Tiger population growth slips to 6.7 per cent during 2018-22: Census data

Karam Prakash 

New Delhi, April 10

As India celebrates its 50 years of big cat conservation programme the ‘Project Tiger’, the country recorded a massive decline in the growth rate of big cat population in the latest Tiger Census 2022, released on Sunday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was the then prime minister Indira Gandhi who had launched this programme in 1973.

Though the number of Tigers has increased marginally from 2,967 in 2018 to 3,167 in 2022, the growth rate of tiger population has come down from 33.2 per cent in 2014-18 to 6.7 per cent during 2018-22.  

According to the Census data, India’s tiger population growth was only 6.7 per cent during 2018-22. 

This is the lowest population growth in Tiger since 2006, when the first census was conducted to ascertain the number of tigers in the country.  

From 2006 to 2010, India’s population growth rate had remained 20 per cent, while it was 30 per cent during 2010-14.

The decline in the tiger population growth could be attributed to the higher number of deaths during the 2018-22 period, because as many as 551 tigers died in the country over the past five years. With the deaths of 164 tigers, Madhya Pradesh had reported the highest number of deaths from 2018-22. 

Of 551, 114 tigers were killed by poaching and 128 tigers died of natural reasons, while 19 that of unnatural, but not poaching. The reasons of 290 tigers are yet to be known and are still under scrutiny. 

“The Nation Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) follows a stringent protocol in assigning the cause of tiger death. It involves the collection of visceral samples, post-mortem of the carcass, histopathological analysis, and circumstantial evidence. Unless all the relevant documents and supporting documents are submitted by the states, the tiger mortality cases are put under the category ‘Under Scrutiny’,” said the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in Rajya Sabha, last month. 

The ministry had further said that the anti-poaching measures of tiger reserves were reviewed regularly by the NTCA during the Field Directors’ meeting. 

What is Project Tiger?

In 1973, the ‘Project Tiger’ was launched with the objective of utilising the tiger’s functional role and charisma to garner public support and resources for preserving representative ecosystems. Since its inception, the project has expanded from nine tiger reserves covering 18,278 km2 to 53 reserves covering 75,796 km2, which accounts for 2.3 per cent of India’s land area. 

Assessment period     Growth percentage 

2006- 2010                     20 

2010-2014                      30 

2014-2018                      33.2 

2018- 2022                     6.7