MP may beat K'taka as tiger state

Madhya Pradesh forest department officials are optimistic about the state regaining the tiger state status after four years, beating Karnataka.

Their optimism stems from the State Forest Research Institute (SFRI) report that says the number of beats where tigers have been spotted has increased from 717 in 2014 to 1,432 this year in the geographical mapping done in the first phase of the tiger census in the state.

The report has been sent to the Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun for examination.

Transit lines and trap cameras used in the census have captured photographs of 355 tigers in the last one year of the census, the report says.

Many more beats in protected and unprotected forests, where tigers’ presence is likely, are still unexplored, claim forest department sources.

In 2014, Karnataka had beaten Madhya Pradesh to emerge as the tiger state. Geographical mapping of tigers, which is conducted every four years, showed Karnataka having 406 tigers against MP’s 308. Uttarakhand with 361 tigers stood at number two.

The total number of tigers in India in 2014 was shown to be 2,226 in the final census. In the previous census of 2006, Madhya Pradesh was number one with 300 tigers. It retained the tiger status in 2010 census too.

The number of tigers in the state might cross 400 in the final census whose report will be released by the year-end, said a senior forest conservation (wildlife) officer who pleaded anonymity on the grounds that it is only an estimate and not an official claim.

“This is the first census trend that we have released but we cannot say what will be the final number of tigers after the census process is over,” said Rajnish Singh, deputy conservation of forests (wildlife).

According to the first phase of the census trend released by the wildlife headquarters here, tiger movements have been reported in areas where big cats were never spotted before.