Latest tiger census brings mixed tidings

The latest census, conducted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority between 2018 and 2022, indicates that India has added 751 tigers in the wild, while it lost 551. The tiger population has gone up from 2,967 in 2018 to 3,167 in 2022, a net increase of 200 after accounting for the deaths. As many as 418 tigers died of natural causes such as disease and in fights over territory. Of the 133 unnatural deaths, 114 tigers were killed by poachers and 19 died in accidents or were “terminated” in the course of conflicts with humans. Karnataka recorded an increase in tiger mortality with the state losing 54 during the census period. The number of tiger deaths in 2018-19 and 2019-20 was seven in each year. It went up to nine in 2020-21 to 18 in 2021-22. A total of 13 deaths were recorded in 2022-23, up to March. While Karnataka has witnessed a surge in tiger population, the report shows a significant dip in tiger occupancy in the Western Ghats, especially in the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Hills (BRT) Tiger Reserve, the Mookambika-Sharavathi-Sirsi landscape, and in Bhadra, besides in other areas outside the protected areas of Bandipur and Nagarahole.

While it is consoling that a majority of the deaths have occurred due to natural causes, the loss due to unnatural reasons can be mitigated if adequate steps are taken by the forest department. A mortality rate of 5% is considered normal in the case of tigers. A cause for concern is that certain pockets within the tiger reserves have reached their carrying capacity. Tigers are highly territorial by nature, and with the high concentration of big cats, the competition for survival has become stiffer. In the process, the weaker and older big cats are either killed in fights or are driven out of the territory to adjacent areas with insufficient prey populations. Such tigers either die of starvation or get involved in man-animal conflicts.

While the forest department claims that it has been able to identify a  larger number of tiger deaths with the help of intensified patrolling and increasing the number of camera traps, environmentalists accuse the state of under-reporting these deaths. The quality of the forests also needs to be improved and there is a need to study why tigers are concentrated only
in certain reserves. While proactive steps taken over the years have no doubt borne fruit, the forest department should explore ways to further bring down the mortality rate by adopting a more scientific approach to conservation.