to remain the main strategy for tiger conservation.

Tigers Finding New Areas

As tiger population rises and tiger habitats shrink, the pressure builds up in fringe areas.

Sample this. In 2018, 318 tigers utilised the Corbett and Rajaji Tiger Reserves of Uttarakhand combined. In 2022, tigers utilising these two reserves stood at 397, showing a 24.84 percent increase.

With the increase in their population, in 2018, there were 173 tigers outside protected areas. Now it is 246, showing a 42.2 percent increase.

“There is a high conflict as Corbett has become saturated – and tigers are increasing in Ramnagar, a small town in the Nainital district,” an officer from Uttarakhand said on the condition of anonymity.

In Ramnagar forest division of Nainital, there are 45 tigers – which is more than the number of tigers in many other tiger reserves in India.

These outside areas do not receive funds and recognition from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

Why Are People Relocated to Make Space For Tigers?

India’s protected areas cover about 5.32 percent of the total geographical area.

Rajnish Singh, the deputy director of Pench Tiger Reserve spread across Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, explained that village relocation is for ecological security and has a greater role to play in the future.

"Conserving wildlife and protecting their habitats ensures a happy future for mankind. The country’s tiger reserves and national parks fall under the woodland ecosystem."

Rajnish Singh

Pench was declared a tiger reserve in 1992. Its critical habitat area or core area measures 411 sq km, while the buffer zone in Pench is spread over 768 sq km. Here, conflict is absent in the core as there are no villages. Conflict, however, is present in the buffer where there are 107 villages.

An Adivasi woman at Barighat village of Achanakmar Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh.

(Photo source: Deepanwita Gita Niyogi)

In the Pench buffer area, there have been eight human deaths due to tigers since 2014, according to the data shared by the Pench authorities. During the same period, 57 injury cases have happened, but these have been caused by other animals as well, apart from tigers.

According to Singh, human-tiger conflict mitigation is only one aspect of it. “As life inside national parks and tiger reserves is difficult, people are relocated and settled elsewhere,“ he said.

“The residents of Karmajiri village face high conflict. Though situated in the buffer, the village witnesses conflict as it is surrounded by forest on all sides. But people here have refused the cash option. They have selected and asked for an isolated forest land, a few kilometres away from the village. So, approval has been sought from the Government of India for the same,” Singh added.

He also says that relocation is essentially a voluntary relocation. “There is a lone man living in Satpura Tiger Reserve as he did not want to shift. He was not pressured.“

A tiger tracker from the forest department in a Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh.

(Photo source: Deepanwita Gita Niyogi)

A forest officer based in Chhattisgarh explained on the condition of anonymity that relocating people to faraway places just to put a safe distance between the villages and the reserved can prove tricky.

“Social mobilisation and behavioural changes are needed. If people are relocated from the core or critical habitat area and settled in the buffer, then too they should feel a sense of coexistence. Relocation far away may pose problems as there is a cultural connection of tribals and forest dwellers with the forests," he says.

To establish a bond, the Pench management last year conducted 750 meetings with 130 eco-development committees in the buffer area. At present, bicycle riders ply daily in the buffer villages to spread awareness about human-tiger conflict.

A man makes a structure for roasting mushrooms in a tribal village in Achanakmar.

(Photo source: Deepanwita Gita Niyogi)

Why Locals Say Relocation Cannot Be the Ultimate Solution for Tiger Conservation

As of March 2024, India has 55 tiger reserves spread across 18 states making up over 2.3 percent of India's total land area.

However, a letter sent from the NTCA to the chief wildlife wardens of all states, dated 19 June, stated that 591 villages comprising 64,801 families are still residing in the core area of tiger reserves.

“The process of village relocation is very slow, and it poses grave concern in the light of tiger conservation,” the letter said.

In the meantime, people’s protests have broken out in several places across India over the issue of relocation.

Mohammad Meer Hamza is a Van Gujjar and resides in the Gohri range of the Rajaji Tiger Reserve of Uttarakhand. Hamza said there have been two press conferences already in Dehradun and Haridwar, along with a few local organisations. He pointed out that when the NTCA issues letters on relocation, the forest department staff on the ground start harassing communities living inside forests.

Protest at Kaziranga, Assam.

(Photo source: Deepanwita Gita Niyogi)

“At the ground level, it is not voluntary relocation. There is so much infringement on people’s rights that they are forced to relocate elsewhere. And this is termed as voluntary.”

Mohammad Meer Hamza, founder, Van Gujjar Tribal Yuva Sangathan

In June, Hamza, who is the founder of the Van Gujjar Tribal Yuva Sangathan, had addressed a letter to Nirupama Chakma, a member of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes against the NTCA's letter.  

“Some 15-20 years back the people were ready to relocate when there was an insurgency problem in the tiger reserve. But now as they have received community forest resource rights under the Forest Rights Act, they are not willing to go out anymore. Many of them have lived here since ages.” 

Varun Jain

Protests by people on 17 September in Dhamtari, Chhattisgarh.

(Photo source: Accessed by the Quint)

In the Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve of Chhattisgarh (established in 2004), a similar protest took place in September, according to Deputy Director Varun Jain.

According to Jain, the primary occupation of people here is agriculture. In future, there may be encroachment in the forest area due to a rise in the human population.

As the tiger reserve shares border with Odisha, encroachment, illegal felling and poaching are high. In the past one year, 700 hectares of encroached area was removed.

To prevent false claims under the Forest Rights Act, it was a good idea to provide community rights. Tourist activity is limited, and so, there is no other source of income.

“There are protection and ecotourism plans to sort out the issue. A balance needs to be achieved for coexistence, and it is a challenge.”

Varun Jain, Deputy Director, Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve, Chhattisgarh

In Udanti-Sitanadi which is used by tigers from Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli as a corridor, there are 51 villages in the critical habitat area and 77 villages in the buffer. There is not any plan to reintroduce tigers as of now.

“But if encroachment, poaching and illegal felling are taken care of, the prey base will increase attracting more tigers,“ he said.

In Chhattisgarh's Achanakmar Tiger Reserve which has 19 villages, approval for relocating three villages, Tilaidabra, Chhirhatta and Birarpani, has been granted. But it will take some time.

The people will be relocated and settled away from the buffer area of the reserve in Mungeli district’s Lormi area, said field director Manoj Pandey.

While Pandey ruled out any kind of protest in the area, the reporter last year found out that many people were had been pushed to move out due to severe constraints placed on their livelihood within the reserve's buffer area. 

Jayant Kulkarni of Pune-based non-profit Wildlife Research and Conservation Society said if villages are in the buffer area, then it is not mandatory to relocate them.

“Even in areas of high conflict, relocation from the buffer area is generally not feasible because of financial constraints and difficulty in finding land for relocation. It is practical to manage the conflict situation. Relocation of villages from core areas is also quite difficult.”  

Jayant Kulkarni

Kulkarni said that in eastern Maharashtra, people are facing conflict in areas around tiger reserves and also in wildlife corridors. One such corridor is the Brahmapuri forest division.

(Deepanwita Gita Niyogi is a New Delhi-based freelance journalist.)