Write a short note on 'Project Tiger'.

Tigers are the last consumers in the ecological food pyramid and their conservation results in the conservation of all trophic levels in an ecosystem. Hence it is necessary to save them and the government has taken the effort to protect them.

• Project Tiger: Launched in 1973 it aims at conserving India’s national animal i.e. Tiger.

1. It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change providing central assistance to the tiger States for tiger conservation in designated tiger reserves.

2. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is a statutory body of the Ministry,

3. The tiger reserves are constituted on a core/buffer strategy.

4. The core areas have the legal status of a national park or a sanctuary, whereas the buffer or peripheral areas are a mix of forest and non-forest land, managed as a multiple use area.

5. The Project Tiger aims to foster an exclusive tiger agenda in the core areas of tiger reserves.