Only 1400 tigers left in India!

There are only 1,411 tigers in the country against an earlier estimate of 3,508, the Rajya Sabha was told on Thursday.

The recent assessment of tiger population is based on determining spatial occupancy of tigers throughout potential tiger forests and sampling such forests using camera traps in a statistical framework, Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment and Forests S Regupathy said in a written reply.

According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the recent all estimation of tiger in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India shows that the total country-level population of tiger is 1411, he said.

However, the minister said this assessment is not comparable to the earlier total count using pugmarks owing to several shortcomings.

The new findings also indicate a poor status of tiger population outside tiger reserves and protected areas.

In reply to a separate question, Regupathy said, "Approval has been given for eight new tiger reserves spread over seven states, based on the proposals received and as recommended by the Steering Committee of the Project Tiger"

"During the 11th plan period, a tentative allocation of Rs 600 crore has been made to the ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger, which includes funding support to the eight new tiger reserves," the minister added.