Maharashtra, with impressive rise in tiger population, has ranked fourth in the country and second after Madhya Pradesh among eight States in Central Indian Landscape and Eastern Ghats. Within Maharashtra, Vidarbha region in general and Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) have retained the top spot as far as tiger population is concerned. These are the findings as per the ‘Status of Tigers: Co-predators and Prey in India -- 2022’ report released on Saturday, the Global Tiger Day, at Corbett Tiger Reserve. The report prepared by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), brings to fore that tiger population in Maharashtra has recorded a rise of 132 -- from 312 in 2018 to 444 in 2022. Since 2014, the tiger population in the State has actually more than doubled, with the count rising from 190 to 444. With this performance, Maharashtra has ranked fourth in the country after Madhya Pradesh (785 tigers), Karnataka (563), and Uttarakhand (560). Maheep Gupta, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), told ‘The Hitavada’ that Maharashtra had ecorded among the highest increases in number of tigers. “The tiger population in State has gone up from 312 in 2018 to 444 in 2022.

 

 

 

This is indeed a thing of pride for us. It also reflects that our management is one of the best. The highest increase is in TATR and surrounding area,” he said. Asked if the increase in number of tigers posed a challenge as far as man-animal conflict was concerned, Gupta said that it did. But, he added, “We are dealing with it through a variety of initiatives. The compensation for human or cattle kill in wildlife attacks is the highest in Maharashtra. Besides, there are other initiatives including Shyamaprasad Mukherjee Scheme.” Out of six tiger reserves in Maharashtra, Sahyadri is the only one outside Vidarbha. Sahyadri tiger reserve has reported ‘nil’ tiger population as per the report released on Saturday. As far as other five tiger reserves are concerned, all have registered increase in tiger population. The tiger population in these five tiger reserves namely TATR, Pench, Melghat, Navegaon-Nagzira, and Bor, is divided into two categories -- tiger number within tiger reserve and tiger number utilising the tiger reserve. However, these numbers are estimates indicating range.

 

So, there is a difference in total of these two categories and overall number of tigers in Maharashtra. As per the tiger reserve-wise data, TATR has tiger population of 97. However, 122-odd tigers are found to be utilising the tiger reserve. Thus, 219-odd tigers are in Chandrapur district alone, which hosts TATR. That is, almost half of the tiger population of entire Maharashtra is in Chandrapur district alone. No wonder that the man-animal conflict incidents also are more in the district. As regards other tiger reserves, Melghat has 57 tigers in reserve, and 68-odd tigers utilising the reserve area. Pench (Maharashtra) has 48 tigers in reserve, and 77-plus utilising the reserve area. Navegaon-Nagzira has 11 tigers in reserve, and over 13 tigers utilising the area. Bor, the smallest tiger reserve, has nine tigers in reserve and 11-plus tigers utilising the reserve area. As per the report released on Saturday, India currently hosts almost 75 per cent of the world’s wild tiger population. The annual growth rate in tiger population has been a commendable 6.1 per cent per annum. 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 tiger abundance within tiger reserves is the highest in Corbett (260), followed by Bandipur (150), Nagarhole (141), Bandhavgarh (135), Dudhwa (135), Mudumalai (114), Kanha (105), Kaziranga (104), Sundarbans (100), Tadoba (97), Sathyamangalam (85), and Pench-MP (77). Thus, TATR ranks 10th in country among tiger reserves with the highest population of the big cat.