The Terai Tiger Project

The Terai landscape spans across nearly 5,000km2, out of which only around 1,800km2 is protected for wildlife to thrive in. The remaining areas are speckled with thousands of human habitations, mostly villages and hamlets, but also towns and cities. 

This region is home to the Bengal tiger (classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List) and the Indian leopard, which is listed as Vulnerable. Both species have benefitted from protected areas and other conservation measures, but as their numbers rise, they disperse through unprotected areas, where they almost inevitably encounter livestock and people.

Many of the people in this landscape are relatively recent settlers with little indigenous knowledge of how to coexist with wildlife. Community members, with support from Chester Zoo, Uttar Pradesh Forest Department, Wildlife Trust of India, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, are working to manage negative encounters with big cats amicably, preventing losses to people and the persecution of big cats.

Much of the tension between people and big cats occurs in isolated agricultural areas. The sugarcane, paddy and mustard fields in Terai mimic natural grasslands, and are seen as a refuge by wildlife. Dispersing big cats often use these stretches when they go in search of their own territories. Here, many of them take to killing livestock, while others end up accidentally attacking people.

This can lead to up to 500-600 case of livestock depredation and multiple human deaths, alongside several cases of injuries, each year. This has led to a gradual increase in persecution of tigers and leopards outside the protected areas.

Annually, up to eight big cats were targeted for poisoning, electrocution or lynching in retaliation for livestock killings, or simply out of fear for human safety. Others were captured and taken to zoos or rescue centres, removing them from the wild breeding population. The impact of this conflict on people and tigers outside protected zones is obvious: physical injuries, deaths and the loss of livelihoods.

It also poses a grave risk for the source population of tigers and leopards in reserves as the continuous removal of dispersing individuals can increase the risk of inbreeding and vulnerability to disease. Continuous unresolved conflicts can also severely undermine larger conservation efforts, as public sympathies shift against the big cats.

(Picture by Augustine Prince)

The Terai Tiger Project, which began in 2008, has evolved into a vast initiative which empowers people in communities to participate in safeguarding efforts. This community participation model safeguards the lives and livelihoods of local communities from dispersing big cats, and the lives of big cats from retaliatory persecution by local people. The project builds on community participation through its voluntary Primary Response Team (PRT) network.

This team of 90 volunteers form the first line of defence against escalation of encounters into conflict, attending instances where big cats have been spotted around human habitations and in emerging conflict incidents.

Here, they calm agitated people and create escape routes, allowing the big cat to leave the site by itself. In certain situations, they also organise drives to push the animal further away towards forest patches. They can provide first aid care and carry out camera trapping and patrols around incident sites to monitor big cats and prevent any untoward incidents.

The Project also operates two Rapid Response Teams (RRT), made up of biologists, sociologists and veterinarians, who can be called in if an incident escalates. The RRTs are specially trained and equipped to deal with complications, such as if a big cat has entered a home and is trapped inside.

The final piece of the puzzle is to foster deeper knowledge about the big cats across communities in Terai. The Project runs education sessions on the roles big cats play in the ecosystem, keeping crop foraging species at bay, and how people can coexist with big cats by making small but significant behavioural changes.

To date, the 90 recruited volunteers have played a crucial role in ensuring the safety of dozens of humans and big cats: the project today manages to provide safe passage to 70-80% of the big cats involved in potential conflict situations.

This translates to at least six tigers and leopards a year emerging from potential conflicts unscathed and able to remain in the wild.

Our ambition is to increase the PRT network to at least 150 volunteers by 2027. We also recognise that young people are key to lasting change. The wild scouts programme that develops young stewardship in the region is an important part of the project’s existing outreach, and this will expand into more schools soon.