Tiger State
| Date :04-Aug-2019 |
“The Satpura landscape that comprises of Kanha Tiger Reserve, Pench Tiger Reserve and Satpura Tiger Reserve has the highest number of tiger population in Madhya Pradesh. But experts say the forest department will have more responsibility on its shoulder. Since the numbers have increased, cases of man-animal conflict will come as a challenge.”
The way forward for Madhya Pradesh will be to take care of its tigers and its corridors. They will have to pay attention to develop a communication strategy with the people so that people can co-exist with tigers. This will help in avoiding man-animal conflict.
By ANSHUMAN BHARGAVA:
MADHYA Pradesh has regained its ‘Tiger State’ status with 526 tigers. In the Tiger Census Report 2018, which was released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the national capital recently, Madhya Pradesh has seen an increase in the tiger population by nearly 70 per cent, as the population in the last census was recorded at 308 tigers. For the last two census reports of 2010 and 2014, Karnataka had beaten MP to twice become the ‘Tiger State’. However, with an increase of 218 tigers from the previous census, MP regained its pride of being the Tiger State. Interestingly, MP beat Karnataka by mere two tigers as the latter recorded 524 tigers while MP has 526 tigers.
The news has brought cheer to the wildlife officials, activists and animal lovers of the State. Overall, India has seen an increase of 33 per cent in the tiger population compared to the 2014 census report. Out of this 33 per cent, MP has a contribution of 29 per cent, followed by Karnataka and Uttarakhand. The country now has as many as 2,967 tigers in the wild while in the last census in 2014, the total estimate was 2,226. India has over 80 per cent of the global tiger population which stands at 3,159. According to the Government, the total numbers have been increasing at a rate of 6 per cent every year—from 1,411 in 2006 to 2,226 in 2014. India along with 12 other tiger range countries had committed to doubling the population of tigers in their respective countries by 2022, as part of the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) programme Tx2. “Nine years ago it was decided in St. Petersburg that the target of doubling the tiger population would be 2022, we in India completed the target 4 years earlier,” said Modi after releasing the fourth edition of the census.
“Today, we can proudly say that with nearly 3,000 tigers, India is the safest places for tigers in the world,” he added. The extensive census exercise is considered to be the world’s largest wildlife survey. It covered 381,000 sq. km of forested habitats in 18 States where tigers are found. A foot survey of 5.22 lakh km was done for tiger signs and prey abundance estimation. A total of 26,838 camera traps resulted in 34.8 million photographs of wildlife, of which 76,651 were of tigers and 51,777 of leopards. Prime Minister Modi rightly said, “India has achieved a historic milestone. … We reaffirm our commitment to conserve tiger population in the country.
We are doing whatever we can to save and conserve the majestic animal,” calling upon heads of other countries to form an alliance of global leaders to eliminate the demand for illegal poaching in Asia. As the people of the State and the country are celebrating the increase in the population of tigers, forest officials, and experts suggest some of the key factors that have played a vital role in the drastic increase. According to R Shreenivasa Murthy, the man behind the successful Panna Reintroduction of Tigers project, there is not one but many factors that have contributed to the success. Murthy says that one of the most important factors have been that of the Panna reintroduction where the numbers were increased from zero to nearly 60 in the Panna landscapes.
He further added that focus, development, and management of corridors have also been highly instrumental in raising the overall tiger population. More attention was given to the security and monitoring of the corridors between different tiger source populations. Based on this, the mishaps that used to happen in these corridors have also been controlled hugely. Another factor is that the protection of tigers has also increased which has helped in the reduction of tiger poaching cases and tiger mortality due to poaching. The constitution of the Tiger Task Force has also helped in improving the overall security of the State in a positive aspect.
Ajay Dubey, Bhopal-based wildlife activist, credits ‘technology’ as well for the Census report. He says tiger population accuracy has increased because of the information and technology tools. The use of the high-tech facilities have helped, as the use of such technology used to be less in the previous censuses due to limited resources. This census has been executed in a better way, the training of officers needs to be appreciated, and so does the prominent involvement of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). The Satpura landscape that comprises of Kanha Tiger Reserve, Pench Tiger Reserve and Satpura Tiger Reserve has the highest number of tiger population in Madhya Pradesh. But experts say the forest department will have more responsibility on its shoulder. Since the numbers have increased, cases of man-animal conflict will come as a challenge.
To tackle this, the way forward for Madhya Pradesh will be to take care of its tigers and its corridors. They will have to pay attention to develop a communication strategy with the people so that people can co-exist with tigers. This will help in avoiding man-animal conflict, which is of utmost importance. The goal should also be to ensure connectivity to deficient areas so that they become viable for tigers to occupy, even as many areas have a very little tiger with others getting overpopulated. This brings us to an area of concern that this growth in tiger population has not been uniform across all 18 States where tigers are found. The count has decreased drastically from 46 to 19 in Chhattisgarh. In Odisha, it has been on a continual decline over the years and now stands at 28. We have 50 tiger reserves and not all are doing well. Poaching is still a concern in many of them.
According to officials, at least 24 per cent mortality among tigers is still due to poaching. There is still a lack of protection and management measures in some areas. Tigers thrive in areas where the prey density, habitat conditions are good; if that does not happen, the numbers will not improve. Even for the tiger reserves which are doing well, there will come a time, when they reach their carrying capacity and tigers will move out, which again will mean bettering the man-animal scenario and finding new areas to settle tigers so that the balance can be rightly maintained.
By the way, India is the largest natural habitat of the feline, the future of tigers as a species, as well as the success of the Global Tiger Recovery Plan depends largely on India’s success in raising and maintaining a healthy tiger population. We have embarked upon a journey and the journey has a long way to go to reach its destination. Three thousand is still an infinitesimal global figure for a species, and we need to take further steps to increase the numbers for their secure future and sustenance.