The Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala is the best-maintained of all tiger reserves in the country, according to the 5th cycle of Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE)carried out by the Centre and released Sunday alongside the Tiger Census.

While Periyar reserve has obtained an MEE score of 94.3%, it is followed closely by the Satpura Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, Bandipur in Karnataka and Nagarhole in Karnataka.

The government has been using the MEE to assess tiger reserves across the country since its inception in 2006.

At present, the country has 998 Protected Areas – including 106 National Parks, 567 Wildlife Sanctuaries, 105 Conservation Reserves and 220 Community Reserves — covering 1,73,629 sq km or 5.28% of India’s geographical area.

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Of these, 53 Tiger Reserves have been notified, which serve as an additional layer of protection around PAs.

Of these 53 tiger reserves, however, only 51, covering a total area of 73,765 sq km, were evaluated as two newly declared tiger reserves, Ramgarh Visdhari and Ranipur, have not been included in the current cycle of MEE.

The MEE results also suggested an overall improvement in the management effectiveness of the tiger reserves.

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“There has been continuous improvement with the subsequent cycles of evaluation in MEE scores of tiger reserves in India. The overall mean MEE score in the second cycle in 2010 was 65%, 69% in third cycle in 2014, and 70% in fourth cycle of evaluation in 2018 and 77.92% in present assessment,” the report said.

Explained

Management effectiveness

IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas provides a framework for assessing the management effectiveness of protected areas through six criteria, which include existing values and threats, progresses through planning and allocation of resources as a result of management actions and its impacts.

“In the 5th cycle, there are 12 Tiger Reserves that have scored 90% and above and therefore a new category of ‘Excellent’ has been added,” the report added.

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Twelve 12 tiger reserves have ranked in the “Excellent” category, followed by 20 in the ‘Very Good’ category, 14 in the ‘Good’ category and 5 in the ‘Fair’ category. None of the country’s tiger reserves was graded as ‘Poor’.

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“Substantial improvements in the subsequent cycles of MEE clearly demonstrates that there is an enhanced management efficiency in the
Tiger Reserves over the years in terms of complying with the prescriptions proposed in the Tiger Conservation Plans,’’ the report said.

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The report, however, points out that the headline indicator — ‘carbon capture and climate change’ — has received the lowest score in the
current cycle, as there is no mandate for it in Tiger Conservation Plans.

© The Indian Express (P) Ltd