“Tigers belong where their feet take them; where their senses tell them that they are safe to occupy an area. They belong where they can meet their existing needs,” said Pranav Chanchani, national lead for tiger conservation at the World Wide Fund for Nature, India (WWF-India).
Delivering a talk on ‘Tigers amidst People, People amidst Tigers: Making Conservation Work in Multi-Use Landscapes’, Mr. Chanchani said, “There is a question of where people and tigers should reside. For example, if you take in Pilibhit Tiger Reserve in Uttar Pradesh, some of the tigers which were radio-collared. We found every time these animals hit the forest boundary they turned away. Tigers belong where their feet take them, they belong where their senses tell them they are sort of safe to occupy an area. They belong where they can meet their existing needs.”
He added that establishing a protected area or reserve does not guarantee conservation success.
