Opinion Express View on tiger census: Back from the brink

Fifty years ago, when India launched Project Tiger, the country’s national animal had dwindled to less than 2,000 from about 40,000 at the turn of the 20th century. The project reported successes for close to three decades. But conservationists were jolted in 2006, when tiger numbers fell to an all-time low of 1,411. Course corrections in wildlife management led to the majestic animal staging a remarkable comeback in several parts of the country. The latest Tiger Census report, released on Sunday, shows that the big cat’s population has increased to 3,682 from 2,967 in 2018. But these stellar figures should not draw the wildlife policymakers’ attention away from the Census’s fine print, which indicates areas of concern.

The data shows a dip in tiger numbers in Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, parts of Northeast India and the Western Ghats. Eighteen reserves, most of them in these areas, have less than 10 big cats left. Odisha, the southern Western Ghats and Northeast India have genetically distinct varieties of the tiger. The fall in the animal’s population in these regions is, therefore, worrying. At the same time, the fragmentation of habitats in several parts of the country is leading to inbreeding among tiger varieties. The animal is known to travel hundreds of kilometres in search of habitat and mates. But as a 2021 study by researchers from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru and Stanford University, revealed, “genomic variation of Indian tigers continues to be affected by connectivity issues”. With the country now home to 75 per cent of the world’s tiger population, it’s time that wildlife management is built on genetic studies, like this collaboration between NCBS and Stanford scientists.

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Madhya Pradesh is home to the highest number of tigers in the country — 785. This speaks well of the management practices of the state’s forest department. Close to 350 tigers in MP, however, live outside protected areas. MP forest department’s data shows that more than 20 tigers have lost their lives in human-animal conflicts in the past six years. Such incidents have increased in other parts of the country as well. The understaffed and ill-equipped forest departments in most parts of the country deserve to be complimented for bringing the tiger back from the brink. But conservation success seems to have created another set of problems — with forests shrinking, tigers are venturing into human habitats. It’s time now to begin conversations on more difficult questions including the carrying capacity of the country’s tiger reserves and a viable population of the animal. Conservation, after all, should not just be about numbers.