The Union Cabinet has approved the establishment of International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) with headquarters in India with a one-time budgetary support of Rs 150 crore for a period of five years from 2023-24 to 2027-28.

Acknowledging India’s leading role in conserving tigers, other big cats and many of its endangered species, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his speech on the occasion of Global Tiger Day, 2019, called for an Alliance of Global Leaders to curb poaching in Asia.

He reiterated this on the occasion of commemorating 50 years of India’s Project Tiger on April 9, 2023, and formally announced the launch of an International Big Cat Alliance aiming at securing the future of big cats and landscapes they thrive. The pioneering and long standing tiger and other big cat conservation good practices evolved in India may be replicated in many other range countries.

Seven big cats include tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, puma, jaguar and cheetah, out of these five big cats — tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard and cheetah — are found in India.

The International Big Cat Alliance has been conceived as a multi-country, multi-agency coalition of 96 big cat range countries, non-range countries interested in big cat conservation, conservation partners and scientific organizations working in the field of big cat conservation besides business groups and corporates willing to contribute to the cause of big cats.

The step is to establish networks and develop synergies in a focused manner so as to bring to a common platform a centralized repository of successful practices and personnel, backed by financial support which can be leveraged to strengthen the conservation agenda in the field to arrest decline in big cat population and reverse the trend. This will be a demonstrative step in leadership position on the big cat agenda, to bring range countries and others on a common platform.

IBCA aims for mutual cooperation among countries for mutual benefit in furthering the conservation agenda. The Alliance would have a multipronged approach in broad basing and establishing linkages manifold in several areas and help in knowledge sharing, capacity building, networking, advocacy, finance and resources support, research and technical support, education and awareness.

With big cats as mascots for sustainable development and livelihood security, India and the big cat range countries can usher in major efforts on environmental resilience and climate change mitigation, while paving a future where natural ecosystems continue to thrive, and gain centrality in economic and development policies.

IBCA envisages synergy through a collaborative platform for increased dissemination of gold standard big cat conservation practices, provides access to a central common repository of technical know-how and corpus of funds, strengthens the existing species-specific intergovernmental platforms, networks and transnational initiatives on conservation and protection and assists securing our ecological future and mitigate adverse effects of climate change.