Forests and Wildlife Minister Dinesh Agarwal has welcomed the increase in number of tigers in the state.
Addressing a press conference here today, Dinesh Agarwal said the rise in tiger population reflected that the state had successfully undertaken tiger conservation efforts. He asserted that tiger conservation at Corbett National Park had mainly contributed to rise in tiger population in Uttarakhand.
Agarwal said the state had sought better assistance from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for conservation efforts as tigers keep commendable presence even territorial forests of protected areas. He apprised that the state had demanded Rs 10 crore from the NTCA but only Rs 7 crore had been provided to the state.
Responding to queries, Dinesh Agarwal said the government would hold a wildlife census in Uttarakhand shortly. He disclosed that Rs 1 lakh compensation had been provided to the leopard victim family of Phulsaini village in Dehradun. He said the four proposals of eco-sensitive zones had been sent to the Centre. He said the Pawalgarh bird festival would be held in the month of February and eminent bird fauna experts of the country would participate in it.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests SS Sharma was also present at the conference.
Tiger population up by 113 in state
The All-India Tiger Estimation-2014 was released today by Union Minister for Environment and Forest Prakash Javadkar in New Delhi.
The report revealed Uttarakhand had 340 tigers in 2014, while in the 2012 census report, Uttarakhand had 227 tigers. The state had 178 tigers as per the 2006 tiger estimation report.
The report came as a boost for tiger conservation efforts in Uttarakhand. It stated that Uttarakhand had shown a remarkable increase in tiger population. The entire Shivalik-Gangetic Plain Landscape Complex that includes Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, has recorded a total tiger population of 485. This includes 340 in Uttarkhand, 117 in Uttar Pradesh and 28 in Bihar.
The lower and the upper limit of tiger estimation has been kept at 427 and 543, respectively.
Apart from Uttarakhand, tiger populations have increased in several states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.
In Uttarakhand, 812 forest beats were sampled for the estimation exercise, which included 361 tigers occupied beats. A total of 1,810 trails were sampled in which in 658 trails were detected.
There were a total of 806 camera trap locations which resulted in 267 individual tigers getting photographed.
The overall tiger population in India is estimated to be 2,226 in 2014, according to the new report. The big cat population in 2010 was an estimated to be 1,706.