The Union Minister of Culture, G Kishan Reddy, said that the population of tigers in the country has increased from 1,411 in 2006 to 3,682 in 2022 in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Indian Parliament) on August 7, 2023.
India recorded a 23.5 per cent increase in tiger population between 2018 and 2022, taking the number of big cats in the wild to 3,682, more than the initially estimated 3167 and accounting for 75 per cent of the world’s tiger population.
Around 80 per cent of tigers now reside in 18 tiger states, including Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Assam. The central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has the highest tiger population of 785, followed by 563 in Karnataka and 444 in Maharashtra.
The central and Western Ghats landscape has contributed to the increase in the number of tigers to the total number, making them the densest tiger regions in the world, according to state-wise estimation reported on August 5, 2023.
Initiatives of the Government
The most eminent incentive launched by the Indian government is “Project Tiger”. It is a centrally sponsored scheme of the Ministry of Environment Forests, and Climate Change launched in 1973 to provide central assistance to the tiger states for tiger conservation. The project is administered by National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
The NTCA is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change. It was established in 2005 under the recommendations of the Tiger Task Force. There are other similar wildlife agencies that cater to tiger conservation. This includes Global Tiger Forum, Global Tiger Initiatives and Tiger Census.
The government has also established Conservative Regions and Community Reserves to protect critical tiger habitats outside of the designated tiger reserves. In addition, eco-sensitive zones have been set up. Another incentive is Project Elephant. Though it is not directly related to tigers, the elephant and tiger share similar habitats, and the initiatives have benefitted tiger populations as well.
Conservation over the years in India
In the 1960’s it was found that the tiger population was on the brink of extinction in India due to habitat destruction and poaching. Tiger hunting was banned by the Indin Government in the year 1968. Also, in 1972, the Wildlife Protection Act came into existence. On April 9, 2023, PM Narendra Modi celebrated 50 years of tiger conservation in India.
The past 50 years of tiger conservation in India have not been smooth. The main threat to the tiger population’s extinction was attributed to habitat loss and poaching. In 1993, many wildlife experts said that tigers may go extinct. In 2006, there was a significant drop in the estimated tiger population to 1,411.
As compared to 1973, when the tiger was declared the national animal and Project Tiger was launched, now India has seen the number of reserves from nine to fifty-four. As the estimates, the tiger population is now 2,967, and India is now home to seventy per cent of tigers in the world.
Increase in the number of tigers
The former dean of the Wildlife Institute of India, YV Jhala, the rise in the number of tigers, especially in the states of Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra, reflects the good health of tiger habitats and the incentives scheme of relocating villagers from core areas and comparatively fewer poaching activities.
Parag Madhukar Dhakate, the chief conservator of forests in Uttarakhand, said that the good forest cover in the state supports the growth of tigers. “Overall, 12 % of the state’s total geographical area is directly under protected areas, including six national parks, seven wildlife sanctuaries and four conservation reserves. This has allowed tigers to thrive and move around,” he said.
The rise in the number of tigers in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra was an increase in the number of areas surveyed in 2022 compared to that of 2018, but that is not a bad thing, said Anish Andheria, the CEO of Wildlife Conservation Trust.
The healthy number of tigers in the two states was found outside the reserves indicating that corridors linking one tiger reserve to the other enables tiger populations to move to new habitat was working, he said.
However, southern Indian states such as Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have shown declining trends which is worrying.
Tigers Outside the Reserves
In Madhya Pradesh, 137 of the 785 tigers were found outside the reserves. In Maharashtra, of the 444 tigers, at least 80 were found outside the reserves. In Karnataka, 136 of 563 tigers were found outside the reserves. Similarly, in Uttarakhand, 73 tigers were found outside the two tiger reserves, the Corbett National Park And Rajaji National Park, out of the total 560.
This was in complete contrast in the states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana and Chattisgarh, where either the tiger numbers have declined or have not increased substantially. In Rajasthan, which houses the Ranthambore and the Sariska reserves, the big cats outside the reserves were not found to be many.
“The number of tigers outside the reserve is an indicator of the health of the corridors. For example, the green connectivity between Kanha and Pench tiger reserves is good, and therefore, the entire landscape has seen a rise in tiger population,” said Andheria.
