1706??? Really??

While, the nation is celebrating increase in the tiger population, the environmentalists and experts are not ready to buy the theory, claiming that the figures announced by the government can be challenged on various levels.

“The entire exercise is nothing but eyewash. The very procedure to estimate tiger population in the country is faulty. The estimated figure of 1706 which shows an increase of 295 tigers over last year, can be challenged on various levels,” said Nitin Desai, central India director of Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI). He also challenged the extrapolation theory adopted by the officials to arrive to the conclusion. According to the extrapolation theory, the tiger population in a designated area with camera traps is used as base to determine the same in another near identical area. Tiger population in one area can not be the basis of calculating the same in other area, Desai says.

The another major issue in the entire exercise, according to Desai, is malfunctioning of around 300 out of 500 camera traps used across the country. “It is serious issue that these many camera traps malfunctioned during the process. Though they were replaced, one can not be sure about the results produced at the end,” Desai said.

Sources said that around 60 cameras installed in Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) malfunctioned during the pre-monsoon camera trapping. Similarly, eight camera traps at Radhanagri Wildlife Sanctuary in Kolhapur district were not working for over a week. “If this was the state of affairs in celebrated tiger reserves like TATR, less is better for other areas. Even a considerable portion, where there is considerable tiger population, of TATR was not covered. We fail to understand that how the tiger population in Tadoba landscape went down to 60 this year from 92 during the last census,” Desai said. As far as Maharashtra is concerned, the ground level staff at the forest department is ill equipped to undertake such an exercise. There are all possibilities of wrong data having provided by them which was ultimately used as basis for the further estimation. The core issues such as protection and relocation of villages from forests remain neglected, he said.

According to Debi Goenka, executive trustee of Conservation Action Trust, “There are various short comings in the census methodology. Apart from camera trap malfunctioning, the basic issue remains that the state government data can not be considered authentic for such a massive exercise.” Above all, the estimation of tiger population in non protected areas remains a major concern.

“The total number of tigers has gone up obviously because the area covered during this census is more than double that was covered last year. Moreover, many areas like Sahyadri Tiger Reserve have been added recently,” Desai said. According to Bittu Sahgal, editor Sanctuary magazine and member, national board for wildlife, the new figure represents a course correction over the last enumeration when several large tiger landscapes could not be assessed. “The loss of 20,000 sq kms of tiger habitat is the real story and is more critical to the future of tiger than any periodic ups and downs in numbers. Also that many habitats that we had hoped tigers would move into using corridors we are working protect are being wiped out,” Sahgal said. Nevertheless, many source populations have indeed been well protected and for this due credit must go to the field staff for the rise in tiger numbers. But overall the future of even such populations is more threatened than ever before because lands surrounding natal areas are being rapidly converted to agriculture, mines, dams, roads and other uses that render the habitat unsuitable for tigers. We have less money to protect tigers against the wildlife trade, while budgets to exploit coal and iron ore from tiger habitats have gone up. This will have the effect of wiping even more tiger habitats out, which will inevitably push tiger numbers down permanently, Sahgal feels.