When the watchdog is muzzled: Critical tiger corridors at risk

When Parliament amended the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, in 2006 to create the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), it was responding to a conservation crisis. The local extinction of tigers in Sariska had exposed how fragmented governance and weak oversight failed India’s most iconic species. The amendment included a
powerful Section 38-O(1)(g), which empowered NTCA and the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) to protect not only tiger reserves but also the critical corridors connecting them. It ensured that these areas could not be diverted for ecologically unsustainable purposes.

The law is unambiguous: “The National Tiger Conservation Authority shall ensure that the tiger reserves and areas linking one protected area or tiger reserve with another protected area or tiger reserve are not diverted for ecologically unsustainable uses, except in the public interest, and with the approval of the National Board for Wildlife and on the advice of the National Tiger Conservation Authority.”

This makes NTCA’s role a legal precondition, not a procedural courtesy. Any diversion of tiger reserves or corridors requires NTCA’s advice. Yet today, this safeguard is being dismantled by the very ministry meant to enforce it—the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).

A dangerous precedent

The Sharavathi Pumped Storage Project (2000 MW) in Karnataka exemplifies the problem. The project overlaps the Sharavathi Valley Lion-Tailed Macaque Sanctuary and its eco-sensitive zone, cutting through a tiger corridor linking Kali Tiger Reserve and Sharavathi Valley Sanctuary. Over 15,000 trees will be felled, severing canopy connectivity crucial for the endangered lion-tailed macaque and permanently fragmenting habitat.

Despite these risks, the NBWL’s Standing Committee granted in-principle wildlife clearance without NTCA’s advice. Meanwhile, the forest clearance proposal has already reached the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), suggesting parallel approvals without statutory oversight. The Wildlife (Protection) Act makes no distinction between provisional and final approvals—NTCA’s advice is mandatory at any stage of diversion. By proceeding without it, the NBWL’s decision is not a mere procedural lapse but a violation of the law’s mandate.

Sharavathi is not an isolated case. In 2016, the MoEF&CC’s Regional Office in Bengaluru cleared the Kaiga–Bare Road widening (Stage I) through a tiger corridor without NTCA or NBWL involvement. The expansion of National Highway-766E (Kumta–Sirsi), which also cuts through a corridor, received Stage I (2020) and Stage II (2023) approvals without mandatory scrutiny. Divisional Forest Officers claimed the affected lands were not part of any ‘recognised’ wildlife migration corridor, even though the alignments cut through corridors identified by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and NTCA.

This pattern shows a systemic effort
to bypass NTCA precisely where its scrutiny matters most-- rendering its statutory role hollow.

Why NTCA Matters: Some argue that NBWL or MoEF&CC regional offices have enough expertise to assess projects. But NTCA was created because tiger conservation demands independent, specialised oversight. Corridors are not bureaucratic categories—they are ecological lifelines that allow gene flow between tiger populations. Block them, and reserves become isolated islands, raising extinction risk.

Karnataka’s corridors linking Kali, Sharavathi, Bhadra, and Nagarhole are among the most critical in the Western Ghats. Destroying them for dams, highways, or transmission lines weakens tiger populations, increases human–tiger conflict, and undoes decades of conservation gains.

MoEF&CC’s complicity: Across these cases, MoEF&CC appears complicit. Its standing committee and regional offices are treating NTCA’s advice as optional, despite the law’s clarity. Allowing projects to advance without NTCA scrutiny dismantles the architecture Parliament put in place. This is not administrative oversight—it is a deliberate erosion of legal safeguards.

Rising tiger numbers are often celebrated, but if corridors are sacrificed and the NTCA sidelined, those numbers mask a hollow reality: fragmented populations with no long-term viability. The Sharavathi corridor matters as much to India’s tiger future as any reserve. Treating it as expendable is ecological myopia.

If MoEF&CC persists, India’s tiger story could turn from triumph to tragedy – a patchwork of isolated reserves unable to sustain the species.

The solution is clear. MoEF&CC must enforce the law as written. No project within a tiger reserve or corridor should reach NBWL or FAC without NTCA’s advice. Past illegal approvals, including those in Karnataka, must be reviewed. NTCA’s statutory authority must be reaffirmed—not as a formality, but as binding.

As a statutory body, NTCA cannot remain silent. It has both the authority and duty to uphold the law. Its inaction has allowed statutory safeguards to be eroded. Unless NTCA asserts its mandate, India’s tiger reserves and corridors will remain at risk.

Karnataka, a leader in tiger conservation and home to the country’s second-highest tiger population, must set an example. Protecting its reserves and corridors is essential for the long-term survival of the species. Anything less is a betrayal—of the law, of Parliament’s intent, and of India’s responsibility as steward of the world’s largest wild tiger population.

When NTCA was created, it was meant to be the tiger’s legal shield. Today, MoEF&CC is dismantling that shield piece by piece. Unless corrected, both the future of India’s tigers and the credibility of environmental governance will be in jeopardy.

(The writer is a wildlife conservationist)