Keshav Varma, founding director of Global Tiger Initiative of the World Bank, who was in Bandipur Tiger Reserve as part of the CII’s Yi leadership in wildlife series, talks to Business Line on the ways and means to involve corporate bodies in tiger conservation. Excerpts:

What are the salient features of the World Bank’s Global Tiger Initiative?

Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) is a programme of the World Bank and two other partners (the Smithsonian and GEF) for wildlife conservation. It is also to create a coalition at the highest level – an alliance and a platform for partnerships. The idea of creating this is that the NGOs were doing their job and conservationists were doing theirs, but essentially they were all winning small battles not the war. We needed to create a scale in our effort to win the war.

The other issue was that the tiger range countries (13 in all) were actually not in the foreground. And if you are really going to build up a programme for tiger conservation you have to bring it right into the forefront. Tiger habitats are mostly in a state of deterioration. The quality of habitat has deteriorated, the grasslands have disappeared and there is invasive species, there is encroachment and there is also lots of disturbance of the habitat.

Finally, the issue is that tiger number has drastically come down in the 13 tiger range countries. From more than 100,000 at the turn of the 20th century to about 3,200, with India being almost 50 per cent.

In tiger conservation, where does India stand among the tiger range countries?

India is key to the whole exercise of tiger conservation globally. Tiger numbers are slowly stabilising but tiger conservation landscapes are shrinking and have deteriorated. Grasslands are disappearing under invasive species and core areas are being intruded for grazing. Despite the odds, the Ministry of Environment and Forests and a few institutions such as the Wildlife Institute of India have jointly been able to reverse the situation. The tiger population in the country rose to 1,707 in the last census from 1,411 earlier. And I have a feeling that the latest census is going to take us to about 2,000. So that way, the Ministry has responded very strongly to the challenge of wild tiger conservation. The department has also brought in new technologies in census and management systems.

What is the current status of corporate involvement in tiger conservation?

We are trying to bring the industry together to get scale. At present, it is sporadic like Arvind Mills trying to promote organic farming. Punit Lalbhai through his organic farming initiative has eliminated the use of pesticides and agro chemicals and are trying to bring back the habitat of the Harrier and they are also trying to save the Great Indian Bustard, which is under tremendous stress due to new power plants in Gujarat. We need lots of corporates and need a big effort to bring all into the mainstream.

Have you prepared a blueprint for corporate involvement in tiger conservation?

Right now the blueprint is not there. We are still seeing how the business/industry is really going to behave in terms of effective action and how we can support their action. Now there is a plan for collaboration with CII (which has almost 100,000 members) with the aim of creating more awareness within the private sector. So India Wildlife Business Council has been created in New Delhi with Jamshyd Godrej as its president and other eminent people onboard. We have had regional meetings in Guwahati, Kolkata, Ahmadabad and Delhi and in Bangalore. So we are creating an intense environment to create awareness.

Have you identified any target areas for the corporate involvement in conservation?

Corporate involvement in conservation can come in various ways. It can be through improvement in the infrastructure for our national parks. Secondly, I think the corporate management practices can actually be brought to the attention of park managers. Corporates understand the markets, they understand how to deploy resources, and they are well-trained professionals. They build capacity and they are current. Third is resources. Instead of sprinkling the CSR around, they should work with the park management to see how the corporate value of their corporation can enhance the management of the parks.

When you talk about funds being made available for tiger conservation, what is the kind of funds which are likely to be made available?

India doesn’t have a problem in funding. India, on the other hand, has the issue on the absorptive capacity of the parks and the efficient flow of funds. But here full utilisation of funds needs to be resolved. Often funds come late and there is very little time to utilise them. But there is enough earmarking of funds. Funds are available locally, nationally and at the State level.

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