Bhupender Yadav inaugurates National Workshop on Tiger Re-introduction at Alwar, Rajasthan

📌 Summary:

• Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav inaugurated the National Workshop on "Tiger Re-introduction: Opportunities & Challenges" at Alwar, Rajasthan, marking 18 years of tiger re-introduction in Sariska Tiger Reserve
• Organised by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) with the Govt of Rajasthan
• Released three publications: Road Map on Active Management of Tigers, Booklet on Reintroduction and Recovery of Tigers, and the Annual Report of Project Cheetah
• Sariska is the world's first successful scientific reintroduction of tigers into a landscape where the species had become locally extinct (local extinction in 2005 → 56 tigers today)
• Tiger reserves rose from 46 to 58 in a decade; India met the St. Petersburg Declaration target of doubling wild tigers by 2022
• Community participation key: Panna and Sariska succeeded, while Satkosia (Odisha) failed due to lack of community support; same lesson holds for Project Cheetah
• Core message: protecting tigers also safeguards forests, watersheds and rich biodiversity

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 (Environment — species conservation, biodiversity, ecosystem services); conservation governance and human–wildlife coexistence.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• NTCA = National Tiger Conservation Authority (statutory body under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972)
• Sariska Tiger Reserve is in Alwar, Rajasthan
• St. Petersburg Declaration (2010), TX2 target: double wild tiger numbers by 2022
• India: 58 tiger reserves (up from 46)
• Project Cheetah involves cheetah reintroduction (Kuno, Madhya Pradesh)

🔑 Key Term: Reintroduction — deliberate release of a species into an area where it was once native but had become locally extinct, to restore a viable population.