IWN Report — Monday, 28 September 2026

On Friday, the National Tiger Conservation Authority and the Wildlife Institute of India opened the sixth cycle of a report card they’ve kept on India’s tiger reserves since 2006, and for the first time, reserves will be marked on how they handle their own rubbish.

Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav inaugurated the inception workshop in New Delhi, where the two agencies released the technical manual for MEE-TR 2026 — this year’s edition of the Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Tiger Reserves, now covering all 58 of India’s tiger reserves. Yadav called for “site-specific landscape management and adaptive conservation practices that incorporate local socio-economic considerations.” Junior minister Kirti Vardhan Singh also attended, alongside officials from state forest departments and the reserves themselves.

Solid waste management is now scored as its own criterion. Evaluators will look at what reserves do with their rubbish — from waste piling up at forest chowkis and left behind by tourists, to the biomedical waste generated at wildlife rescue centres. It joins a scoring framework — context, planning, inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes — adapted from global IUCN standards.

The Numbers

The evaluation has grown alongside the reserve network it tracks. The first cycle, in 2006, covered 28 reserves. That climbed to 39 in 2010, 43 in 2014, 50 in 2018 and 51 in 2022 — and now stands at 58, the full tally of India’s tiger reserves today. Each reserve in this cycle will be assessed by an independent, multidisciplinary team.

The last cycle’s final report, covering 51 of what were then 53 reserves, was released in July 2023 at Corbett Tiger Reserve, on Global Tiger Day. Reserves were graded Excellent, Very Good, Good or Fair against 33 criteria, with an average score of 78.01 per cent.

Sources: Press Information Bureau — MEE-TR 2026 launch · Press Information Bureau — 5th cycle final report