Safeguarding and enhancing the rural economy is one of the key aspects of ensuring community support in the conservation of flagship species in human-dominated landscapes. And if this is complemented with innovative measures to mitigate human-wildlife conflict, achieving conservation success becomes less difficult. Based on the outcomes of The Corbett Foundation's previous interventions in the Corbett Landscape, it was found that in areas where elephant movement is not recorded, chain link fences are proving to be the best defence against crop damage by wild boars, spotted deer, sambar deer and other wild herbivores. 

Traditionally, the villagers of Uttarakhand have been using a trunk of a 10-12 year old tree as a centre pole to make haystack. These trees, quite often young Sal  Shorea robusta, are sourced from surrounding forests. In order to prevent habitat degradation around human habitation, The Corbett Foundation has been providing iron poles to villagers as replacement to tree trunks while making haystacks. The villagers in the vicinity of Corbett Tiger Reserve have accepted this as a viable alternative to using trees and thus has generated a good demand for such iron poles in making of the haystack. The Corbett Foundation has been providing iron poles to forest fringe villages to reduce their dependence on forests.

The Corbett Foundation has also provided solar street lights in a few villages that have reported high incidences of encounters with wild animals such as leopards. Hopefully, these lights help in avoiding chance encounters between humans and wild animals, thus preventing conflict situations.

The Corbett Foundation is grateful to the Dharamsi Morarji Chemical Co. Ltd. for its kind support and collaboration in implementing this project.

The Corbett Foundation, with the kind support of Axis Bank Ltd. and in collaboration with North Shahdol Forest Division of Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, has taken up 100 hectares of a degraded forest area for eco-restoration in 2022. This patch is near the bank of River Son and a part of Bandhavgarh Sanjay Dubri Corridor that connects Bandhavgarh and Sanjay-Dubri tiger reserves. The restoration work is taken up in partnership with Van Gram Samiti (Forest Village Committee) of village Masira. The villagers have been involved in clearing of invasive species such as  Lantana camara, digging of pits and actual plantation work. Around 65,000 saplings of various indigenous trees and bamboo have been planted and over 18,000 existing saplings - that were engulfed with lantana - are being protected. The entire plot of 100-ha has been protected with a chain-linked fence to prevent livestock grazing and trespassing. Villagers will be harvesting grass to stall-feed their livestock thus reducing grazing pressure on forest areas around. A couple of earthen check dams have been created to harvest rainwater and to attract wildlife species. The Corbett Foundation will protect, nurture and maintain the plants till 2027 and hand over the restored plot to the forest department.

TCF is grateful to Axis Bank Ltd. for providing funding support and Madhya Pradesh Forest Department for the consistent partnership and collaboration.

Bajaj Saksham Programme, supported by Bajaj Auto Ltd. since 2015-16, provides the much-needed primary healthcare support to the forest-dependent communities of around 80-odd villages of the Corbett Landscape. Treatment and medical advice, a mobile unit for medical camps and diagnostic tests, health awareness in schools and at the community level, and special medical camps for the forest department frontline personnel are the main aspects of this programme.

The Corbett Foundation has been working with the local communities of the Corbett LAndscape since 1994. Providing medical support is one of the key interventions that has helped tremendously in addressing the difficult living conditions of the rural folks. The goodwill generated through this programme has played an important role in overall tiger conservation efforts.  

TCF is grateful to Bajaj Auto Ltd. for the funding and the consistent support.

It is estimated that more than 40% of the forests in India are degraded due to anthropogenic pressures These degraded habitats are often engulfed by invasive and exotic weeds such as  Lantana camara. A study published in Global Ecology and Conservation reports that lantana occupies 154,000 sq.km. forests (more than 40 percent by area) in India’s tiger range. Among other forests, the fragmented deciduous forests of Central India are worst hit by its invasion thus affecting the natural regeneration of native flora and biodiversity richness of the area that negatively impacts the population of bees and other pollinating insects affecting the agriculture and forest regeneration. Lantana infestation adversely affects the growth of native species that are palatable to wild herbivores. The dense growth of lantana also provides shelter to tigers and leopards, and this gives rise to frequent attacks on livestock. Unless these lost habitats are restored, it would be impossible to achieve long-term tiger conservation in this landscape. And the participation of local communities in this work is crucial. 

The Corbett Foundation, with the support of PwC India Foundation, has taken up habitat restoration in the buffer zone of Kanha Tiger Reserve since 2019-20 over 16 hectares. After clearing the lantana and other invasive weeds, around 11,000 saplings of local forest trees and bamboo were planted, protected, nurtured and maintained with the active involvement of the local community. In 2022, another 20 hectares of degraded patch of forest has been taken up for restoration. 

The Corbett Foundation is grateful to PwC India Foundation for the support towards these projects. The Corbett Foundation expresses its gratitude to Kanha Tiger Reserve for providing land for restoration and its cooperation and partnership.