India’s tiger population goes up, M.P. has most big cats

Last Updated01/08/2023

According to recently released estimates, India’s tiger population has increased to 3,682 in 2022, up from 2,967 in 2018.
This is an upward revision from April this year, when a minimum of 3,167 animals were estimated by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), which coordinates the quadrennial tiger census.

In 2022, the maximum number of tigers, 785, were reported to be in Madhya Pradesh, followed by Karnataka (563), Uttarakhand (560), and Maharashtra (444).
Nearly a quarter of the tigers were reportedly outside protected areas.
India’s tigers are largely concentrated in 53 dedicated tiger reserves spanning about 2.3% of India’s total land area.
Maximum: Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand, 260 animals, followed by Bandipur (150), and Nagarhole (141), both in Karnataka.
Since 2014, India’s tigers have been increasing at about 5% to 6% each year.

Central India, the Shivalik Hills and the Gangetic plains witnessed increases in tiger population.
However, certain regions, such as the Western Ghats, experienced localised declines, needing targeted monitoring and conservation efforts.
In general, reserves that have applied good conservation practices such as ensuring enough prey available for tigers, have done well.
Approximately 35% of the tiger reserves urgently required enhanced protection measures, habitat restoration, ungulate (deer, chital, blackbuck) augmentation, and subsequent tiger reintroduction.

The national tiger census is done every four years by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in partnership with state forest departments, conservation NGOs, and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
The census uses a double sampling method based on ground-based surveys and the number of unique tigers captured on camera.