Tiger population up in Telangana

New Delhi/Hyderabad: India's population of endangered Bengal tigers is on the rise despite the human-tiger conflicts in a country of 1.3 billion.

As development projects shrink the space separating humans and tigers, the animals are spilling out of the reserves in search of prey.

In the backdrop of this situation, Telangana has been successful in increasing the tiger population from 20 to 26 in four years.

According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) report on "The Status of Tigers, Co-predators and Prey in India-2018", which was released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Monday, on the occasion of the World Tiger Day, the Amrabad Tiger Reserve falling in Nallamala forest belt and the Kawal Tiger Reserve have a tiger population of 26.

The Monitoring Effectiveness Evaluation report shows the Kawal Tiger Reserve has moved up from "Fair" to "Good" rating and the Amrabad Tiger Reserve, remained in "Good" category. But the overall score is more than 71.09 per cent which is nearer to "Very Good" category of 75 per cent.

The Amrabad Tiger Reserve, falling in Nagarkurnool and Nalgonda districts, is situated on the banks of river Krishna, while the Kawal Tiger Reserve, falling in Nirmal, Mancherial, Adilabad and KB Asifabad districts, is situated on the banks of river Godavari.

These, two Tiger Reserves fall in the Central India Landscape and the Eastern Ghats. In the year 2014, the tiger census was conducted for the entire areas spread over Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The estimated number of the tigers for the Telangana portion was 17 and it was 3 for Kawal Tiger Reserve. The estimation of tigers for the Telangana region was 20 in 2014.

The fourth cycle of All India Tiger Estimation was conducted in January 2018 in all the forest areas of Telangana, both inside and outside wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and tiger reserves.

The earlier census was conducted in united Andhra Pradesh in the years 2006, 2010 and 2014. It is the first time that the All India Tiger Estimation is being conducted in Telangana. It was carried out from June 23 to 30, 2018 in Telangana.

State Environment and Forest Minister A Indrakaran Reddy expressed happiness over the increase in the number of tigers and said the state is giving top priority to the protection of forest and wildlife in Telangana.

Chief Wildlife Warden Munindra said an increase in the number of tigers is great news for the conservationists in Telangana. The improved management practices adopted by the staff of the forest department like improving the water regime in the forest area and the availability of grass resulting in improving the prey base.

Further, steps have been taken to improve the protection of forests and the support of the NGOs which has helped to a great extent.

Presence of cubs in both the tiger reserves is a very encouraging sign of improvement of the tiger habitat and indicative of the bright future for the tiger populations, the official said.