India is beautifully known as the territory of tigers and it goes without saying that it has world’s highest population of tigers. These big cats live proudly in its wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and tiger reserves. India has recorded total of 2461 tigers from 2014 to 2018. On June 29, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released the latest tiger census which shown a great rise of tiger population with 2,961 tigers in India on Global Tiger Day.
Out of other states, Madhya Pradesh roars the loudest by recording 526 tigers, while there were only 308 in 2014. Karnataka has been at the top since 2010 in terms of tiger population. It has now slipped to second with 524 tigers. Uttarakhand stands at third position by having 442 tigers.
Madhya Pradesh has had poor record for tiger conservation over the last four years. But it still has rise in tiger population with 218. According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority, India has reported to lost up to 657 tigers from 2012 to 2017 and Madhya Pradesh also tops here as well, i.e. by losing total of 141 tigers.
According to the reports from Conservation Lenses and Wildlife (CLAW), Madhya Pradesh had seen huge number of deaths of tigers due to different reasons from 2012 to 2016, such as electrocution, natural deaths, poisoning, and territorial fights.
Since the 1980s, due to establishments of tiger reserves, the state of Madhya Pradesh has claimed the largest population of big cats. The tiger population started declining due to gradual rise in cases of poaching over the years in Madhya Pradesh. Thanks to the continuous efforts of initiatives and conservation projects, such as Project Tiger, WWF, and Save the Tiger working 24×7, Madhya Pradesh has now managed to see the rise in tiger population. Today, we proudly have a great number of tigers.
Tiger Conservation in MP
Being one of the leading states in India, Madhya Pradesh has six tiger reserves – Bandhavgarh, Panna, Kanha, Pench, Satpura and Sanjay Dubri. With the growing population, these giant cats migrated to different jungles of Katni and Shahdol, which are close to Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve; Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary; and Dewas, Indore and Bhopal.
