Morung Express News
Dimapur | July 29
Even as India achieved the target of doubling its tiger population, Nagaland remained the only state without any tiger’s recorded since the last 12 years.
This was revealed in the data on the fourth cycle of All India Tiger Estimation which was released by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on World Tiger Day, July 29.
The report showed that India’s tiger population increased from 2,226 in 2014 to 2,967 in 2018, achieving the target of doubling the wild cat's population four years ahead of deadline.
As per the India Tiger Estimate 2010, the population estimate of the tiger in 2010 was 1,706 while it was 1,411 in 2006.
Following conservation efforts, the population of the striped cats increased to 2,226 in 2014 and to 2,967 in 2018.
However for Nagaland state, the data showed that there were no tigers reported in any of the four yearly estimations—reports for which were complied in 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018. Nagaland was the only state in such a situation.
At the other end of the scale, Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest tiger count in the country and once again gained the No 1 status of 'Tiger State.’ The tiger population in the state increased to 526 in 2018 from 308 in 2014. Karnataka slipped to the second spot with 524 tigers whereas Uttarakhand is at number three with 442 tigers.
In the North East hills and the Brahmaputra plains landscape, Assam recorded the most number of tigers in 2018 at 190. In this area, while Mizoram and Northern West Bengal joined Nagaland in recording zero tigers in 2018, only Nagaland state had come up empty in all the preceding years as well.
The report postulated that “loss in North East is due to poor sampling.”
