New Delhi: The Union Cabinet Thursday formally announced the establishment of the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA), with one-time budgetary support of Rs 150 crore from the central government until 2028. Union Minister Anurag Thakur in a press conference also announced that the secretariat of the IBCA will be located in India.
The IBCA is an initiative launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2023, during an event in Mysuru commemorating the 50th anniversary of Project Tiger. The main objective of the alliance is to ensure cooperation for the conservation of seven big cats: Lion, Tiger, Leopard, Cheetah, Snow Leopard, Jaguar, and Puma.
Five of these cats, apart from Jaguar and Puma, are found in India.
“Modi is a man of alliances, be it the International Solar Alliance or Global Biofuel Alliance or the Big Cat Alliance. He’s made progress on all these fronts,” Thakur said in the press conference Thursday.
Modelled on the International Solar Alliance which was founded in 2015, the IBCA “has been conceived as a multi-country, multi-agency coalition of 96 big cat range countries” — countries which house one or more of these big cats.
Besides range countries, the alliance will also include “non-range countries interested in big cat conservation, conservation partners and scientific organisations working in the field of big cat conservation,” according to a press statement by PIB.
All seven of the big cats are listed either as vulnerable or endangered species in the IUCN’s list of vulnerable species, except for pumas which are categorised as ‘least concern’. However, they too face a risk from loss of habitat, and their population has been recorded as decreasing.
The framework of the IBCA is structured to enable a “centralised repository of successful practices” by bringing together countries, agencies, scientific organisations, and industries working in the field of big cat conservation.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) also said that one of the goals of the IBCA is to replicate India’s long-standing good practices in tiger and big cat conservation in other countries.
International Big Cat Alliance proposes to have an assembly of members, a standing committee as well as a secretariat based in India. Apart from knowledge and best practices information, it also aims to help member countries with financial support for their conservation efforts.
For now, the MoEFCC will appoint an interim director general to head the IBCA secretariat, until members of the alliance can meet and appoint a permanent office bearer to oversee day-to-day operations.
As for the funding, the one-time grant of Rs 150 crore will be utilised till 2028, but the press statement by the MoEFCC says that the IBCA will also look at contributions from other countries, international organisations and donor agencies in the future.
In the statement, the ministry also talks about how the IBCA’s mandate extends beyond just big cat protection but also to contribute to larger biodiversity protection efforts and climate change mitigation in partner countries.
“Conserving big cats and their habitats can secure some of the most important natural ecosystems on Earth leading to natural climate change adaptation,” said Bhupender Yadav, Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in 2023 during the ministerial session on global big cat conservation status.
According to a press statement issued then by PIB, “Ministers of Big Cat Range countries acknowledged and appreciated the leadership of India in big cat conservation and praised the efforts of Prime Minister, Union Minister and senior forest officials of the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate change”.
The statement went on to quote remarks from the forest ministers and heads of delegations of Bhutan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Kenya, Nepal, Ethiopia, Suriname, Armenia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Vietnam, Thailand and Lao who it said “expressed their appreciation” for the IBCA. After the announcement, Nepal confirmed its role as a founding member of the IBCA in April 2023, according to a report in The Kathmandu Post.
The IBCA comes from a long history of international agencies and organisations geared towards protecting big cats and their habitats in the world.
In 2023, signatories to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) came together to announce the CITES Big Cat Task Force to combat illegal trading and poaching of big cats.
Before this, organisations like the Global Tiger Recovery Programme (2010) and the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Programme (2013) brought together around 20 big cat range countries in Asia to act together on conservation efforts.
In the non-governmental sphere, the Global Alliance for Wild Cats formed in 2014 brings together philanthropists from India, China, Abu Dhabi and USA to pledge money for anti-poaching efforts and wild cat biodiversity protection.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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