NEW DELHI: In great news for tiger conservation, India has recorded its highest ever rise, at 33%, in the numbers of big cats: from 2,226 in 2014 to 2,967 in 2018. It’s now home to 75% of the global tiger population.
The healthy jump in numbers means India has achieved its target of doubling the tiger count four years ahead of 2022. The goal was set nine years ago, with the 2006 count of 1,411 taken as the base year.
“It is one of the finest example of ‘sankalp se siddhi’ (from pledge to fulfilment). Once people of India decide to do something, there is no force that can prevent them from getting the desired results,” said Prime Minister
Narendra Modi emphasising how the commitment was fulfilled “four years in advance”.
Releasing the tiger census report at his official residence on International Tiger Day on Monday, Modi said, “With around 3,000 tigers, India has emerged as of one of the biggest and safest habitats for them in world...The country is proud to be home to almost 75% of the global tiger population”.
The world-wide population of wild tigers stands at around 3,950 with Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand, Bangladesh and Bhutan being other key countries contributing to the remaining 25% count. The results are a thumbs up for India’s conservation efforts even though rising numbers increase the risk of man-animal conflict as a recent incident of a young tigress being beaten to death demonstrates.
Managing the tiger population and even catering to the need for increased conservation zones is likely to be a fresh challenge even as the tiger numbers demonstrate the animal’s ability to rebound if given supportive conditions that ensure its habitats are preserved and poaching is controlled.
Modi invoked two Bollywood movie titles and said, “I just want to tell people associated with this work that the story that started with fear of ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ (once there was a tiger) has now reached the stage of ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ (tiger is alive).”
On the down side, the report also noted how three (Buxa, Dampa and Palamau) out of the 50 tiger reserves in the country did not record a single tiger. It spoke of the need to “repopulate” these reserves through “reintroductions from Kaziranga” after prey restoration.
India has been counting tigers and assessing habitat every four years since 2006. The 33% rise in tiger numbers is the highest ever recorded between four-year cycles. The growth was 21% during 2006-10 and 30% between 2010 and 2014.
The tiger census report said the fourth cycle of assessment was undertaken using “best available science, technology and analytical tools” such as M-STrIPES (mobile phone app), GPS to geo-tag photo-evidences, genetic sampling and camera traps all of which reduced the margin of human error.
Calling the exercise a credible tiger census while referring to scientific methods and the massive on ground effort through 26,838 camera trap locations and an army of forest officials and volunteers, environment minister Prakash Javadekar told TOI measures were being taken to avoid human-tiger conflict situations and said efforts would start showing results.
“Tigers invariably come out of their habitats, looking for water and prey. We have started taking water and prey augmentation measures in tiger habitats and reserves. Besides, we have also decided to allocate additional land for compensatory afforestation works in tiger corridors. This new policy will help in avoiding any human-tiger conflict situation,” said Javadekar.
He said the number, showing overall health of ecology and India’s leadership on this front, has increased due to massive “conservation efforts” at multiple levels in the past five years.
Modi also released a report on the management of various reserves with
Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, scoring the highest. The Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve,
Tamil Nadu, showed the highest improvement in management. Overall, 42% of tiger reserves are in the ‘very good’ category, 34% in ‘good’, 24% in `fair’ while no tiger reserve was rated ‘poor’.
Among states, Madhya Pradesh recorded highest number of tigers (526), followed by Karnataka (524) and Uttarakhand (442) in 2018 with rise over 2014 counts. The report, however, expressed concerns over decline in number of the wild cats in Chhattisgarh where it attributed it to poor law and order situation (naxalism) in and around Indravati tiger reserve.
