Project Tiger nets huge success, Tiger population is up

Tiger population in India has seen a growth of 30% with 2,226 tigers in 47 reserves

GN Bureau | January 20, 2015



A sustained effort, even from the government, pays handsome dividends. This has been demonstrated by the Project Tiger. The national animal is thriving.

Tiger population in India has seen a growth of 30% with 2,226 tigers in 47 reserves in 2014. Naturally, the government is happy. "While the tiger population is falling in the world, it is rising in India. It is a great news," environment minister Prakash Javadekar said.

"Never before such an exercise has been taken. We have unique photographs of 80% of tigers," he said, talking about the year-long survey the helped prepare the estimation report.

Tiger population had dipped in 2006 to an alarming 1,411 from over 3,000 in early 2000, prompting the government to form a Tiger Task Force and tighten protection measures. And the conservation efforts have paid off as the new figures show.

India has been struggling to hold on to its last few hundreds of big cats left in the wild because of rampant poaching that feeds an illegal international trade, which supplies animal parts to the traditional Chinese medicine market, and also habitat loss, prey depletion and poor management of tiger reserves.

The government had launched the ‘Project Tiger’ in 1973 and over the years increased tiger reserves from 9 to 47. In 2007, it constituted a multidisciplinary Tiger and Other Endangered Species Crime Control Bureau (Wildlife Crime Control Bureau) to effectively control illegal trade in wildlife.

Rajesh Gopal, member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, said the estimation drive was a massive exercise across India which showed improvement in tiger numbers in many states.

Javadekar conferred the best reserve award on Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. Annamallai Tiger Reserve (Tamil Nadu) got the award for best communication and Periyar (Kerala) was rewarded for involving local communities. The Melghat reserve (Maharashtra) got award for smooth village relocation from tiger reserve.

Comments

 

Other News

Why foundational literacy and numeracy is key to school education

Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) are often described as the building blocks of education. Yet, their significance goes well beyond a child’s ability to read a sentence, write a response or solve a basic mathematical problem. These foundational skills shape how children understand the world,

When police data becomes the algorithm

For decades, policing has followed a familiar sequence: a crime occurs, the police respond, an investigation produces records and those records become part of the institutional memory of the criminal justice system. Artificial intelligence is beginning to alter that sequence. Instead of merely recording

Before India voted, the framers worried about the referee

“We are making a Constitution forever and not only for today.” Shibban Lal Saksena said this in the Constituent Assembly on June 15, 1949. He was warning that a ruling party might one day choose a loyalist to run India’s elections. Seventy-seven years later, the Supreme Court is wrestli

Delhi moves to real-time traffic management

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, has approved implementation of the ITMS Project by Delhi Police at an estimated cost of Rs.1,789.52 crore, inclusive of taxes. The project will cover 42 identified traffic corridors and will be implemented in three

MDR on UPI: Can sustainability come without weakening the network?

The extraordinary transaction volumes and value (₹29.82 Lakh crore in August 2026 alone) of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) have made it not only an Indian success story, but a global one. In 2024, UPI accounted for nearly 49% of the world’s real-time payment transaction volume, with more th

The Xi-Trump summit: The unending rivalry

Diplomacy is akin to an art, wherein the summitry, conflict resolution and negotiations form apt constituents of the entire context of deal making and “playing for keeps” in the international arena. The Xi-Trump summit in Washington last week, in which the American president broke all conside

Upcoming Conferences



-->

Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter