The grouping’s structure will consist of an Assembly of Members, Standing Committee and a Secretariat; its statute has been drafted largely on the pattern of the International Solar Alliance
Collage: Ritika Bohra / CSE An International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA), the idea for which was first floated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019, will have its headquarters in India, the Centre announced on February 29, 2024.
The Union Cabinet, chaired by the prime minister, has also allocated a one-time budgetary support of Rs 150 crore for IBCA for a five-year period — 2023-24 to 2027-28.
‘Big Cat’ is a term that is used in informal speech to apply to any large species of the family Felidae. Usually, it applies to the members of the genus Panthera. These include:
All these cats can usually make vocalisations known as ‘roars’. The lion has the loudest roar, which can be heard 8-10 kilometres away. The snow leopard, at one time, was not included in this group. It was classified as Uncia uncia. Later, it was re-classified as part of Panthera.
Two other cats — Puma (Puma concolor) and Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) — are not part of Panthera. But they are usually included in most listings of ‘big cats’.
The Indian subcontinent has been historically home to the Bengal tiger, Asiatic lion, Indian leopard, Indian/Asiatic cheetah as well as Snow leopard. The cheetah was declared extinct in 1952. In 2022, the Government of India embarked on an ambitious programme to introduce African cheetahs to the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.
The Centre has conceived IBCA “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, to establish networks and develop synergies in a focused manner…”, an official statement released on the evening of February 29 stated.
The idea is “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”.
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”.
IBCA would work towards mitigating adverse effects of climate change. It will advocate for policy initiatives that align biodiversity conservation efforts with local needs and contribute towards the attainment of United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals within member countries.
The grouping’s structure will consist of an Assembly of Members, Standing Committee and a Secretariat, with its headquarters in India.
Its Framework of Agreement (statute) has been drafted largely on the pattern of the International Solar Alliance, the idea for which too was floated by Prime Minister Modi in 2015.
The statute of IBCA will be finalised by an International Steering Committee (ISC). “A Steering Committee will be constituted with nominated national focal points of founding member countries. Appointment of DG by MoEFCC as Interim Head of IBCA Secretariat till IBCA appoints its own DG during Assembly meeting. IBCA Assembly at Ministerial level to be chaired by President, HMEFCC, Gol,” the statement read.
The Centre will explore “contributions from bilateral and multilateral agencies; other appropriate institutions and mobilizing financial support from public sector organizations, national and international financial institutions and donor agencies” to augment the corpus for IBCA.
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