New tiger census proves that MiD DAY's December report, which said the 1,411 figure was off the mark by at least 300, was bang on target

MiD DAY's report in December ('Tigers, raise your hands!', December 22), which said that there are at least 300 more of the beautiful felines in the country than the census figure of 1,411 would have you believe, was proven to be bang on target yesterday.

The new tiger census, unveiled by Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh at Vigyan Bhavan, has put the number of tigers in the country at 1,706 excluding the Indravati Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh, which has "a large number of tigers", according to the state's Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Ram Prakash.

Unlike the 2008 census, this figure includes tigers from the Sunderbans and the Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal and the Palamu Tiger Reserve in Jharkhand.

Wildlife conservationist Valmiki Thapar, who is a member of the Wildlife Institute of India, said, "Figures from the Sunderbans have been included in this census.

The number of tigers in that reserve is, however, much less than we were led to believe. 70 tigers were counted there as opposed to the 270 tigers that the West Bengal government had claimed."

Pradip Kumar Roy, additional principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife), West Bengal, confirmed that the tiger census was conducted in the Sunderbans this time around.
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"Sunderbans and a few other wildlife sanctuaries were not included in the 2008 census and, thus, the 1,411 figure was incomplete. Tigers from the Buxa Tiger Reserve were also counted this year," he said.

The Indravati Tiger Reserve, however, had to be left out this time too because of the Naxalite activities in the forest areas of Chattisgarh, "We were not able to conduct the census in Indravati due to Naxal disturbance," said Ram Prakash.u00a0

Here's where our tigers are
Following is the breakup of the 1,706 figure, which was arrived at by the Wild Life Institute, Dehradun.
Shivalik-Gangetic plains (Uttarakhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh): 353
Central India and Eastern Ghats (Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh): 601u00a0
Western Ghats (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka): 534u00a0
Northeast hills and Brahmaputra floodplains (Assam, Mizoram, West Bengal): 148u00a0
Sunderbans: 70

Expert voices
The increase is good and the new figure could be indicative of a trend, but one cannot take it as 100 per cent correct. There is too much fuss and hype surrounding the entire thing and it seems more like a political game rather than a scientific analysis. If we focus on protecting entire habitats, the tiger population will surely bounce back.
Sanjay Monga, naturalist and writer