NEW DELHI — India’s tiger population has doubled in the last dozen years, according to the latest tiger census, a significant achievement for the country’s wildlife conservation efforts.
India is now home to 2,967 tigers, up from 1,411 in 2006 when it conducted its first national survey. The last census in 2014 had counted 2,226 tigers. The uptick in tiger population is good news for India, which has increasingly grappled with human-wildlife conflict amid rapid urbanization.
Releasing the figures Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India was now “one of the biggest and most secure habitats of the tiger.” India estimates that over 75 percent of the world’s tiger population now resides in the country.
All but three states with tigers registered an increase. The highest number of tigers is in Madhya Pradesh in central India, which has 526. The tiger is India’s national animal.
Calling these estimates “encouraging,” Ravi Singh, CEO of WWF India, said that given the “immense pressure on India’s biodiversity,” the numbers speak of the commitment of the government, local communities and citizens of India.
India’s tiger conservation efforts began in the 1970s, aimed at protecting the tiger population from extinction. It also passed a wildlife act that criminalized capturing and killing of wild animals. Now, 50 tiger reserves cover about 2 percent of the country’s geographical area.
Efforts have also focused on providing incentives for relocations of villages from reserves, strong anti-poaching measures and connecting tiger source populations through habitat corridors.
Wildlife groups say that in the last 100 years, the global tiger population has dropped by 97 percent. In 2010, an agreement between 13 tiger range countries had aimed to double their populations by 2022. India has achieved its target four years ahead of time.
But a lot more needs to be done, experts say. “Right now, we have several infrastructure projects and highways going through tiger reserves putting their future in jeopardy,” said wildlife conservationist Prerna Singh Bindra. “Going forward we need to hold tiger habitats sacrosanct, improve vigilance and protection in reserves and formulate strategies to address conflict, including by working together with people who live in close proximity to the tiger.”
Last week, a crowd of villagers in northern India beat a female tiger to death with sticks and spears after she had reportedly attacked and injured a man in a national tiger reserve.
India’s tiger census, conducted every four years, is a mammoth exercise, which the country says is the world’s largest wildlife survey. India spent $1.4 million surveying under half a million square kilometers of forest land. Over 40,000 people were part of the exercise.
