Context: Recently, the Union Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change has released the detailed report of Tiger Census on the eve of Global Tiger Day.

About Tiger Census Report 2018

• The detailed report assesses the status of tigers in terms of spatial occupancy and density of individual populations across India.
• The report evaluates the status of habitat corridors connecting major tiger populations and highlights vulnerable areas that require conservation attention for each landscape.
• The report provides information on major carnivores and ungulates regarding their distribution and relative abundance.

Key Highlights of Tiger Census Report 2018

• The western most population of tigers in Rajaji Tiger Reserve along with Corbett Tiger Reserve, Pilibhit Tiger Reserve and Dudhwa Tiger Reservewith an estimated population size of between 531-678 individuals.
• The Valmiki-Sohagibarwa continuum spans across parts of India and Nepal with tiger occupancy on the Indian side with 36-48 individuals.
• Corbett has highest tiger population of 231 followed by Nagarhole and Bandipore reserves in Karnataka with 127 and 126 tigers respectively.
• It showed that out of the 50 tiger reserves in the country, three reserves i.e. Mizoram’s Dampa reserve, West Bengal’s Buxa reserve and Jharkhand’s Palamau reserve, have no tigers left.
• Currently, the tiger population within the reserves is 1,923 (65 per cent of the total tiger population of India).
• In the state-wise distribution of tigers, Madhya Pradesh was found with maximum tigers at 526 followed by Karnataka at 524 and 442 in Uttarakhand.

Uniqueness of the Tiger Census Report 2018

• The abundance index of co-predators and other species has been carried out which hitherto was restricted only to occupancy.
• The sex ratio of tigers in all camera trap sites has been carried out for the first time.
• The anthropogenic effects on tiger population have been elaborated in a detailed manner.
• Tiger abundance within pockets in tiger reserves has been demonstrated for the first time.

Way Forward

• Tigers and other wild life are a kind of soft power India has to show on the international front because India has a culture of saving and preserving the nature, trees and its wild life.
• India is tirelessly working with all 13 tiger range countries towards nurturing the tiger as India is home to 70 percent of world’s tiger population.
• The Ministry of Environment is working on a programme in which efforts would be made to provide water and fodder to animals in the forest itself to deal with the challenge of human-animal conflict which is causing deaths of animals.
• LIDAR based survey technology will be used for the first time which is a method for measuring distances by illuminating the target with laser light and measuring the reflection with a sensor.
• India had embarked upon assessing management interventions through the globally developed Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards (CA|TS) framework, which will now be extended to all fifty tiger reserves across the country.
• In areas where tigers have not been recorded or the population has declined, restoration needs to proceed by improving protection, augmentation of prey, and reintroduction of tigers from an appropriate source.