INDIA has been shocked by the revelation that it has just 1411 tigers left in the wild, a decline of 60 per cent in a decade. The audit of wild tigers by the Indian Government's National Tiger Conservation Authority has raised fears that the animal, one of India's national symbols, could disappear from the country. The biggest decline in tiger numbers occurred in the poorer central states, which h
ave traditionally had the highest concentration of tigers. The interior state of Madhya Pradesh lost nearly 60 per cent of its tigers in the past five years. The report calls for urgent conservation measures. There were more than 40,000 tigers in India in about 1900, according to some estimates, but a census in 1972 found just 1827. In 1973 the Indian government launched Project Tiger to ensure a viable population of tigers. An official count in 1997 found 3508 in the wild, and the figure rose to 3642 in 2002. However, the latest census shows there are fewer tigers now than in the early 1970s despite a 30-year effort to protect them. The authority used an improved methodology to estimate the tiger population in the latest census, suggesting some previous counts overestimated the numbers. The encroachment of humans on areas inhabited by tigers has been a key factor in the decline. Local conservationists say this leads to more "man-animal conflict" and reduces the amount of tiger prey available. The authority's report said some tiger habitats could support much higher tiger population densities. However, the activities of insurgency groups in several remote parts of the country, along with subsistence poaching and the fragmentation of forests, had prevented this. "There is still hope if saving tigers is taken as a priority." The report recommends tiger populations be connected through buffer zones where human land use is restricted. It also suggests better incentives for local people to protect tigers. However, conservationists say a new government policy intended to help poor indigenous people threatens to hasten the decline in tiger numbers. Under the proposal, these tribal people will have the right to gain access to large tracts of remote forests.
