Tiger population in India rises to 1706

As per the second all-India tiger population estimation study, carried out in the designated 39 tiger reserves across the country, there has been an increase of 295 tigers in India.

The population is estimated at 1706, up from 1411 tigers in 2008.

Minister of environment and forests Jairam Ramesh, who released the census report, said that more areas including Sundarbans has been counted this time, which has 70 tigers.

"If Sundarbans are excluded then the rise in tiger population is 12 per cent," he added.

The census indicates that the Shivalik Gangetic plains has 353 tigers, central India and Eastern Ghats have 601 tigers, Western Ghats 534, the northeast hills and Brahmaputra floodplains 148 and the Sunderbans 70.

Numbering over 100,000 at the turn of the last century, tigers have lost more than 97% of their population and 94% of their home range in just 100 years.

They live in increasingly isolated habitats in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Viatnam.

The Global Tiger Recovery Programme marks the first formalised international initiative to save the species from extinction.