Tigers thriving in Assam

Conservation efforts paying off, tiger population in State increased to 167 in 2014

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, May 15: Although several rhinos were killed in the last few years in Assam by poachers, the population of Royal Bengal tigers has increased considerably, raising hopes for tiger conservation in the State.

A recent report titled ‘Status of Tiger in India 2014’ released by the tiol Tiger Conservation Authority, a Government of India agency, stated that population of Royal Bengal tigers in the State has increased to 167 in 2014 compared to 143 in 2010 and 70 in 2006. Overall, the population of tigers in the country has increased to 2,226 in 2014, compared to 1,706 in 2010 and 1,411 in 2006, the report added.  On the tiger population in the Northeastern hills and Brahmaputra flood plains, the status report stated: “Aruchal Pradesh has 28 tigers, Mizoram has 3 and Northern West Bengal has 3 tigers,” adding, “In the Northeastern hills and Brahmaputra flood plains, the tiger population was 148 in 2010 and 201 in 2014.”

“The tiger population status has shown improvement in Assam with Kaziranga having the maximum number of tigers in the landscape. Rise in tiger population in the Karbi Hills, Dibang Valley, mdapha Tiger Reserve is encouraging. The minimum number of tigers recorded in mdapha and Dibang were four each, based on genetic sampling within a confined search area, yielding a minimum tiger density of about 20.77 (SEO. 1) tigers per 100 km,” the report stated, adding, “Extrapolating this density to tiger habitat estimated by MaxEnt gave a potential tiger population of about 20 in mdapha and Dibang Valley.”  “A total of 3,78,118 km of forests in 18 States were surveyed. An unprecedented effort was invested in camera trapping of tigers across the country, resulting in a total of 1,540 unique tigers’ photo captures,” the report added.