On the occasion of Global Tiger Day, the Union environment ministry today on July 29 announced that 14 tiger reserves in the country have received Conservation Assured Tiger Standards (CA|TS) accreditation, an international recognition for ‘best practice’ and ‘standards’ in tiger conservation worldwide.

The 14 tiger reserves are: Manas, Kaziranga, and Orang in Assam; Sundarbans in West Bengal; Valmiki in Bihar; Dudhwa in Uttar Pradesh; Panna and Kanha, Satpuda tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh; Pench in Maharashtra; Anamalai and Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu; Parambikulam in Kerala; and Bandipur in Karnataka.

With the recognition of three tiger reserves each, Assam and Madhya Pradesh are ranked as the best performing states. There are 51 tiger reserves across 18 states in the country.

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The Global Tiger Forum, an international non-profit working on tiger conservation, and World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF India), a conservation organisation working to protect and secure natural heritage and ecology, has congratulated the 14 tiger reserves that have received CA|TS accreditation.

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CA|TS is a globally accepted conservation tool that sets best practice and standards to manage tigers, and encourages assessments to benchmark progress.

“The CA|TS accreditation to 14 Tiger Reserves in India signifies that these reserves have achieved excellence in tiger site management,” Secretary General and Chief Executive Officer of WWF India Ravi Singh said in an official statement.

“This accreditation will strengthen management practices in the sites as per international common criteria. WWF India will continue to support the CA|TS assessment process for tiger conservation landscapes,” he added.

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This is the first time that site assessments were carried out using CA|TS-LOG, the software that helps in visualising data and tracking site-based tiger conservation. India is the first country to roll this out nationally.

Effective managing tiger population is essential for long-term survival of wild tigers. CA|TS is being implemented across 125 sites in seven tiger range countries. At 94, India has the highest number of these sites. Of these, assessment was completed for 20 tiger reserves this year, stated the press statement issued by the Global Tiger Forum and WWF India.

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The evaluation of the sites was facilitated by the Global Tiger Forum and WWF India, which are the two implementing partners of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for CA|TS assessment in India. All the 51 tiger reserves in India are administered by the NTCA.

Congratulations to all 14 Tiger Reserves for Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards (CA|TS) accreditation. It ensures minimum standard for effective management of tiger reserves & helps them in assessing tiger conservation goals. Accreditation is recognition of hard work by TRs! pic.twitter.com/DWgkqRrW7j

— National Tiger Conservation Authority (@ntca_india) July 29, 2021

“CA|TS accreditation is a global recognition of good tiger governance. This recognition means a lot in the context of adaptation to climate change, sustainability of ecosystem services, and safeguarding disruption of zoonotic cycles, through an umbrella species approach,” said Rajesh Gopal, Secretary General, Global Tiger Forum.

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It is claimed that all the 14 tiger reserves met ‘Standard Exceeded’ or ‘Standard Achieved’ in case of majority of the 17 elements under the seven CA|TS pillars. These elements include the importance and status; management, community, tourism, protection, habitat management and tiger populations. The overall CA|TS scores for these tiger reserves was over 70 per cent — the minimum required for consideration for accreditation.