Worst decline in tiger numbers since 1973

Initial estimates from 4 states show 50% fall in last 5 years, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: May 24, 2007, 10:49:34 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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India's tiger population has fallen drastically. Initial estimates from 16 of the country’s 28 tiger reserves in 2006-07 indicate a 50 per cent fall in the number of tigers in four central Indian states in the last five years, according to estimates released on Wednesday by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

There are only 490 tigers in the 16 reserves across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Chattisgarh (excluding the Indravati reserve), down from 1,233 in 2002. A final census is expected by the end of 2007.

The government’s first tiger census, conducted under the Project Tiger initiative begun in 1973, counted 1,827 tigers in the country that year. Since then the tiger population had seen a steady rise to reach 3,700 tigers in 2002.

The WII estimates showed that tiger numbers had fallen in Madhya Pradesh by 61 per cent, Maharashtra by 57 per cent and Rajasthan by 40 per cent. Dr YV Jhala, chief scientist at the WII, said: "It is extremely important to remove the anthropogenic (human) presence in tiger habitats."

Sunita Narian, who headed the Tiger Task Force constituted after tigers vanished from the Sariska forest reserve in Rajasthan, has asked the government to take up the relocation of the one lakh people — in 1500 villages — living inside tiger reserves. Project Tiger officials have sought an allocation of Rs 600 crore from the Planning Commission in the 11th Plan.

Half the world’s surviving tigers are in India. But conservationists say the country will have to make a serious effort if it wants to save the big cats. "The WII report is a step forward. We have to work on it to save the tigers,” said Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

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

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