Lok Sabha Question No. 4536 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-03-20
Subject: Census of Tigers
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Prabhubhai Nagarbhai Vasava

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4536

TO BE ANSWERED ON 20.03.2020

## Census of Tigers

## 4536.  SHRI PARBHUBHAI NAGARBHAI VASAVA:

Will  the  Minister  of  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND  CLIMATE  CHANGE  be  pleased  to state:

- (a) the efforts made by the Government during the last five years for the conservation and increase in tiger population in the country;
- (b) the number of tigers in the country before 2014;
- (c) the method being adopted for the census of tigers; and
- (d) the number of tigers as per the latest census along with the increase in number of tigers registered during the last three years?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI BABUL SUPRIYO )

- (a) The efforts made by the Government of India through the National Tiger Conservation Authority during the last five years for the conservation and increase in tiger population in the country are at Annexure-I .
- (b) As  per  the  quadrennial  All  India  tiger  estimation,  tiger  estimates  during  the  2006  and 2010 assessments are as follows:
- (c) The  All  India  Tiger  Estimation  uses  a  double  sampling  approach  for  estimating  tigers details of which are at Annexure-II .
- (d) As per the quadrennial All India Tiger Estimation, tiger numbers over the last 4 cycles are at Annexure-III.

| 2006        | 2010        |
|-------------|-------------|
| 1411        | 1706        |
| (1165-1657) | (1520-1909) |

***

## ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) OF THE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4536 ON CENSUS OF TIGERS DUE FOR REPLY ON 20.03.2020

Efforts  made  by  the  Government  of  India  through  the  National  Tiger  Conservation Authority during the last five years for the conservation and increase in tiger population in the country are as under:-

- (i) Adoption  of  M-STrIPES,  an  android  application  for  smart  patrolling  and  collection  of ecological data from the field.
- (ii) Completion of fourth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation using refined methodology with following subtle modifications.
- (a) adoption of a 2 sq. km. grid instead of 4 sq. kms. to improve precision of accuracy of the results.
- (b) Collection of data using M-STrIPES application.
- (iii) Completion  of  Management  Effectiveness  Evaluation  of  Tiger  Reserves  in  2018  cycle wherein 21 tiger reserves have been rated in 'Very Good' category, followed by 17 tiger reserves rated in 'Good' category and 12 tiger reserves rated in 'Fair' category.
- (iv) Economic valuation of 10 more tiger reserves has been completed.
- (v) Four  new tiger  reserves namely, the Rajaji  Tiger Reserve in  Uttarakhand, the Pilibhit Tiger  Reserve  in  Uttar  Pradesh,  the  Orang  Tiger  Reserve  in  Assam  and  the  Kamlang Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh, have been notified which has taken the coverage of Project Tiger to 2.21% of the country's geographical area.
- (vi) Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) have been amended in parts based on recent field experiences.
- (vii) After  pilot  testing  unmanned  aerial  vehicles  at  the  Panna  Tiger  Reserve,  the  use  of Drones/ Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for surveillance and monitoring is being carried out in 13 tiger landscapes and first set up equipment has been handed over to Panna Tiger Reserve Authorities.  A technical manual has also been published in this regard.
- (viii) A framework for conducting security audit has been prepared, validated and was used for assessing security apparatus across 25 tiger reserves in Phase-I.
- (ix) The third  Asia  Ministerial  Conference  on  Tiger  Conservation  was  successfully  held  at New Delhi from April 12-14, 2016, wherein the Hon'ble Prime Minister impressed upon all participants that Tiger Conservation is not a choice but an imperative.  The conference concluded with the New Delhi Resolution on Tiger Conservation.
- (x) To ensure success of tiger conservation efforts, financial and technical inputs are being provided to tiger bearing forests outside tiger reserves which are assessed for quality of management interventions through the Conservation Assured | Tiger Standard (CA|TS) framework. Till date the Lansdowne and Ramnagar Divisions in Uttarakhand have been CA|TS accredited.
- (xi) Sensitization  workshops  held  for  agencies  such  as  the  Railways,  National  Highway Authority of India, EIA assessors of the MoEF&CC besides IRTS probationers to ensure

that  tiger  is  not  seen  as  a  drag  on  development.    Further,  Technical  advise  has  been provided  on  formulating  mitigating  strategies  for  linear  infrastructure  with  the  WII, Dehradun which has been advised to the State.

- (xii) On the international front, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Myanmar has been  signed  for  Combating  Timber  Trafficking,  and  Conservation  of  Tigers  and  other Wildlife.  Further, a tripartite MoU between the National Tiger Conservation Authority, Wildlife  Institute  of  India  and  A.N.  Severstov  Institute  of  Ecology  &  Evaluation  was agreed upon and signed on 4.12.2018.
- (xiii) During the 18 th CoP held at Geneva in August 2019, based on an intervention from India, a  slew  of  decisions  were  adopted  to  intervene  in  territories  which  had  facilities  for keeping big cats as a reinforcement of decision 14.69.
- (xiv) Frontline  forest  staff  is  being  encouraged  for  their  work  through  an  award  of  Rs.  1.00 lakh.
- (xv) Interstate  landscape  level  meetings  for  the  field  officers  of  adjacent  tiger  reserves  and tiger bearing divisions have been initiated for capacity building and coordination, since 2018.

