On the occasion of the Global Tiger Day celebrated at the Corbett Tiger Reserve on 29 July 2023, the detailed report of the “All India Tiger Estimation -2022” was released by Union MoS Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey.
Key highlights
- According to the estimate, India’s tiger population 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.
- This also indicates significant growth over the last decade; there were 2,226 tigers reported in 2014, up from 1,706 in 2010.
- In 2022, the maximum number of tigers, 785, were reported to be in Madhya Pradesh, followed by Karnataka. India’s tigers are largely concentrated in 53 dedicated tiger reserves spread across 75,796 square km, spanning about 2.3% of India’s total land area.
- The reserves with the maximum number of tigers were at the Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand, which reported 260 animals, followed by Bandipur (150), and Nagarhole (141), both in Karnataka.
- Central India, the Shivalik Hills, and the Gangetic plains witnessed increases in tiger population, particularly in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Maharashtra.
- In the Northeast, Arunachal Pradesh saw an alarming dip of 68% in its tiger population — reporting nine big cats in 2022 down from 29 in 2018. Assam had the highest number of tigers in the region at 227.
- Approximately 35% of the tiger reserves urgently required enhanced protection measures, habitat restoration, ungulate (deer, chital, blackbuck) augmentation, and subsequent tiger reintroduction.
- Tiger numbers are estimated based on the number of unique tigers captured on camera, plus an estimate of animals that may have not been photographed.
