Tiger population on the rise

The population of tigers is on the rise, the government said on Monday quoting preliminary census data.

Minister of Environment Forest and Climate Change Harsh Vardhan also informed the Rajya Sabha that advanced strategies are being adopted to tackle the human-animal conflict and detailed advisories were being issued to state governments.

Replying to a query during the question hour, he said preliminary data from the tiger census conducted every four years suggests that their population was on the rise in the entire country including in Maharashtra.

To a query regarding the mechanism for monitoring of wild animals roaming outside jungles and mitigate conflict, he said the Centre has increased funding significantly to states and provided them facilities for recruitment of anti-poaching staff in tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries.

"We also provide compensation of up to Rs 5 lakh in case of unfortunate incidents," Vardhan said.

Replying to another question, he said the Centre has been increasing funding to states since the last 2-3 years.

"We increased funding by Rs 70-80 crore last year as against the previous year. There is a strong component for training of the lower level staff under wildlife action plan," Vardhan said.