Wildlife & Nature Economics
Project Tiger: Saving a Big Cat
How India's tiger conservation programme, launched in 1973, brought tigers back from the brink, and the economic trade-offs of protecting them.
In the early 1970s, India’s tiger population had fallen sharply because of hunting and habitat loss. In 1973, India launched Project Tiger, one of the world’s most ambitious conservation programmes.
How it works
- Tiger reserves were created, starting with nine and growing to more than fifty.
- Each reserve has a protected core area with little human activity, and a buffer zone allowing regulated use.
- The National Tiger Conservation Authority, set up in 2006, oversees the programme.
- Regular tiger censuses use camera traps and other methods.
Results
India’s tiger population rose substantially. The 2022 census estimated around 3,700 tigers, roughly three-quarters of the world’s wild tigers.
Economic benefits
- Tourism: tiger reserves such as Ranthambore, Corbett, Kanha and Bandhavgarh attract domestic and foreign tourists, supporting hotels, guides, drivers and local businesses.
- Ecosystem services: tiger reserves protect forests that supply water, store carbon and support biodiversity. Studies have estimated that the ecosystem services of tiger reserves are worth far more than the money spent to protect them.
- Umbrella species: protecting tigers protects many other species in their habitat.
Costs and conflicts
- Relocation: some villages have been moved out of core areas, with compensation. Critics argue relocation has sometimes been unfair or poorly handled.
- Livestock losses and occasional attacks on people near reserves.
- Restrictions on forest use for local communities.
- Development trade-offs: roads, mines and dams near reserves face restrictions.
Community involvement
Programmes increasingly involve local communities through eco-development committees, jobs in tourism and protection, and sharing tourism revenue.
A village near a tiger reserve once relied on cutting firewood and grazing cattle in the forest. Now, many villagers work as guides, drivers and hotel staff. Their income depends on healthy tiger populations, giving them a stake in conservation.
Tiger reserves generate tourism income and valuable ecosystem services, though costs fall heavily on local communities.
- Project Tiger was launched in 1973 and now covers more than fifty reserves.
- India had around 3,700 tigers in 2022, about three-quarters of the world's wild tigers.
- Reserves bring tourism and ecosystem services.
- Relocation, livestock losses and restrictions create conflicts with communities.
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