With Tiger Day being celebrated on Saturday, it has been found that the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve has the highest estimate of 149 tigers in Karnataka, closely followed by Bandipur Tiger Reserve which has 140. This is as per the latest report of the Karnataka Forest Department's Tiger Cell, released now. It is based on the analysis of the Tiger Population Estimation Report of All India Tiger Estimation 2022, according to APCCF Kumar Pushkar.
Nagarahole DCF C Harsha Kumar said, "In Nagarahole TR, the increase in tiger numbers (from 125 as per AITE-2018) is attributed to improvement in habitat, good prey base, efforts of field staff in constant protection and mitigating human-animal conflict and support of people in villages on the borders".
During AITE-2022 Nagarahole TR, at 502 camera points, 1,624 pictures of tigers were captured and an estimated 149 unique tigers were found. In Bandipur TR, at 612 camera points, 1,709 pictures of tigers were captured and an estimated 140 unique tigers were found. In Biligiri Ranga Tiger Reserve, they have found 39 unique tigers, in Bhadra TR they have found 26 unique tigers, and in Kali TR, 19 tigers.
In other forest divisions, they have found 79 tigers including 11 in the Madikeri wildlife division (Brahmagiri, Pushpagiri and Talakaveri), nine in Koppa WLD, eight each in the Belagavi division, and Chikkamagalur division, six each in Bhadravati division, Madikeri division and MM Hills, five in Virajpet division, four each in Yellapur division and Mysuru division, two each in Bannerghatta National Park, Kaveri Wildlife Sanctuary, Haliyal division, Karwar division, Kudremukh WLD, and Shivamogga WLD.
Camera trapping in other forest divisions, where a tiger was not recorded include Mysore WLD, Hunsur territorial, Hassan (Sakleshpur), Bengaluru rural division, Davangere, Ramanagar territorial, Honnavar, Tumakuru, Mangaluru, Dharwad, Haveri, Sagara, Shivamogga territorial, Ballari and Kalburgi divisions.
NTCA's interim AITE 2022 report was released on April 9 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Mysuru. The minimum population estimate of tigers, he announced, was 3,167 in India. Karnataka, through its Tiger Cell, has analysed and published a report with estimated tiger population division-wise, TR-wise, which is being released now, Kumar Pushkar said.
He added that the total number of unique tigers in Karnataka is 435, as per the 2022 AITE. But, the total projected number of tigers, based on statistical sampling, would be more than 500. It will be announced by NTCA shortly. The total number of unique tigers in Karnataka was 404 in the 2018 AITE, and based on the statistical sampling, the total number projected was 524. Camera traps were fixed in 4,123 locations and 49,79,803 tiger pictures were taken in 2018. In 2022, camera traps were fixed in 4,786 locations and 66,86,450 tiger pictures were captured.
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