International Tiger Day: All India Tiger count to be out on Monday, hike in numbers expected

New Delhi, July 27: The much awaited 2018 tiger census report is likely to be released on Monday, which is also International Tiger Day.

The previous census, conducted in 2014, the tiger count was 2,226. Karnataka led with 406; Madhya Pradesh had 308; Uttarakhand, 340; and Tamil Nadu had 229.

Reports show an increase in numbers of the big cat and number of states have also increased this time. Nagaland, Manipur and Gujarat have been included this time besides the 18 tiger reign states.

The All India Tiger Estimation results for 2018 will be released on Monday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with a report evaluating the effectiveness of tiger reserves.

This is the fourth cycle of the tiger census. The first was conducted in 2006, second in 2010 and third in 2014. A team of over 44,000 officials is working on the census this time with 55 biologists across the country, the WII scientist said.

The experts said this survey is a massive exercise that includes other species as well, including, leopards and lesser cats, but the focus largely remains on tigers.

Over 24,000 camera trap stations have been installed across the country to capture tigers, as per the experts. The census does not include cubs. Only adult tigers are counted.

In 2014, over 70% of the estimated tiger population was through camera trapping, where 1686 photographs of individual tigers had been obtained. The remaining 30% of tigers were from areas that had tigers, but had not been camera trapped and were estimated by using robust statistical models, where ecological covariates of prey, habitat and human impact were used.

The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 was amended in the year 2006. Since then, the Government has taken several initiatives in the field of tiger conservation. Tiger conservation was given statutory backing. The newly-created NTCA was mandated to carry out estimation of population of tiger and its natural prey species and assess status of their habitat.