New Delhi, 20 January : In what can be described as a path-breaking development and good news for environmental lovers the latest new tiger census, released by Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar, shows that India — which has 70% of the world tiger population — has registered an increase of 30 per cent in country’s tiger population in the past three years.
“While the tiger population is falling in the world, it is rising in India. It is a great news”, said Javadekar.
Referring to the census exercise, he said, “Never before such an exercise has been taken in that massive scale where we have unique photographs of 80% of the India’s tiger”.
Pertinently, the 2008 tiger census figure, the current increase is simply phenomenal. India’s tiger population was 1,411 in 2008. Tiger census is carried out after a gap of every three years by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in the country.
According to the 2011 tiger census report, the tiger population estimated was 1,706 (i.e. ranging between a minimum of 1,571 to a maximum of 1,875). The results included figures from 17 states having tiger population.
