(a) Discuss the salient features of Project Tiger in India. (b) Describe the problems of cloud burst in India giving suitable…

(a) Salient features of Project Tiger

Project Tiger was launched in 1973 to protect the tiger and its habitat, beginning with nine reserves.

Features: tiger reserves with a protected core area free from human use and a buffer zone of multiple use; voluntary relocation of villages from cores with compensation; central funding to States as a centrally sponsored scheme; and the National Tiger Conservation Authority, made statutory in 2006, with the Tiger Task Force. Monitoring uses camera traps and the M-STrIPES system, with a national tiger estimate every four years.

Results: reserves have grown to over fifty, and tiger numbers rose from about 1,400 in 2006 to 2,967 in 2018 and 3,682 in 2022, which is around 75 per cent of the world's wild tigers. The project also protects whole ecosystems and water sources. Challenges: human–tiger conflict, poaching, linear projects, and rehabilitation of displaced families.

(b) Problems of cloudbursts in India

A cloudburst is a sudden, intense rainfall of about 10 cm or more in an hour over a small area (20–30 km²), commonly caused by orographic lifting of monsoon clouds in the Himalaya.

Problems: flash floods and debris flows that sweep away villages and roads; landslides on saturated slopes; loss of life and livestock; damage to bridges, hydropower and pilgrim routes; and difficulty of forecasting because the events are very local. Deforestation, road building and construction on river banks raise the damage.

Examples: Leh (2010) in Ladakh, Kedarnath (2013) in Uttarakhand, Amarnath cave area (2022) in Jammu and Kashmir, and repeated events in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Measures: Doppler radar networks and rain-gauge networks for nowcasting, early warning to villages, bans on building in river channels, slope stabilisation and community preparedness.

(c) Watershed management in hilly regions

A watershed is the area draining to a common point. In hills, management of the watershed conserves soil and water together.

Role: contour bunding, terracing, check dams and gully plugging slow runoff and reduce soil loss; afforestation and agroforestry bind soil and raise infiltration; rainwater harvesting and spring-shed revival (Sikkim's Dhara Vikas) recharge groundwater and raise dry-season flow; and the lower valleys gain from less silt and fewer floods. Productivity and incomes rise through horticulture and fodder, and stable slopes reduce landslides.

Programmes: the Watershed Development Component of PMKSY (earlier IWMP) and the National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas. Sukhomajri in the Shiwaliks of Haryana is a well-known community example. Success depends on participation of local people and user groups, and on maintenance.

(d) Relevance of Ravenstein's laws of migration to India

Ravenstein's laws (1885) say that most migrants move short distances; migration proceeds in steps toward large towns; each stream produces a counter-stream; rural people migrate more to towns than townspeople to the countryside; women move more over short distances; technology and transport increase migration; and economic motives dominate.

Relevance: in India most migration is short distance and within the State; marriage migration of women is the largest single reason, in line with the law on women; rural–urban and step migration towards cities occur; counter-streams are visible, as with the return of workers in 2020; economic motives drive male migration to cities like Mumbai and Delhi.

Limits: the laws ignore push factors such as drought, displacement and caste or tribal factors; long-distance labour streams exist (Bihar to Punjab, Kerala to the Gulf); and temporary and circular migration is missed. They remain a useful base.

(e) Ashok Mitra's classification of Indian cities

Mitra, a former Registrar General, classified towns by the occupational structure of workers in census data, using nine categories from cultivation to services. Agricultural categories are left out for towns.

Groups: manufacturing towns (mining, household industry, manufacturing and construction), trade and transport towns, and service towns, according to which group predominates.

He used a triangular graph with three sides for the three groups, and concentric circles to show degrees of specialisation: highly diversified, moderately diversified, specialised predominant function and highly specialised function.

Merit: it relies on a clear, objective measure from census data and shows both functional type and degree of specialisation. Limit: it reflects only workers' occupations, ignores size, changes in function over time and regional differences.