More tigers, less space

The number of tigers in India has increased from 1,411 to 1,706 in four years but the total tiger area has shrunk from nine million hectares to seven million hectares.

Updated on: Mar 29, 2011, 01:37:51 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Call it a tiger paradox. The number of tigers in India has increased from 1,411 to 1,706 in four years but the total tiger area has shrunk from nine million hectares to seven million hectares.

Tiger estimation based on camera trap and DNA testing was done after a gap of four years and new areas such as Sunderbans and parts of Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Northeast were included for the first time.

Despite that, south India and terrai region in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh accounted for about 40 % of tigers in India. South India now has the highest concentration anywhere in the world of tigers in a region whereas Corbett with around 220 tigers having highest tiger density in a reserve.

There was no change in number of big cat in Central India, touted as tiger capital, with decline in their numbers in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Jharkhand and an increase in Maharashtra, which has surprised wildlife experts.

"We don't agree with the number as of now," said PS Pable, MP's Chief Wildlife Warden. There was also dissent on the estimation from Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Sunderbans, who doubted the methodology of the study. There were 150 tigers in Sunderbans as compared to 70 in present estimation.

P R Sinha, director of Wildlife Institute of India, which conducted the estimation, said the numbers have been derived after extensive analysis of data generated through camera traps and local prey population. "The number of tigers have to be in proportion to the prey available," he told HT.

On the scientific note, K Ullas Karanth, director Centre for Wildlife Studies, said the full process of how these tiger numbers are generated for individual tiger populations and landscapes, has not been made public in a scientifically acceptable manner. "Only one scientific paper, which explains only a part of this protocol, has been published in 2011, based on data from the last round of estimation in 2007," he said.

If the tiger estimation of 2006 and 2010 is compared, there is an increase of about 12%, first reported by HT on February 19. "One in every four sq kms of tiger area has been camera trapped," Environment minister Jairam Ramesh said, after releasing the estimation at a global conference of tiger experts.

For Ramesh, the increase was a "mixed bag" as tiger home had fallen by about two million hectares during the two estimation periods and most tiger corridors - linking one reserve with another - were highly fragmented. It has resulted in more tiger deaths because of infighting and tiger-human conflict from Kaziranga in Assam to Corbett in Uttarakhand to Ranthambore in Rajasthan.

Karanth pointed out that most of India's reproducing tiger populations are now concentrated in 10 % of all tiger habitats and are under grave threat. "They need ecologically monitoring annually for protection," he said. Belinda Wright of Wildlife Protection Society of India efforts should be made to improve prey population, which has dwindled in many parks.

For Ramesh poaching was not an issue but outlined threat from development. "The way we plan our national highways and the way we do our coal mining is not going to help future of tigers," Ramesh said. Plan Panel deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia countered it by saying that development was not always against conservation of wildlife but emphasized on maintaining a balance between the two.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.