by Lady Michelle-Jennifer Santos
NEW DELHI, January 20, 2014 (TSR) – Good news for wildlife conservationists and tiger lovers: The population of tigers has increased in India from 1,706 in 2011 to 2,226 in 2014.
The All India Tiger Estimation 2014 for 17 states, released by Union environment and forests minister Prakash Javadekar, shows that India — which has 70% of the world tiger population — has registered an increase of 30 per cent in country’s tiger population in the past three years.
Tiger population is falling the world over, yet their numbers are increasing in India.
”Around 7-8 years ago, we were worried about decreasing numbers of tigers. But we should now congratulate the National Tiger Conservation Authority for their efforts in putting an end to it. It is a great news,” Javadekar said while releasing the report.
“We have today 70% of world’s tigers. We have witnessed an increase of 30% in tiger population since the last tiger estimation in 2010. We are also ready to give them to other countries in the world,” Javadekar noted.
“Never before such an exercise has been taken in that massive scale where we have unique photographs of 80% of the India’s tiger,” the minister said.
If one look at the 2008 tiger census figure, the current increase is simply phenomenal. India’s tiger population was 1,411 in 2008. Tiger census is carried out after a gap of every three years by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in the country
At least 9,735 cameras were used and around 3.78 lakh sq. km. forest area having tigers was monitored for the estimation. Javadekar also released several other reports including a report on the economic valuation of tiger reserves, status of tiger reserves, report on tiger corridors and others.
According to the 2011 tiger census report, the tiger population estimated was 1,706 (i.e. ranging between a minimum of 1,571 to a maximum of 1,875). The results included figures from 17 states having tiger population.
The latest tiger census figures show that Karnataka has the highest number of tigers in the age group of 1.5 years and more. The state has 408 tigers in that age group followed by 340 in Uttarakhand, 308 in Madhya Pradesh, 229 in Tamil Nadu, 190 in Maharashtra, 167 in Assam, 136 in Kerala and 117 in Uttar Pradesh.
In 2008 the tiger population was 1411. The Tiger Census report that year had classified the tiger occupied forests in India into 6 landscape — (a) Shivalik-Gangetic Plains, (b) Central Indian Landscape Complex (c) Eastern Ghats, (d) Western Ghats, (e) North-Eastern Hills and Bhramaputra Plains, and (f) Sunderbans.
India’s Project Tiger was launched in 1973 to check dwindling population of tigers in country. India at present has 47 tiger reserves.
Times of India also contributed to the article.
