Eighteen years after tigers were brought back to Sariska, India weighs how to do it again

Marking 18 years of the world's first successful scientific reintroduction of tigers — at Sariska — the Environment Minister opened a national workshop on tiger reintroduction, framing the big cat as an umbrella for forests, watersheds and biodiversity.

What happened

• Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav inaugurated the National Workshop on 'Tiger Re-introduction: Opportunities & Challenges' at Alwar, Rajasthan, and released three publications on tiger conservation and Project Cheetah.
• Organised by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) with the Government of Rajasthan, it brought together field directors, Chief Wildlife Wardens and experts to deliberate science-based reintroduction and active management.
• Held to mark 18 years of tiger reintroduction in the Sariska Tiger Reserve, the Minister called it the world's first successful scientific reintroduction of tigers into a landscape where the species had become locally extinct.
• He described it as a global example of species restoration through scientific management, dedicated conservation and community participation.
• He stressed that tiger conservation is about conserving forests, watersheds and biodiversity — not merely a single species.

For Prelims

• Project Tiger (1973): India's flagship tiger-conservation programme; tiger reserves are notified under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 with a core (critical tiger habitat) and buffer zone.
• NTCA: The National Tiger Conservation Authority — a statutory body (Wildlife (Protection) Act, 2006 amendment) that oversees Project Tiger, approves tiger reserves and conducts the quadrennial All-India Tiger Estimation.
• Sariska (Rajasthan): Famously lost all its tigers to poaching by 2004-05 and saw the world's first successful tiger reintroduction (from 2008) by relocating tigers from Ranthambore — the milestone this workshop marks.
• Reintroduction vs translocation: 'Reintroduction' re-establishes a species in a range where it became locally extinct; it requires prey base, habitat and anti-poaching readiness.
• Tiger as an umbrella/keystone species: Protecting tiger habitat conserves entire forest ecosystems, watersheds and co-occurring biodiversity.
• India & tigers: India hosts the majority of the world's wild tigers (~3,600+ at the last estimation); a global conservation success under Project Tiger.
• Don't confuse: NTCA (tiger) is distinct from the NBA (biodiversity) and the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau; reintroduction (locally extinct range) differs from supplementation of an existing population.

For Mains

Syllabus: GS3.14 · GS2.9 · Linkage L2