Helping farmers, saving tigers
Sustainable farming can play a vital role in protecting tiger habitat and reducing reliance on forest products.
In 2004, Born Free founded the remarkable Satpuda Landscape Tiger Partnership, to help protect India’s tigers. Today, this collective of organisations is perhaps the largest partnership working for tiger conservation in the country.
In a recent edition of the Satpuda Landscape Tiger Partnership’s regular newsletter, Dikesh Chaudhary, Assistant Project Officer at The Corbett Foundation – one of our partners in India – explained how sustainable livelihood initiatives around the Kanha Tiger Reserve are proving key to help protect tigers. We thought you’d be interested to find out more.
Many communities live on the fringes of tiger reserves in India, relying on resources found in the forest to make their living. However, non-sustainable harvesting and heightened human demand for natural resources can negatively impact tiger habitat.
People entering the forest also increases their vulnerability to tiger attacks, which can lead to the retaliatory killing of tigers. By creating alternative sustainable solutions, reliance on forest-based livelihoods can be reduced. Not only does this protect tiger habitats, but it also helps to reduce the risk of tiger attacks, thereby promoting positive coexistence.
The Corbett Foundation first began working in the Kanha area in 2011, creating alternative livelihood projects that aimed to reduce dependence on forest-based activities. Whilst working on projects such as candle making, bike repairing and fisheries, The Corbett Foundation observed that local farmers around Kanha were primarily cultivating rice, but that yields remained low, and as a result, incomes did too. This is where The Corbett Foundation’s sustainable agriculture initiative came in. They provided training to farmers on different methods of cultivation and how to improve their productivity by changing how the land, water and nutrients are used.
As with many big changes, there was hesitation at first, as Dikesh explains: “Initially, the local farmers were sceptical about the new ‘System of Rice Intensification’ cultivation, as it was different from their traditional method. However, after the first year undertaking the new system, farmers who previously harvested 5-7 quintals (500 to 700kg) of rice from their farms, were obtaining rice yields of 10-11 quintals. The training was a success.”
The Corbett Foundation has also worked with vegetable farmers to increase their production. By providing farmers with training on drip fed irrigation systems and assisting them in buying good seeds, biofertilisers and spray pumps, vegetable farmers were able to significantly increase their income per acre. Previously, farmers had been earning INR 10,000-15,000 (£90-140) per acre of bitter gourds, and this increased 10 times to INR 100,000–150,000 (£915-1375) per acre.
This system was only adopted by ten farmers initially but, after seeing the success, 20 villages around Kanha Tiger Reserve now use this irrigation method. This has been hugely beneficial to the local communities, as farmers no longer need to rely on other forest-based livelihoods and can even provide employment to other community members on their farms.
By helping farmers improve their yields, not only are forests and tigers better protected, but these sustainable techniques are also better for the environment. Seeing the effectiveness of these measures will we hope encourage other farmers to adopt these techniques and continue to reduce forest-based dependent livelihoods.