New Delhi, Jan 23, 2015: As per a recent report by the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s (NTCA), the estimated population of tigers has grown up to 30.5 per cent with about 2,226 (1,945 to a maximum of 2,491) tigers last year, compared to 1,706 (1,571 to a maximum of 1,875) in 2011 and 1,411 in 2008. The numbers are likely to be revised as the sampling process is ongoing in some states.
The sampling was done in 3,78,118 km of forests in 18 states (as compared to 17 states in 2010), with total number of 1,540 unique tiger photo captures in 43 tiger reserves in 2014 (as compared to 39 tiger reserves in 2010). Karnataka tops the list with 408 tigers, with the highest number of tigers in the age group of 1.5 years and more, 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.
“These results confirm that more than half of the world’s tigers are in India, and thus, an up-to-date and precise estimation becomes imperative for assessing the success of future conservation efforts. This demonstrates the impact of bringing together political will, strong science and dedicated field efforts,” said Ravi Singh, Secretary General and CEO, WWF-India.
Minakshi Pandey, Executive Director, TOFT India, said, “The increase in tiger population pan India is good news, but the improvement towards Responsible Tourism is slow. Tiger conservation is directly related to safe, honourable and sustainable tourism and still has a long way to go. Also, we need to realise that the growing population of tigers will need more space for their healthy survival, else it may lead to conflict. I urge the stakeholders to take the lead and work in support of better protection and management of tiger reserves.”TBN
