Govt distances itself from WII tiger figures

New Delhi, May 25: The tiger is in trouble. That is no more a news. What is news is that the Ministry of Environment and Forest is disowning the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) study on which it has spent crores of rupees.

Moreover, the WII rubbishes the 2002 Census figures of the endangered big cat which had been circulated by the Centre.

The initial estimates of the WII enumeration of tiger numbers, presented to the Ministry yesterday, showed a sharp fall in their numbers in Central India ranges, an interpretation hotly disputed by the Institute's senior officials on the ground that the earlier specification was inflated.

According to findings, Madhya Pradesh has only 265 of the tigers left, while Chhattisgarh has 25 , Maharashtra 95 and Rajasthan 32.

Over all, it found that the tiger population in some states might be nearly 65 per cent less than what was believed.

When asked about the extent of depletion in the number of tigers as reported in the presentation of the WII, Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forest Pradipto Ghosh told UNI that he would not say anything on it as it was a WII study, and it is they who were authorised to interpret their findings.

A senior WII official, asssociated with the Project told UNI that the methodology pased on which the 2002 Census had given the number of tigers as over 3600 was faulty, so saying that the number of tiger had come down as compared to that figure would be wrong.

Director, Project tiger Rajesh Gopal said though it was true that the tiger population had gone down as compared to the past, it should be seen in the light of the fact that the past figures had not been accepted by the WII, Dehradun.

Environment Ministry officials said the figures released at Thursday's meetings were not complete, and the final figures would be released in December.

A senior WII scientist said the last major tiger census, done in 2001 and 2002, used only the pug mark method. The new methodology being used by the WII consists of a combination of techniques like cameras "traps" triggered by passing animals.

Wildlife expert PK Sen said it was surprising for the Environment Ministry to say that WII figures were not official, as WII was a Government Institute and the project of tiger enumeration was totally a government of India venture.

Mr Sen also said the new methodology being used by the WII for tiger enumeration had been questioned by scientists and experts at a high-level meeting with government officials in 1999. ''Though WII did make some improvements, but the base remained the same,'' he added. Meanwhile, the WII in its Wednesday's presentation to the Ministry here gave the following figures about the tiger population.

Table one shows the figures as per the current study, and the table two shows the tiger numbers as reported by states in 2001-2002.

Table1
Rajasthan 30-35
Kanha National Park, MP 73-103 (89 mean)
Pench TR, MP 27-39 (33 mean)
Satpura, MP 26-52 (39 mean)
Bandhavgarh NP, MP 37-57 (47 mean)
Panna NP, MP 15-32 (24 mean)
Melghat TR, Maharashtra 21-39 (30 mean)
Pench TR, Maharashtra 16-23 (19 mean)
Tadoba 27-41 (34 mean)

Table 2
Rajasthan 35
Kanha National Park, MP 127
Pench TR, MP 40
Satpura, MP 35
Bandhavgarh NP, MP 56
Panna NP, MP 31
Melghat TR, Maharashtra 73
Pench TR, Maharashtra 14
Tadoba 38

It said to sustain a viable tiger population in any given area, the thumb rule was to have 20 breeding females in one block of habitat.

The presentation also brought into focus the importance of the intervening forest patches falling between important tiger bearing areas. These intervening patches act as dispersal areas for tigers from one 'source' population to another.

It underlined the fact that the important 'source' population needs to be provided inviolate areas, free from human and other anthropogenic disturbances.

The areas lying outside such inviolate habitats (core areas) should be maintained through an inclusive management approach wherein tigers and other wild species survive along with the human populations inhabiting such areas.

This combination of approaches would ensure that the source population maintains gene flow among themselves in a contiguous forest patch and thus are able to sustain on a long term basis.

UNI