People's participation key for tiger conservation: Javadekar

New Delhi, March 18 (IANS) Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday that e-surveillance by drones would stimulate preservation of India's tigers but this must be complemented with "people's surveillance" to ensure the success of the conservation programme.

In view of poaching "on the rise" with 73 tigers killed in 2014 alone, Javadekar said the introduction of such e-surveillance would be a strategic intervention for the preservation of the big cat but the essence of capacity building lay in partnering with local people.

Javadekar was speaking at the meeting of chief wildlife wardens and field directors of tiger range states that sought to brainstorm new standards and techniques for tiger conservation.

India has registered a 30 percent increase in the tiger numbers with their current count at 2,226, the minister told parliament on Tuesday.

With the hike in in their numbers, India exemplified a successful model to preserve the wild species, Javadekar on Wednesday said.

"Project Tiger is a big success... India has set a record in tiger conservation and the world would also like to follow it," he told the media here.

The success in the tiger conservation programme is a message to the world that "India has practiced and has succeeded in having the best practices", Javadekar later told IANS.

Stressing there should be no room for complacency, the minister called for devising new standards and ways to maintain the lead India has gained.

He said India - home to more than 60 percent of the total number of tigers globally - needed new ideas for empirical and viable approach for tiger preservation.

At the meeting earlier with wildlife officials, Environment Secretary Ashok Lavasa described the project as an "evolving process" with scope for refining the methodologies in tune with the changing technology.

The government has also approved 102 eco-sensitive zones and is in the process of declaring 200 more by the end of March to provide the buffer for maintaining the integrity of the sanctuaries, he said.

Javadekar also released standard operating procedure (SOPs) on issues related to tiger conservation.

"To ensure that straying tigers are handled in the most appropriate manner to avoid casualty or injury to human beings, tiger, cattle and property, the SOPs provide the basic, minimum steps which are required to be taken at the field level (tiger reserve or elsewhere) for dealing with incidents of rehabilitation of tigers, orphan tiger cubs or tigers straying in human dominated landscapes," said an official statement.

The SOPs apply to all forest field formations, including tiger reserves, besides other areas where such incidents occur.

The Project Tiger aims to foster an exclusive tiger agenda in the core areas of tiger reserves, with an inclusive people oriented agenda in the buffer, the statement said.