Why Trees?

According to an article published by BBC, India is home to 70% of the world’s tiger population, bearing some responsibility towards conservation of tigers. Today, as little as 3,167 tigers are alive in the country.^[1]

Known for their extensive territorial requirements, tigers rely on expansive habitats for their survival. A journal of the Society for Conservation Biology suggests that these creatures can travel far distances, dispersing over 100 km from their natal areas to establish territories.^[2] Most tigers cannot survive in small, scattered islands as this runs the risk of inbreeding and makes them more vulnerable to poaching as they venture beyond protected areas.

As our forest cover shrinks and prey becomes scarce, tigers are compelled to abandon their habitat in pursuit of sustenance and to establish new territories. As suggested by WWF, the absence of a corridor leads tigers into human-dominated areas, where they hunt domestic livestock that many local communities depend on for their livelihood.^[3] The escalating contention between humans and tigers for space has become a pressing concern.

The objective of this project is to reforest the degraded land, improve wildlife habitats and, alleviate the pressure on the main forest. Encroached human settlements and land use changes have left their mark on the green cover of the Pench corridor. Research by Ecology and Evolution emphasises how crucial it is to have extensive landscapes with interconnected breeding groups and forest corridors to ensure their long-term survival.^[4] This underscores the need to ensure habitat connectivity between the protected areas where tigers live.

Tree Species

For this project area, we have planted trees that are native to the location. They provide ecological and medicinal value and are beneficial to the local community. The produce obtained by planting these trees can be either utilised or used as a source of income by the villagers.

Additionally, as suggested by research conducted by Conservation Biology, off reserve land-use and management strategies such as community forestry might help restore and maintain corridors to facilitate dispersal and genetic exchange between tiger populations in the core areas. Endangered species find it difficult to survive in fragmented landscapes. Tigers are habitat generalists and disperse through secondary habitat, so the corridor we identified are likely to be effective. Hence, we need to work towards conservation of tigers by increasing our green cover to reduce incidents of human-tiger conflicts.^[5]

The tree species include Shisham (Dalbergia sissoo), Amla (Emblica officnalis), Kashid (Cassia siamea), Karanj (Pongamia pinnata), Teak (Tectona grandis), Acacia (Acacia auriculoformis), Mango (Mangifera indica), Guava (Psidium guajava), Gulmohar (Delonix regia), Jamun (Syzygium cumini).

Social Impact

The proposed planting site will involve local villagers, which will provide them with an additional source of income. Our project also helps empower women as they are encouraged to participate in our plantation activities, enabling them to support their families. Plantation produce such as fodder, fruits, fuel wood, timber and fruits will help villagers in fulfilling their daily needs.

The improvement in groundwater levels and reduction in soil erosion will help villagers to get better yields on their farms and fulfil their water requirements. Overall, this project will induce a holistic improvement in the local biodiversity.

Adoption Summary

^[1] BBC webpage, Tiger census: India now has 3,167 tigers, numbers show.

^[2] Wikramanayake, E., Dinerstein, E., Seidensticker, J., Lumpkin, S., Pandav, B., Shrestha, M., ... & Than, U. (2011). A landscape‐based conservation strategy to double the wild tiger population. Conservation Letters, 4(3), 219-227.

^[3] WWF webpage, Facts about species Tiger.

^[4] Sharma, S., Dutta, T., Maldonado, J. E., Wood, T. C., Panwar, H. S., & Seidensticker, J. (2013). Spatial genetic analysis reveals high connectivity of tiger (Panthera tigris) populations in the Satpura–Maikal landscape of Central India. Ecology and evolution, 3(1), 48-60.

^[5] Wikramanayake, E., McKNIGHT, M. E. G. H. A. N., Dinerstein, E., Joshi, A., Gurung, B., & Smith, D. (2004). Designing a conservation landscape for tigers in human‐dominated environments. Conservation Biology, 18(3), 839-844.