By IANS
New Delhi : There are only an estimated 1,411 tigers left in the wild in India today, less than half the number found in the 2002 census, according to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
The last census in 2001-02 put the figure at 3,642 tigers.
The much-awaited census released here Tuesday says the of India’s tigers in the wild ranges between 1,165 and 1,657 – with 1,411 the figure at the middle of the range.
Releasing the highlights of the census, head of NTCA R. Gopal said the government had refined its method for counting tigers through pugmarks and involved a number of independent experts, so there was now a high degree of confidence in the result.
The census found that Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of tigers in the country, an estimated 300, followed by Karnataka at 290, and then Uttarakhand with 178.
Three important tiger habitats were not covered by the census. Work is on in West Bengal’s Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest. But in Jharkhand and in the Indravati forest of Chhattisgarh, the census was not carried out due to fear of Maoist guerrillas.
However, the census figures were extrapolated to cover these areas and thus the entire country, Gopal said.
He compared the tiger habitats in India in the 18th and 19th centuries with those today to make the point that tigers are now in fragmented forest areas, which makes it difficult for them to find mates, and that makes the species more vulnerable to extinction in the wild.
Gopal said: “Though the tiger has suffered due to direct poaching, loss of quality habitat and loss of its prey, there is still hope.
“To ensure the long-term survival of tigers in India it is imperative to offer strict protection to established source populations and manage forests by involving local communities by providing them with a direct stake in conservation.”
The 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012) has increased the money available for tiger conservation to Rs.6 billion. The government has recently notified eight new tiger reserves and increased the budget for resettlement of people within forest areas from Rs.100,000 to Rs.1 million per family.
Gopal said the areas where tigers would most probably live on were the Corbett, Kanha, Kaziranga and Karbi Anglong forest reserves.
The areas where viable tiger populations can potentially live are Rajaji, Dudhwa, Katerniaghat, Satpura, Melghat, Pench, Bhadra, Kudremukh, Parambikulam and Indira Gandhi wildlife sanctuaries.
The census report expressed serious concern over the state of forests in Nagarjunasagar, Srisailam, Ranthambore, Kuno, Indravati, Bandhavgarh, Sanjay and Palamau.
The forest belt in the centre of India remains the largest tiger habitat. Apart from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra has 105 tigers, Andhra Pradesh 95, Orissa 45, Rajasthan 32 and Chhattisgarh 26 (not counting the Indravati forest).
In the Western Ghats, apart from Karnataka, the census estimates 76 tigers in Tamil Nadu and 46 in Kerala.
Gopal said the Terai belt remained one of the most promising tiger habitats in the country. Apart from Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh has 109 tigers and the Terai belt of Bihar has 10, the census estimates.
The northeastern states and the northern parts of West Bengal form the other main tiger habitat. The census estimates that Assam has 70 tigers, Arunachal Pradesh 14, the northern parts of West Bengal have 10, and Mizoram has six.
As expected, the latest census had proved an inverse relationship between livestock and tiger populations in forests, a similar inverse relationship between human trails and tiger population and a direct relationship between canopy density and the number of tigers in an area.