***

## ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (c)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4536 ON CENSUS OF TIGERS DUE FOR REPLY ON 20.03.2020

## The All India Tiger Estimation uses a double sampling approach for estimating tigers, the details of which are as under:-

The  countrywide  assessment  of  tiger  status  uses  a  double  sampling  approach  to  estimate  the distribution  and  abundance  of  tigers  in  India.    The  first  component  of  the  double  sampling consists of ground surveys of all potential tiger bearing forests in 18 States wherein the following information is collected by the State Forest Department personnel:

-  Ground surveys for determining occupancy of habitat patches by tigers and other predators
-  Line transects to estimate prey abundance
-  Sampling plots on the line transects to assess
- o habitat characteristics,
- o human impacts and
- o prey dung density.

Alongwith the information generated by the ground surveys, latest remotely sensed data on

- (a) landscape characteristics,
- (b) human 'foot-print', and
- (c) habitat attributes

are subsequently used to model tiger occupancy and abundance.

The second component of the double sampling consists of

(a) scientifically rigorous abundance estimation in select sampling units using a remote camera trap based capture recapture technique for estimating tiger and other carnivore abundance and (b) line transect based Distance sampling for estimating prey abundance.

A relationship between the two components i.e. tiger abundance and covariates is then obtained to predict tiger numbers in areas where tiger signs were found but no camera trapping was done.

During the 2018 estimation cycle, 83% of the tigers were photo captured while only 17% were predicted based on the robust relationship between component one and two.

***

## ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (d)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4536 ON CENSUS OF TIGERS DUE FOR REPLY ON 20.03.2020

## Details of tiger estimation pertaining to tiger landscapes in the country, for the years 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018

| State                                                                | Tiger Population                                                     | Tiger Population                                                     | Tiger Population                                                     | Tiger Population                                                     |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
|                                                                      | 2006                                                                 | 2010                                                                 | 2014                                                                 | 2018                                                                 |
| Shivalik-Gangetic Plain Landscape Complex                            | Shivalik-Gangetic Plain Landscape Complex                            | Shivalik-Gangetic Plain Landscape Complex                            | Shivalik-Gangetic Plain Landscape Complex                            | Shivalik-Gangetic Plain Landscape Complex                            |
| Uttarakhand                                                          | 178                                                                  | 227                                                                  | 340                                                                  | 442                                                                  |
| Uttar Pradesh                                                        | 109                                                                  | 118                                                                  | 117                                                                  | 173                                                                  |
| Bihar                                                                | 10                                                                   | 8                                                                    | 28                                                                   | 31                                                                   |
| Shivalik Gangetic                                                    | 297                                                                  | 353                                                                  | 485                                                                  | 646                                                                  |
| Central Indian Landscape Complex and Eastern Ghats Landscape Complex | Central Indian Landscape Complex and Eastern Ghats Landscape Complex | Central Indian Landscape Complex and Eastern Ghats Landscape Complex | Central Indian Landscape Complex and Eastern Ghats Landscape Complex | Central Indian Landscape Complex and Eastern Ghats Landscape Complex |
| Andhra Pradesh                                                       | 95                                                                   | 72                                                                   | 68                                                                   | 48                                                                   |
| Telangana                                                            | -                                                                    | -                                                                    | -                                                                    | 26                                                                   |
| Chhattisgarh                                                         | 26                                                                   | 26                                                                   | 46                                                                   | 19                                                                   |
| Madhya Pradesh                                                       | 300                                                                  | 257                                                                  | 308                                                                  | 526                                                                  |
| Maharashtra                                                          | 103                                                                  | 169                                                                  | 190                                                                  | 312                                                                  |
| Odisha                                                               | 45                                                                   | 32                                                                   | 28                                                                   | 28                                                                   |
| Rajasthan                                                            | 32                                                                   | 36                                                                   | 45                                                                   | 69                                                                   |
| Jharkhand                                                            | -                                                                    | 10                                                                   | 3*                                                                   | 5                                                                    |
| Central India                                                        | 601                                                                  | 601                                                                  | 688                                                                  | 1033                                                                 |
| Western Ghats Landscape Complex                                      | Western Ghats Landscape Complex                                      | Western Ghats Landscape Complex                                      | Western Ghats Landscape Complex                                      | Western Ghats Landscape Complex                                      |
| Karnataka                                                            | 290                                                                  | 300                                                                  | 406                                                                  | 524                                                                  |
| Kerala                                                               | 46                                                                   | 71                                                                   | 136                                                                  | 190                                                                  |
| Tamil Nadu                                                           | 76                                                                   | 163                                                                  | 229                                                                  | 264                                                                  |
| Goa                                                                  | -                                                                    | -                                                                    | 5                                                                    | 3                                                                    |
| Western Ghats                                                        | 412                                                                  | 534                                                                  | 776                                                                  | 981                                                                  |
| North Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra Flood Plains                     | North Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra Flood Plains                     | North Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra Flood Plains                     | North Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra Flood Plains                     | North Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra Flood Plains                     |
| Assam                                                                | 70                                                                   | 143                                                                  | 167                                                                  | 190                                                                  |
| Arunachal Pradesh                                                    | 14                                                                   | -                                                                    | 28 **                                                                | 29                                                                   |
| Mizoram                                                              | 6                                                                    | 5                                                                    | 3*                                                                   | 0                                                                    |
| Nagaland                                                             | -                                                                    | -                                                                    | -                                                                    | 0                                                                    |
| Northern West Bengal                                                 | 10                                                                   | -                                                                    | 3*                                                                   | 0                                                                    |
| North East Hills, and Brahmaputra                                    | 100                                                                  | 148                                                                  | 201                                                                  | 219                                                                  |
| Sunderbans                                                           | -                                                                    | 70                                                                   | 76                                                                   | 88                                                                   |
| TOTAL                                                                | 1411                                                                 | 1706                                                                 | 2226                                                                 | 2967                                                                 |