• The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister 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.
• IBCA’s Framework of Agreement has been substantially modelled after the International Solar Alliance.

Seven big cats include Tiger, Lion, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Puma, Jaguar and the Cheetah. Out of these five big cats viz. Tiger, Lion, Leopard, Snow Leopard and Cheetah are found in India.

BACKGROUND

• Prime Minister of India 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 launch of an International Big Cat Alliance aiming at securing the future of big cats and landscapes they thrive.

ABOUT IBCA

• 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
• It aims 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.
• IBCA governance consists of Assembly of Members, Standing Committee and a Secretariat with its Head Quarter in India.