India takes genuine pride in its tiger story. The country is home to more than 70 per cent of the world's wild tigers, and their numbers have grown steadily over the decades. But a Parliamentary committee report tabled this week warns of an impending danger threatening the programme.
The very government machinery meant to protect forests, wildlife and people from each other is being choked of funds precisely when it is needed most.
The Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, chaired by Assam Rajya Sabha MP Bhubaneswar Kalita, presented its 405th Report on Demands for Grants 2026-27 of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to the Parliament.
Tigers without territory and the human cost
About 30 per cent of India's tigers live outside designated Tiger Reserves, the committee was told during its February 2025 meeting with the forest ministry, the report stated. As a result, negative human-tiger interactions are rising by the day.
The committee noted that "the number of tigers and leopards has increased as compared to the forest area," creating a shortage of habitat that pushes big cats towards villages and farms.
It called for dedicated rescue centres in forest zones and the adoption of technological interventions, including AI-based monitoring, to keep predators away from populated areas.
"A pilot initiative, tiger outside tiger reserves (TOTR), was undertaken by NTCA to address this human-tiger conflict. Phase one was approved by CAMPA with an outlay of ₹88.7 crore. It was implemented across 40 high-conflict divisions in nine States. ₹36.15 crore was disbursed to 40 divisions for the current financial year," the report further stated.
However, the scheme meant to address this, Project Tiger and Elephant, saw its budget slashed 47 per cent from ₹290 crore in the Budget Estimate (BE) 2025-2026 to just ₹153.04 crore at the Revised Estimates stage in 2025-26. The Ministry told the committee this was largely due to administrative transition issues under the new SNA-SPARSH payment architecture, but acknowledged that habitat restoration, conflict mitigation infrastructure and voluntary village relocation activities were all impacted.
The committee flagged that the actual requirement for Project Tiger Elephant is ₹642 crore for 2026-27, more than double the ₹290 crore allocated that was originally allocated in the BE, but then slashed. In fact, the forest ministry's total budget estimates for the latest 2026-27 period now stand at ₹3,759.46 crore.
In the report, the parliamentary committee urged the Ministry of Finance to bridge the shortfall of ₹904 crore in the forest ministry's programmes, including Project Tiger Elephant, Botanical Survey of India, the Forestry Training scheme and the Green India Mission.