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Tiger population increases in India

Dunya News

The estimated population of the endangered tiger has increased in India by 12 percent.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, on Monday, said the number of tigers has gone up from 1,411 to 1,636 as per a 2010 census, but the area of tiger occupancy has dwindled.“We used to say that in India there are only 1,411 tigers but we have estimated that the number of tigers in 2010 is 1,636. It is an increase of 12 percent. This is positive information. But the worrying trend is that the area under tiger occupancy has been reduced, especially in central India,” said Ramesh in New Delhi.He also cautioned that poachers and projects near forests were the greatest threats to the animal. “The danger today is big projects that are being implemented (around the forest area). Coal mining is going on, real estate mafia has come, mining mafia are there. We will have to fight them. We are only after the poachers, which we will succeed in,” added Ramesh.Forest officials used hidden cameras and DNA tests to count the big cats across 19 Indian states. The census added 70 tigers in the eastern Indian Sunderbans Tiger Reserve, which was not noted in the last 2007 census. In 2007, the estimated figure was 1,411 tigers, a sharp fall from about 3,600 five years ago.
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