Tiger Census 2022

Tiger Census 2022

Subject: Environment

Section: Species in news

Context: Tiger Census 2022: India’s tiger population increased by 200 in last four years. The tiger population numbers were made public by Prime Minister at an event to mark the International Big Cat Alliance conference as well as the 50th anniversary of Project Tiger

Census Findings:

• The tiger population in India grew by 200 from 2018 to 2022, according to the fifth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation (2022).
• The number of tigers in India was 3,167 in 2022, up from 2,967 in 2018, the report showed.
• The growth, however, slowed to 6.7 per cent in these four years from around 33 per cent during 2014-2018, analysis of the latest data showed.
• The tiger population has grown the most in the Shivalik hills and Gangetic flood plains, followed by central India, the north eastern hills, the Brahmaputra flood plains, and the Sundarbans. There was a decline in the Western Ghats numbers, though “major populations” were said to be stable.
• Decline in tiger occupancy was also observed outside the protected areas of Anamalai-Parambikulam complex. Although the tiger populations in the Periyar landscape remained stable, the tiger occupancy has declined outside Periyar.
• Tiger occupancy in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Telangana showed a decline.
• The genetically unique and small population of tigers in Simlipal is of high conservation priority in the landscape.
• The northeastern hill tiger populations are genetically unique and should be the top priority of conservation action in the country due to their low population size and genetically unique lineage
• With tigers increasing outside Tiger Reserves in the landscape (Shivalik hills and Gangetic plains), Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh need to invest in mitigating conflict with tigers and mega herbivore.
• The wildlife habitats (Protected Areas and corridors) within this region (Central Indian highlands and Eastern Ghats) face a range of threats, including habitat encroachment, illegal hunting of both tigers and their prey, conflicts between humans and wildlife, unregulated and illicit cattle grazing, excessive harvesting of non-timber forest produce, human induced forest fires, mining, and ever-expanding linear infrastructure. This region is also having several mines of important minerals, hence mitigation measures like lower mining impact techniques and rehabilitation of mining sites should be done on priority.

Tiger census

• The national tiger census is conducted once every four years.
• The Nation-wide tiger census was earlier held in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018.
• The National Tiger Conservation Authority(NTCA) conducts tiger censuses in partnership with state forest departments, conservation NGOs, and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
• Census methodology
  • Double sampling based on ground-based surveys and actual imagescaptured on camera-traps.
  • Double sampling method was introduced in 2006 after the “pugmark” surveyswere found to be inaccurate.
  • In 2018 census, 83% of the big cats censused were individually photographed using camera traps.
  • In Phases 1 & 2, ground-based surveys were carried out by Forest Department officials to collect signs of tiger presence like scat and pugmarks.
  • In phase 3,the information was plotted on the forest map prepared with remote-sensing and GIS (MSTrIPES).
  • In the last phase, data were extrapolated to areas where cameras could not be deployed.

International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA): https://optimizeias.com/global-alliance-for-big-cats/#:~:text=Context%3A%20India%20to%20launch%20global,(over%20Rs%20800%20crore).