Tiger area increased by 30 per cent in India over past two decades

The area occupied by tigers in India has increased by 30 per cent over the past two decades, a new study has found.

Researchers at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, and National Tiger Conservation Authority, New Delhi, found that while tigers persisted most in highly protected "human-free, prey-rich" areas, the carnivore species were also found in areas shared with humans where war, poverty and land-use changes were low.

Tigers now occupy nearly 1,38,200 square kilometres of area in India, the largest occupancy in the world, the authors said.

The findings, published in the journal Science, on recovery of India's 'Panthera tigris' population offers "cautious optimism for megafauna recovery, particularly in the Global South".

The researchers analysed over 3.8 lakh square kilometres of tiger habitats, using models. National-level tiger monitoring data was also involved in the analysis.

"Tiger occupancy increased by 30 per cent (at 2,929 square kilometres per year) over the past two decades," the authors wrote.

A large fraction of the tigers' current territory (45 per cent) is shared with nearly 60 million people in India.

However, "tigers persistently occupied human-free, prey-rich protected areas (35,255 square kilometers)," the authors wrote.

In September 2024, thousands of tribals residing in core areas of tiger reserves protested in response to a government order that directed forest officials to fast-track their relocation. The order was issued by the National Tiger Conservation Authority in June.

Core areas of tiger reserves are to remain unoccupied by humans for tiger conservation, according to the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. However, tribes and indigenous communities have the right to live in these forests and access resources, under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.

In the study authors also explained that 'land sparing' and 'land sharing' are looked on as opposing views for recovering carnivore population.

Separating people from predators, or 'land sparing', is often resorted to for recovering large carnivores amid crowded and poverty-ridden regions of the Global South.

On the other hand, 'land sharing' between people and predators is criticised as unattainable, owing to heightened possibilities of conflict, the authors said.

"In this work, we demonstrated that both views of land sparing and land sharing were required for recovering tiger populations across India, suggesting that both paradigms play a part in the future of large carnivores," the team wrote.

However, regions experiencing high poverty, armed conflict, and habitat loss saw a continued decline in tiger numbers and local extinctions, highlighting socioeconomic and political factors as important for ensuring a successful recovery, the authors said.