A Royal Bengal Tiger at its enclosure inside the Delhi zoo. (PTI photo)

NAGPUR: Of the 1,697 road, irrigation and railway projects, 399 worth Rs 1.3 lakh crore are coming up in the tiger landscape of Central India and Eastern Ghats . Spread over eight states, the area is home to 688 (31%) of the country's 2,226 tigers and these projects threaten the existence of the big cats. These facts have been highlighted in a report ahead of International Tiger Day , which is observed on July 29 every year.

Significantly, proposers of 345 of the 399 projects are not aware of the tiger corridor status of forestland patches that they seek to divert. Such unplanned development threatens the future of tigers in the country, says 'Policy framework for connectivity conservation and smart green linear infrastructure development in the Central Indian & Eastern Ghats Tiger Landscape'. The report has been prepared by Wildlife Conservation Trust researchers Milind Pariwakam, Aditya Joshi, Sheetal Navgire and Srinivas Vaidyanathan.

"We hope this report will be of use to all stakeholders for a truly win-win solution for conservation and smart green development in the spirit of the PM's statement," said Pariwakam, who is the lead author.

Modi had recently said, "We need to re-orient our strategy by factoring in the concerns of tigers in sectors where tiger conservation is not the goal. Our genius lies in 'smartly' integrating tiger and wildlife safeguards in various infrastructures at the landscape level".

The Central Indian & Eastern Ghats tiger landscape consists of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. These states have almost 50% of India's tiger reserves (23 of 50). For the 688 tigers, green corridors help in migration and also in not weakening the gene pool.

The report also analysed data from over 17,000 forestland diversion proposals received from across the country post-July 2014. It found that the average linear infrastructure development required only 71.3 hectares - 38.4 hectares (railway), 16.9 hectares (road) and 16 hectares (transmission lines).

The report calls for joint meetings to be held among ministries of environment, highway and railways, National Tiger Conservation Authority and other agencies to plan safeguards and implement conservation projects.

