Indian Wild Tiger Population Shows Encouraging Growth Of 20 Per Cent

A tiger census in India which for the first time surveyed the entire country suggests that the population of wild tigers has risen by 20 per cent. The previous census of the tiger population in 2007 pegged the number of wild tigers at just 1,411, the latest census however, shows that the number of wild tigers in India has grown to 1,706.

Despite the increase in numbers officials remain concerned that the amount of territory tigers have to roam is falling. Officially, India has over 45,000 square kilometres of forest area to roam in, spread across 39 designated tiger reserves.

However the corridors have begun to shrunk with India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh describing the trend as “alarming”.

Experts say that corridor preservation needs to be a top priority for the government. The corridors connect natural tiger habitats that have been separated over time as a result of human development.

Conservationists used hidden cameras installed at strategic points and DNA tests to count the cats.

Previously estimates were made based on an older method which counted pugmarks, the unique footprint of individual tigers.

At the turn of the previous century, there were over 100,000 tigers in India, since then however their decline has been inexorable, with experts estimating that 97 per cent have been lost to either poaching or shrinking habitats.

Today, fewer than 3,500 tigers remain in the wild around the world with India accounting for more than half of them.

Mr. Ramesh described the latests census figures as being “good news”, with the key difference this time being that the area covered by the census included the whole of India.

The key difference in the latest census was that it covered the whole of India.

“The count is more scientific this time and therefore more accurate,” Rajesh Gopal of Project Tiger, the government’s tiger conservation body, was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying.

The survey was able to include difficult swampy terrain such as that found in the Sundarbans mangrove forest in West Bengal state bordering Bangladesh.

The current census added 70 tigers from the Sundarbans tiger reserve, which had not been included in the previous in census.

In recent years the tiger population has fallen precipitously as a result of increased poaching which experts say is organized similarly to drug trafficking.

Indians have not been able to tackle the issue in large part because it is such a lucrative trade involving lots of poachers, and also because of ever-changing techniques used by the cartels behind it.

WWF Charity says tiger products are a lucrative business.

There is huge demand for tiger bones, claws and skin in countries like China, Taiwan and Korea, where they are used in traditional Chinese medicine.