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India home to more than 70% of world’s tiger population, SC told

The report said the fifth cycle of All India Tiger Estimation is currently ongoing and it will be completed in 2023
Last Updated 28 January 2023, 02:57 IST

The Supreme Court was on Friday informed that India has become home to more than 70 per cent world tiger population which was recorded as 2,967 across 53 tiger reserves, according to a 2018 report.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, submitted before a bench of Justices K M Joseph and B V Nagarathna that a lot of work has been done for the conservation of tigers and increasing their population.

In a status report, National Tiger Conservation Authority said, “India has become home to more than 70 per cent tiger population in the world. A comprehensive report of All India Tiger Estimation (2018) was released on July 29, 2020. The fourth round of country-level tiger status assessment was completed in 2018, with findings indicating an increase with a tiger population estimate of 2967 (lower and upper limits being 2603 and 3346 respectively), as compared to the last country-level estimation of 2014, with the estimate of 2226, 2010 estimation with an estimation of 1706 and 2006 estimation, with an estimate of 1411”.

Due to efforts of the government through the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the tiger has been taken from the brink of extinction to an assured path of recovery, which is evident in findings of the quadrennial All India Tiger Estimation conducted in 2006, 2010, and 2014 and 2018, it said.

“These results have shown a healthy annual growth rate of tigers at 6 per cent, which offsets natural losses and keeps tigers at the habitats carrying capacity level, in the Indian context," the report added.

The report said the fifth cycle of All India Tiger Estimation is currently ongoing and will be completed in 2023.

“Status of leopards in India was released wherein a population estimate of 12,582, was reported in assessed areas of tiger landscape. This increase is more than 60 per cent in comparison to the last such assessment done in 2014,” it further pointed out.

The status report was filed in response to a plea by advocate Anupam Tripathi in 2017 seeking to save endangered tigers whose numbers are dwindling in the country.

The top court, after recording Bhat’s submissions, put the matter for further hearing in March, as Tripathi was not present.

The bench noted that as per the 2018 census, India has 2,967 tigers spread out in 53 tiger reserves and this number constitutes 70 per cent of the global number and figures point to the growth of the tigers.

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(Published 28 January 2023, 02:57 IST)

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