• https://www.google.com/amp/s/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/tiger-population-india-wildlife-the-right-count-ntca-6184814/lite/
• Mention the state of tiger conservation in the country.
• Mention the challenges in the process of monitoring.
• Highlight solutions for the same.

Answer:

Ever since they slumped to an all-time low of around 1,400 in 2006-2007, India’s tiger numbers have increased. But the achievements in conservation have been clouded by doubts over the counting methods. A recent investigation has revealed that the last tiger census had over-reported the population by 16 per cent. This highlights the importance of monitoring and auditing the conservation process. 

How monitoring and auditing leads to better conservation

• Poaching: It discourages poaching and protects endangered plants and animals. 
• Illegal activities: It helps in curbing the illegal extraction of forest resources.
• Environmental degradation as a result of anthropogenic activities can be better identified and curative steps can be taken.
• Helps to identify the ground level progress of the conservation process.
• Correct population count: Poor monitoring often leads to an inflated number of the species.
• Identify limitations: It was monitoring and auditing which revealed the limitations of pug marks and camera trap methods in tiger conservation.
• It helps to identify animal migration patterns and actual prey base available in the forested areas.
• Forest fires: It helps to regularly monitor instances of forest fires and take appropriate steps to minimise the damage. 

Challenges in Monitoring and Auditing of Conservation:

• Geography: most conservation areas are highly forested with difficult terrain which makes continuous monitoring and auditing unfeasible.
• Over Bureaucratization of conservation, process discourages any outside intervention in auditing.
• Absence of Experts involvement in auditing of conservation means that improper standards adopted.
• Non-involvement of local tribal population in monitoring and auditing
• Old methodologies and technologies such as pug marks and camera trap methods are still used.

Recent Initiatives to improve monitoring and auditing of conservation:

• M-Stripes: a software-based monitoring system launched across Indian tiger reserves by the Indian government’s National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in 2010.
• Roadkills App: developed by Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT), a wildlife NGO, to enable users to report dead wild animals and study patterns of wildlife deaths on roads and railway lines.

Way Forward:

Steps that can be taken to augment monitoring and auditing of conservation processes are:

• Use of Remote Sensing satellites to study forest cover, animal migration and report instances of forest fires.
• Involvement of wildlife experts and citizen participation.
• Participation of local tribal population in the conservation process.

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) has taken on increasing importance as the forest officials have faced a continuing struggle to demonstrate progress in wildlife conservation. By adopting effective monitoring and auditing we need to ensure that we create a safe habitat for animals. It will be key to achieving SDG 14 (Life Below Water) and SDG 15 (Life on Land).