Wild tigers require vast territories and face population fragmentation across their remaining range. Wildlife corridors connecting tiger reserves reduce inbreeding, increase territory size, and reduce welfare harms from isolation and conflict.
Tiger corridor welfare encompasses both individual and population dimensions. Individual tigers forced into small, fragmented territories experience chronic stress from boundary conflicts, insufficient prey, and proximity to human settlements. Dispersing sub-adult tigers crossing degraded matrix habitat between reserves face vehicle strikes, snares, poisoning, and farmer retaliation — many die before establishing new territories. Corridors that provide connected forest habitat reduce these individual welfare harms dramatically. For tiger populations, genetic isolation causes inbreeding depression manifesting in reduced reproductive success, developmental abnormalities, and immune dysfunction — population-level welfare harms. Corridor protection requires engaging with local communities through equitable conservation agreements, wildlife-friendly agriculture, and predictable compensation. The success of India's Terai Arc Landscape programme connecting 13 tiger reserves demonstrates that corridor conservation delivers both welfare and conservation outcomes.