India, Sept. 13 -- Twenty years ago, the tiger population in India was gravely threatened. The last tiger had disappeared from the Sariska National Park. The pug marks of tigers were being counted and recounted to show that there were tigers when there were none.

Since then, the tiger population in India has recovered.

But this increase has largely been within the "enclaves" of tiger reserves. The real work now is to build a conservation programme that secures tigers and people. We need a strong co-existence agenda that safeguards rising tiger numbers while securing the livelihoods of local people. The agenda for conservation is about wild animals and people.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Down to Earth....