New Delhi, April 9: The tiger population has gone up in the Shivalik Hills-Gangetic Plains landscape, central India and the Sundarbans but their numbers have dwindled in the Western Ghats and the Northeast-Brahmaputra Plains due to habitat loss, fragmentation and poaching over the years, according to a government report released on Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the latest tiger numbers at a mega event organised in Mysuru to mark the completion of 50 years of Project Tiger.
According to the data, the tiger population in the country increased from 2,967 in 2018 to 3,167 in 2022.
The report said aligning the aspirations of large-scale economic development while safeguarding forests and wildlife and mitigating human-tiger conflict is one of the major challenges.
“The tiger population in the forest divisions of the Shivalik Hills and Gangetic Plains landscape has recorded a substantial increase with a total of 804 unique tigers being photographed, which is higher than the estimated population of 646 in 2018,” according to the “Status of Tigers Report 2022”.
It said photographic evidence of tigers in new areas of Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh provides hope for range expansion.
“To ensure their long-term survival, it is necessary to supplement and repopulate the Shivalik Forest Division of Uttar Pradesh and increase protection for tigers in Suhelwa, and pay special attention to the genetically divergent population of Valmiki,” the report said.
It also said linear infrastructure projects on the congested corridor between western and eastern Rajaji have left the area “functionally extinct” for large carnivores and elephant movement, and the adoption of green infrastructure is needed to recover the tiger population in this fragmented landscape.
Additionally, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh need to invest in mitigating conflicts between human beings and tigers and mega herbivores due to their increasing populations outside protected areas.
The data showed a “decrease in tiger occupancy throughout the Western Ghats”, except in a few areas like Kali (Anshi Dandeli).
The area recorded 824 “unique tigers” in 2022 as compared to 981 in 2018, “indicating a decline in some regions and stability in well-protected tiger reserves”.
“While tiger populations within protected areas have either remained stable or increased, tiger occupancy outside of these regions has significantly decreased, such as in the Wayanad landscape, BRT Hills, and the border regions of Goa and Karnataka,” the report stated.
It cited the “increasing human footprint and development” as one of the major reasons behind the dwindling numbers of tigers in the Western Ghats. (PTI)
