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India’s tigers on the rise

tiger baby.jpgHeartening news for endangered big cats: India’s tiger population has risen by around 16% in the past four years, according to a 2010 census whose results were reported at a conference in New Delhi on 28 March.

The government-funded Project Tiger programme estimated the tiger population last year at 1,706 (±9%). Even excluding 70 tigers seen in areas that had not been surveyed before (the Sundarbans mangrove forest in West Bengal state), this is an improvement on the same programme’s estimate of 1,411 tigers (±17%) in 2006.

Around half of the world’s tigers are thought to live in India. You can read more about their history – essentially involving being almost wiped out thanks to rampant poaching, shrinking habitats, and poor management – in Erika Check’s 2006 feature, ‘The tiger’s retreat’ (Nature, 441, 927-930; 2006).

Image by law_keven via Flickr under creative commons.

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    Tiger Lover said:

    Cool! Good to see them back. But there is still a long way to go. We can’t afford to relax.

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    Prasad said:

    This is the very good news for all of us because tigers are now in a very bad position. We have to increase tigers population as much as possible.

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