India has registered a rise of 30 per cent in its tiger population with the estimated numbers across 47 tiger reserves now at 2,226 from 1,706 in 2010, according to the 'Status of Tigers in India, 2014' preliminary report on tiger population estimation. The increase in population makes India home to 70 per cent of the world's tiger population, said Prakash Javadekar, union minister for environment, forests and climate change (MoEF&CC) while releasing the report on Tuesday. The national estimation of tigers, their prey, co-predators and their habitat is carried out every four years. The rise in numbers also prompted Javadekar to say that India may loan tigers to other countries in the future. "An informal request has come from Cambodia and Laos demanding tigers," said Rajesh Gopal, head, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
India has registered a rise of 30 per cent in its tiger population with the estimated numbers across 47 tiger reserves now at 2,226 from 1,706 in 2010, according to the 'Status of Tigers in India, 2014' preliminary report on tiger population estimation. The increase in population makes India home to 70 per cent of the world's tiger population, said Prakash Javadekar, union minister for environment, forests and climate change (MoEF&CC) while releasing the report on Tuesday. The national estimation of tigers, their prey, co-predators and their habitat is carried out every four years. The rise in numbers also prompted Javadekar to say that India may loan tigers to other countries in the future. "An informal request has come from Cambodia and Laos demanding tigers," said Rajesh Gopal, head, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
The report states that the highest jump was recorded in Karnataka, where 106 tigers were added since 2010, taking the total number 406, while the Western Ghats states of Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu hold 776, the largest population of tigers as a single region. Of this 776, the Mudumalai-Bandipur-Nagerhole-Wayanad tiger complex alone is home to 570 tigers, said YD Jhala, scientist, Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and one of the principal investigator of the estimation exercise. The states of Uttarakhand, Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Assam were some of the key states that have witnessed a rise in the tiger population. On the other hand, Odisha Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand saw a drop in tiger numbers. Odisha though has recorded the presence of a unique black tiger gene or the melanistic tiger.
According to Jhala, reduction in poaching, estimation in unmapped areas such and sound relocation and resettlement of villagers from core areas contributed majorly to the healthy population rise. "The estimation result came as huge surprise for us as we had not expected the numbers to go beyond 1,900. We have photographs 1540 photos of individual tigers and we estimated the other numbers based on these photos, extrapolation, scat and DNA analysis." Jhala added, "For maintaining and increasing the current population, we will have to go for landscape based forest management and increase the limited gene pool of tigers available right now. For this to happen, linking of tiger corridors would be crucial."
Commenting on the estimation figures, K Ullas Karanth, director for science (Asia), Wildlife Conservation Society, said, "The photo-capturing method does not lead to duplication and a large database of photos can help in estimating missing proportion of tigers. However, some of the statistics used in the extrapolations to wider areas in not robust." He opined that Western Ghats habitats are very productive and support high densities once hunting of prey is eliminated. Also, the higher literacy in these region has supported effective conservation.
The estimation results show a rise of 520 tigers since 2010 and when asked about this rise, Qamar Qureshi, scientist, WII and principal investigator of the estimation exercise said, "Since 2010, the tiger population has increased at a rate of six per cent per annum in India whereas the world lost 97 per cent tigers in the last 50 years in 13 tiger countries. Effective poaching control, better management of tiger occupied have contributed in a large way."
The NTCA will come out with the final report in March as camera trapping exercises are still on in Odisha, Sahyadri ranges and a few other parts of the country.
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