India Completes 50 Years Of Tiger Conservation Project; How Many Wild Cats Do We Have?

New Delhi: India will complete 50 years of Project Tiger — one of the biggest wildlife conservation missions launched in 1973 to save the endangered carnivore on Sunday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release the summary report of All India Tiger Estimation (5th cycle) from Bandipur Tiger Reserve tomorrow morning, which assesses the status of tigers, co-predators and prey across 18 tiger states.

It will also set the stage for the launch of the International Big Cats Alliance (IBCA), a global pact announced by the prime minister to curb poaching and illegal wildlife trade across Asia. The alliance will focus on the protection and conservation of seven major big cats of the world — tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, puma, jaguar and cheetah, with a membership of the range of countries harbouring these species.

How many tigers do we have?

India is home to over 75 per cent of the world’s last surviving tigers,

From just 1,411 tigers estimated to be in the wild in the year 2006, India has been able to double its population reaching up to 2,967 in 2018, as per the government estimate. Wildlife experts and conservationists expect a further uptick in the overall numbers in the latest survey.

What are the challenges?

Inbreeding, shuttling of tigers, poaching and poisoning continue to be a matter of concern. Since the movement of these big cats is limited to individual tiger reserves, lack of genetic diversity threatens their long-term survival, say conservationists.

“The animals must always be on the move. That is the only way we can maintain their genetic flow. So, the numbers alone aren’t enough. It is important to look at how well we can maintain the connectivity of these habitats. We cannot have islands of conservation. The integrity of the ecosystems is crucial,” Anup Nayak, former member-secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, told News18.

India has also been shuttling its tigers between reserves as existing ones achieve their carrying capacity and conflict with humans becomes a concern. The animals are now being re-introduced in other reserves where they have become locally extinct. Apart from natural mortality, poaching also remains a serious challenge. As per the government data, India lost as many as 329 tigers from 2019 to 2021, with the highest mortality (127 deaths) in 2021. Tiger states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra accounted for 50 per cent of these deaths, followed by Karnataka. While most deaths were attributed to natural causes, poaching was also listed as a cause. The animals have also been poisoned in several instances, with simultaneous reports of human deaths, and livestock damage in villages surrounding the forests, News 18 reported.

How are tigers counted?

Counting is done every four years. The exercise involves forest officials and scientists doing a survey across the country looking for signs of the wild cat. The assessment, which began in 2006, is currently in its fifth cycle with the results set to be announced on Sunday.

The estimates are made by collecting field data on tiger sign intensity, prey abundance, human disturbance as well as habitat characteristics in various forest beats followed by estimates based on modern camera trap images.

The census so far

From over 50,000 tigers, only 3,000 remain in the wild as per the 2018 census. Madhya Pradesh had the highest number of tigers at 526 in the last survey, closely followed by Karnataka at 524 and Uttarakhand with 442 tigers. More than 70 per cent of these cats are inside the 53 tiger reserves spread over 75,796 sq km.