Context: A cross-border initiative, focused on harmonious coexistence with tigers in the Sundarbans, seeks to preserve biodiversity in both India and Bangladesh.
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Integrated Tiger Habitat Conservation Program
- It is initiated in 2014, is a grant making initiative which contributes to the Global Tiger recovery Programme.
- The Programme consists of a portfolio of large-scale projects in Key Tiger conservation Landscapes across Bangladesh Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Nepal, and Myanmar.
- It is supported by IUCN and Germany’s KfW Development Bank.
- Divided into different phases, the first phase of the Tiger Programme started in 2014 with projects implemented between 2015 and 2021.
- Phase two and phase three projects are currently ongoing and will run until 2024.
- Most recently, KfW and IUCN signed an agreement for a fourth phase that will extend the Tiger Programme until 2027.
Global Tiger recovery Programme
- This milestone initiative was done by the World Bank in 2010, under the aegis of its ongoing program, “The Global Tiger Initiative” (GTI).
- The convening power and presence of the World Bank enabled the GTI platform to bring together all Tiger Range Countries (TRCs) and like-minded organisations for saving the wild tiger across its range.
Sundarbans
- The Sundarbans mangrove forest, one of the largest such forests in the world (140,000 ha), lies on the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers on the Bay of Bengal.
- It is the largest contiguous mangrove forest in the world.
- It is adjacent to the border of India’s Sundarbans World Heritage site inscribed in 1987.
- The site is intersected by a complex network of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangrove forests and presents an excellent example of ongoing ecological processes.
- The area is known for its wide range of fauna, including 260 bird species, the Bengal tiger and other threatened species such as the estuarine crocodile and the Indian python.
- The Sundarbans are of universal importance for globally endangered species including the Royal Bengal Tiger, Ganges and Irrawaddy dolphins, estuarine crocodiles, and the critically endangered endemic river terrapin (Batagur baska).
- It is the only mangrove habitat in the world for Panthera tigris tigris species.
- The present Sundarban National Park was declared as the core area of Sundarbans Tiger Reserve in 1973 and a wildlife sanctuary in 1977.
- It has been designated as a Ramsar site since 2019.
- It is considered in a World Network of Biosphere Reserve (Man and Biosphere Reserve) from 1989.
Fauna
- Faunal Species are Mammalian Species, Reptiles, and Birds.
- These ranges of animals are also included in schedule I and II ( rare & endangered) of the wildlife protection act 1972.
- 14 species are also found in Appendix I of the CITES.
- According to the earlier records animals like Wild Buffalo, Barking Deer, Javan Rhino, Leopards, Barasingha were once also found in the Sundarbans region.
- Nevertheless, as per the habitat changes in habitat and human-induced pressures of these animals became locally extinct.
Species like: Irrawaddy Dolphin, Gangetic Dolphin, Indian Civet, Rhesus Macaque, Wild Boar, Finless porpoise, Leopard Cats, Jungle Cats, Fishing Cats, Smooth-coated otters, Estuarine crocodiles, King Cobra, Common Cobra, Indian Python, Rat Snake, Green Whip Snake, Green Pit Viper, Common krait. Water Turtles, Spotted Pond turtle, Softshell turtles, and Indian flapshell turtles.