Guwahati: Manas and Kaziranga from Assam and Pakke from Arunachal Pradesh have been placed in the “Very Good” category, but none of the tiger reserves in the Northeast is in the ‘Excellent’ category.
The information was revealed in the Fifth Cycle Summary report on the Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Tiger Reserves.
The Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) of Tiger Reserves has successfully assessed the tiger conservation efforts in India since its inception in 2006.
The Tiger Reserves are evaluated every four years, and the 5th Cycle of MEE was released recently, providing valuable insights into the Tiger Reserve Network (TRN) in India.
The MEE exercise is adapted from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN’s) World Commission on Protected Areas framework, making it the most significant approach to enhancing the management of Tiger Reserves and their associated landscape connectivity.
The MEE framework considers design issues, the adequacy and appropriateness of management systems and processes, and the delivery of Tiger Reserve objectives, including the conservation of values.
India is the only country in the world to institutionalize the MEE process.
In the 5th cycle of MEE of Tiger Reserves, a total of 12 Tiger Reserves have achieved the “Excellent” category, followed by 20 in the “Very Good” category, 14 in the “Good” category, and 5 in the “Fair” category.
The MEE score of the Manas tiger reserve (85.61%) in the Northeastern Hills and the Brahmaputra Landscape is better than that of Kaziranga (84.09%). The Tiger Reserves in the Northeastern Hills and the Brahmaputra Landscape have a Mean MEE score of 68.43%. The MEE assessment is based on 33 criteria, and Tiger Reserves scoring 50-59% are rated as “Fair,” 60-74% as “Good,” 75-89% as “Very Good,” and 90% as “Excellent.”
From Assam, Orang and Kamlang have been rated as “Good,” while Kamlang, Namdapha, and Dampa have been rated as “Fair.”
None of the Tiger Reserves has been rated in the “Poor” category in the 5th cycle of the MEE TR assessment.
Tiger Reserves like Panna and Sariska, which had lost all their tigers earlier, are now performing well.
The current cycle of MEE of Tiger Reserves has been compared with the previous cycles of evaluation, and it has been found that 29 Tiger Reserves have improved their category ratings, while the ratings of three Tiger Reserves, namely Nameri in Assam, Valmiki in Bihar, and Udanti-Sitanadi in Chhattisgarh, have gone down compared to the MEE in 2018. On the other hand, Bor Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra, BRT Hills Tiger Reserve in Karnataka, and Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha have shown significant improvements in their MEE ratings.
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Five Tiger Reserves, namely Udanti-Sitanadi, Indravati, Palamau, Similipal, and Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam, were previously categorized in the ‘Red Corridor’ due to extremist issues. However, they are now performing well and have shown improvements in their MEE ratings.
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