With the release of ‘status of tiger, co-predators and prey in India 2022’ report, Madhya Pradesh on Saturday retained ‘Tiger State’ tag followed by Karnataka for the third time. The State has highest concentration of tigers in the country. MP has won the tag consecutively for the second time in All India Tiger Estimation Report 2022 by a big margin of 222 wild cats which is highest number ever. According to Census 2022, Madhya Pradesh has highest 785 tigers followed by Karnataka 563, Uttarakhand 560 and Maharashtra 444 tigers. In last Census 2018, MP had won the tag of ‘Tiger State’ by difference of just two tigers 526 to 524. As during the year 2022, MP lost higher number of tigers for various reasons, all eyes were on state whether it would retain its ‘Tiger State’ tag or not. Madhya Pradesh lost 34 big cats in 2022 as compared to just 15 in Karnataka. The deaths were reported in the survey year for the country’s Tiger Census 2022. During year 2006, MP had 300 tigers, in 2010 there were 257, in 2014, 308, in 2018 there were 526 and in Census 2022, 785 tigers have been estimated in the State. PCCF (Wildlife) Aseem Shrivastava said, “This is all team work that our foresters and field staff worked jointly to provide safer habitat to the tigers. Now we will work on forest cover, anti-poaching campaigns and other necessary steps for better conservation plan.”

 

He further said that to preserve ecological integrity, there is a need to strongly continue eco-friendly development agenda, minimise mining impacts, and rehabilitate mining sites. Additionally, fortifying protected area management, intensifying anti-poaching measures, employing scientific thinking and technology-driven data collection, and addressing human-wildlife conflict are vital steps to protect the country’s tiger populations. “Challenges like poaching is still a threat to tiger conservation continued,” added the PCCF wildlife warden. India’s Project Tiger has made tremendous progress in tiger conservation over the past five decades, but challenges like poaching is still a threat to tiger conservation. Continued efforts to protect tiger habitats and corridors are crucial for securing the future of India’s tigers and their ecosystems for generations to come. Government of India launched project tiger in 1973 aimed at safeguarding the nation’s tiger population and preserving bio-diversity. Over the past fifty years, Project Tiger has achieved commendable success, making significant strides in tiger conservation. Initially covering nine tiger reserves spanning 18,278 km, the project has flourished into a remarkable accomplishment with 53 reserves spread across 75,796 km, effectively covering 2.3% of India’s total land area. India currently harbours almost 75% of the world’s wild tiger population. On April 9, 2022, during the celebration of 50 years of the Project Tiger at Mysusru, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared the minimum tiger population of 3,167, which is the population estimate from the camera-trapped area.

 

Now, further analysis of data, done by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), from both camera-trapped and non-camera-trapped tiger presence areas, the upper limit of the tiger population is estimated to be 3,925 and the average number is 3,682 tigers, reflecting a commendable annual growth rate of 6.1% per year. Central India and the Shivalik Hills and Gangetic Plains witnessed a notable increases in tiger population, particularly in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Maharashtra. The largest tiger population of 785 is in Madhya Pradesh, followed by Karnataka (563) and Uttarakhand (560), and Maharashtra (444). Wildlife activist from NGO Prayatana Ajay Dubey says, “Though we all are happy to see the rising population of tigers in our State but at the same time it is also giving us responsibility to curb the man-animal conflict and poaching cases. There is need to make a wildlife crime bureau at the state-level. Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF) and notification of Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary as Tiger Reserve is much needed.”