Project title
Community-based
conservation of Rusty-spotted cat and its habitat in Suhaildev Wildlife Sanctuary, UP, India
Project leader
Vikram Tiwari
Project location
Latitude: 27.795640 Longitude: 82.202680
Project summary
Vikram Tiwari is one of the renowned citizen scientists and conservation activists of Uttar Pradesh state of India. He is also a professional agriculturist and is an expert in organic and sustainable farming methods. He has extensively visited the protected areas of India and Nepal.
He has been continuously advocating for the conservation of wild cats including Rusty-spotted cat in collaboration of local indigenous communities in several buffer zone of protected areas and unprotected forests of India along Indo-Nepal boarder. He has also reported and photographed extremely rare birds and mammals including hispid hare in India and Nepal.
Suhaildev Wildlife Sanctuary, in the district of Balrampur, Gonda and Shravasti, close to the Indo-Nepal border, is spread over an area of 452 km2. With a buffer zone of 220 km2, the Suhaildev Wildlife Sanctuary was established in 1988. Situated on the International Border, this sanctuary is a strip of land, approximately, 120kms long from the east to west and 6-8 kms wide. The sanctuary is a home of many endangered wildlife including tigers, leopards, elephants and small wild cats such as leopard cat, fishing cat, rusty spotted cat, jungle cat. The densely populated local forest dependent communities have built the immense pressure from livestock grazing, fodder and firewood collection in this long-striped habitat from both the India and Nepal side. Moreover, due to the open boarder between India and Nepal and weak implementation of laws by authorities, the illegal logging of big trees and illegal hunting and poaching of wild animals have threatened the survival of many species including small wild cats. To address and mitigate these immediate threats of small wild cats and their habitat, Vikram has started this project in Suhaildev Wildlife Sanctuary and its buffer areas.
Vikram has been trained and engaged local traditional forest dependent communities in organic and sustainable farming. Engaging these local households and communities in such activities help to reduce the pressures on the forests and its wildlife. After getting trained, the communities have started farming cash crops like Garlic which are unpalatable to crop-raiding animals and also help to increase their livelihood income. Besides, Vikram has been training and preparing next generations of conservation via education and outreach programs in local schools.
Goal of the Project
To protect the Rusty-spotted cat and its habitat in Suhaildev Wildlife Sanctuary, UP, India
Objectives of the project
- To train and engage local forest dependent communities in organic and sustainable farming
- To mitigate road-kills, forest fires, poaching and other direct threats of Rusty-spotted cat
- To train, motivate and prepare next generation of Rusty-spotted cat conservation via school outreach programs in local schools
To bridge the gap between the local communities and government forest officials
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