As the Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif-starrer Tiger Zinda Hai releases, let’s look at the beautiful national animal and be proud of the fact that 70 percent of the world’s tigers are in India.
The tiger population has increased by 57.7 percent from 2007 to 2014. Project Tiger needs to be given its due as they’ve done well in protecting tigers’ dwindling numbers for decades now.
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The Government of India took the initiative of conserving tigers in 1973 with Project Tiger. The project increased the number of tiger reserves from just nine in its formative years to 50 at present.
According to government data, Karnataka tops the list of states with tigers. It has 406 tigers, followed by Uttarakhand with 340 tigers, Madhya Pradesh with 308 and then Tamil Nadu with 229.
A Livemint report said an average of 11 tigers died every month in the first half of 2017, a number that shows that if this toll continues there could be more deaths recorded this year than in 2016.
That is problematic, because 122 tigers died in 2016 and this was the highest death toll for tigers in a decade. The Livemint report says that 22 were presumed deaths due to body parts seized. For the remaining 100 cases, the cause of death ranged from natural death in old age to drowning, fighting, electrocution, road/rail accidents and poisoning for revenge (by humans).
Why was 2016 the highest? The Livemint report says this might be due to the increase in demand for tiger parts further leading to a growth in illegal international trade and poaching.
On the other hand, the chief of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, under which Project Tiger functions, thinks there will be a "significant growth" in the number of tigers in India, according to an India Today report. The NTCA official believes that by the time the next tiger census happens in 2018, numbers will read better.
Going by the estimated annual growth of 6-7 percent of tigers being added to current population and the same being corroborated by the ongoing field census by our experts and scientists on ground, about 2,650 tigers could be a reality in 2018.NTCA chief Dr Debabrata Swain told India Today
The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate change answered on the floor of the Rajya Sabha in April 2017 that tiger mortality takes place due to several natural and unnatural causes which inter alia include poaching, infighting, accident, revenge killing, electrocution etc.
As Salman Khan comes alive in Tiger Zinda Hai, the Indian government should keep in mind the majestic animal’s numbers don’t dwindle and they too continue to thrive.
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