The National Tiger Conservation Authority, and the Critical Tiger Habitat

In one line

Project Tiger given a statute in 2006, a core area that must be kept inviolate, and six cumulative conditions before a single family may be moved out of it.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 38V(1) provides that the State Government shall, on the recommendation of the Tiger Conservation Authority, notify an area as a tiger reserve; the Explanation defines a tiger reserve as including a core or critical tiger habitat of a National Park or sanctuary, established on the basis of scientific and objective criteria to be required to be kept as inviolate for tiger conservation, without affecting the rights of the Scheduled Tribes or such other forest dwellers, and a buffer or peripheral area where a lesser degree of protection is required, aiming at promoting co-existence between wildlife and human activity with due recognition of the livelihood, developmental, social and cultural rights of the local people, its limits determined in consultation with the concerned Gram Sabha and an Expert Committee.

The Authority

Section 38K defines the chapter's terms: the National Tiger Conservation Authority under section 38L, the Steering Committee under section 38U, the Tiger Conservation Foundation under section 38X, a tiger reserve State, and a tiger reserve, meaning areas notified under section 38V.

Section 38L, composition. The Minister in charge of Environment and Forests as Chairperson; the Minister of State as Vice-Chairperson; three members of Parliament, two elected by the House of the People and one by the Council of States; eight experts or professionals with prescribed qualifications and experience in conservation of wild life and welfare of people living in tiger reserves, of whom at least two shall be from the field of tribal development; the Secretary and Director General of Forests of the Ministry; the Director of Wild Life Preservation; six Chief Wild Life Wardens from tiger reserve States in rotation for three years; an officer not below Joint Secretary and Legislative Counsel from the Ministry of Law and Justice; the Secretaries of Tribal Affairs, Social Justice and Empowerment and Panchayati Raj; the Chairpersons of the National Commissions for the Scheduled Tribes and for the Scheduled Castes; and an officer not below Inspector General of Forests with at least ten years in a tiger reserve or wildlife management as Member-Secretary.

Count the tribal seats. Two of the eight experts from tribal development, the Secretary of Tribal Affairs, the Secretary of Social Justice and Empowerment, the Secretary of Panchayati Raj, and the Chairpersons of the two National Commissions. Six of twenty-odd members are there for the people, not the tiger, which is more than any other body in this book, and it is deliberate: the tiger reserves are where the two claims collide hardest.