Tiger zinda hai

Tiger zinda hai

But the growth in big cat numbers needs to be maintained.

In a big positive for tiger conservation in India, the country has recorded its highest ever rise in tiger population of 33% from 2,226 in 2014 to 2,967 in 2018. India is now home to almost 75% of the global tiger population. In fact, the latest tiger census shows that India has achieved the goal of doubling tiger population from the 2006 baseline of 1,411 tigers. A lot of resources were poured into the latest survey with 3,81,400 sq km of forests covered and 26,838 camera trap locations set up at 141 sites. As many as 2,461 individual tigers – 83% of the total – have actually been photographed by trap cameras.

The credit for this spurt in tiger numbers goes to increased vigilance and conservation efforts. From 28 in 2006, the number of tiger reserves in the country went up to 50 in 2018. This increased protection to tiger areas has seen tiger numbers multiply in core forest areas, leading to a spillover into outer areas. This also indicates measures to control poaching are actually working with organised poaching reportedly declining dramatically.

Tigers are apex predators and therefore a healthy growth in their numbers is indicative of healthy ecosystems that can support a large prey base. Thus, the latest tiger survey does give environmentalists some reason to cheer. However, issues with the methodology of tiger counting remain. For example, in 2014 tigers aged 1.5 years or older were counted. The current report has the cut-off age as 1 year. The reason for this change remains unexplained. Previously, some experts had even pointed out a mismatch between growing tiger numbers and shrinking tiger habitats. Plus, there seems to be state-wide variation in tiger numbers. While Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttarakhand have the top three tiger populations, Odisha and Chhattisgarh have seen the biggest decreases – 37.8% and 26.9% declines respectively from 2006.

Add to this the fact that cases of man-animal conflict are increasing across the country. To address this, wildlife tourism needs to be boosted. This will not only prevent killing of animals, but also create stakeholders in protecting wildlife reserves by providing employment opportunities to locals. If India has 75% of the world’s tigers, it should be able to leverage this for its tourism economy and thus resolve the man-animal conflict.