Context:

• The Union Environment Ministry and the Department of Livestock and Animal Husbandry are exploring a scheme to devise an insurance policy that will compensate people who lose their livestock to tigers.

Issue:

• The growing tiger base has brought with it challenges of man-animal conflict, with reports of tigers preying on cattle and sometimes mauling humans who live in the vicinity of their habitat.
• Currently, there is no policy on compensating people for such cattle lost because tiger reserves are no-go areas, and people and cattle are not supposed to be present.
• Another plan discussed was to improve water conservation in forests, along with the Jal Shakti Ministry on sustaining tiger’s prey-base.
• Greater presence of tigers can be attributed to more dependable water sources, and the presence of more chital and deer.
• Increase in the tiger population means increasing pressure on its habitat and on the occurrence of man-animal conflict.