Could have avoided lowering cut-off age for tiger count: Wildlife Institute of India

Conservationists said the lowering of cut-off age means the mortality rate of tigers will have to be updated. “Earlier, a one-year-old tiger’s existence was supposed to be subject to various natural hazards and their survival was never guaranteed,” said a conservationist.

Tiger kills one in Brahmapuri forest in Chandrapur district

Valmik Thapar, a conservationist, said, “It’s definitely good that the tiger count has increased, but it now also includes those tigers that were not counted in earlier exercises.”(Express photo by Deepak Daware/ Representational)

The Wildlife Institute of India (WII), which helped estimate the number of tigers in the county, said an issue should not be made of the fact that the cut-off age for counting tigers has been lowered from 1.5 years to 1 year. WII Director V B Mathur told The Indian Express, “It is very difficult to make out which individual is one year old and which is one-and-a-half-year-old. So, nothing much should be read into it. There is nothing sinister about it.” When asked why it was decided to lower the cut-off age, Mathur said, “Yes, it could have been avoided.”

Valmik Thapar, a conservationist, said, “It’s definitely good that the tiger count has increased, but it now also includes those tigers that were not counted in earlier exercises.”

Conservationists said the lowering of cut-off age means the mortality rate of tigers will have to be updated. “Earlier, a one-year-old tiger’s existence was supposed to be subject to various natural hazards and their survival was never guaranteed,” said a conservationist.

Thapar said, “Nobody is giving credit to former PM Manmohan Singh, who had stated this scientific enumeration of tigers by setting up a Tiger Task Force in 2005.”

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