New Delhi: With an increase of nearly 33% since the last census in 2014, the total tiger count has touched 2,967, according to the All India Tiger Estimation Report 2018, released by Prime Minister NarendraModi, here on Monday.
As per the tiger count maintained by the government, the population of the Asian cat has been increasing at a rate of 6% per annum when consistently sampled areas were compared from 2006 to 2018. The population was recorded at 1,411, which increased to 2,226 in 2014. As per the latest count, it is now estimated to be 2,967.
The results are crucial, as India along with 12 other tiger range countries had committed to double the population of tigers in their respective countries by 2022, as part of the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) programme Tx2.
“Nine years ago it was decided in St. Petersburg that the target of doubling the Tiger population would be 2022, we in India completed the target 4 years earlier. This is one of the finest examples of Sankalp se siddhi (attainment through resolve),” said PM Modi after he released the fourth edition of the census, “Today,we can proudly say that with nearly 3,000 tigers, India is the safest places for tigers in the world.”
Madhya Pradesh registered a substantial increase in their tiger population with an estimate of 526 tigers compared to 308 in 2014. The state is followed by Karnataka with 524 tigers. The two states have the highest population of the predator.
The numbers have also increased in Uttrakhand, where the tiger count stands at 442, followed by Maharashtra (312) and Tamil Nadu (264).
However, the poor and continuing decline in tiger status in the states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha is a matter of concern. The number has come down from 46 to 19 in Chhattisgarh, while in Odisha it remains at 28. “Loss in North East is due to poor sampling,” stated the report.
A total of 2,461 individual tigers more than a year old were photo-captured as part of the census. The overall tiger population was estimated at 2,967 (range 2,603 to 3,346). Out of this, 83% were actuallycamera trapped individual tigers and 87% were accounted for by camera-trap based capture-mark-recapture and remaining 13% estimated through covariate based statistical models.
Tiger occupancy was found to be stable at 88,985 km the country scale since 2014.New areas that were colonized by tigers in 2018 constituted 25,709(28%) km.
India accounts for nearly 75% of the total tiger population (3,159 adult free-ranging tigers) in the world which is largest for any country. Therefore, the future of tigers as a species, as well as the success of the Global Tiger Recovery Plan at meeting its targets, depends on successful tiger recovery in India.
“India has achieved a historic milestone. On Global Tiger Day, we reaffirm our commitment to conserve tiger population in the country. We are doing whatever we can to save conserve the majestic animal,” said Modi calling upon heads of other countries to form an alliance of global leaders and erase the demand for illegal poaching in Asia.
The extensive exercise is considered to bethe world’s largest wildlife survey. It covered 3.81 lakh km of forested habitats in 20 tiger occupied states of India. A foot survey of 5.22 km km was done for tiger signs and prey abundance estimation. Camera traps were deployed at 26,838 locations. These cameras resulted in 3.4 crore photographs of wildlife of which 76,651 were of tigers and 51,777 were of leopards.
