Close on the heels of Indian scientists demonstrating the invaluable genetic diversity of the subcontinent’s big cats, here’s some more good news for tiger conservation in India.

© WWF

Last week, India officially launched an online database of authentic record of tiger deaths and other key wildlife species across the country. Tigernet is a collaborative effort of the National Tiger Conservation Authority of the environment and forests ministry and TRAFFIC-India, the wildlife trade monitoring network.

The idea is to compile and analyse such data as a management tool for tiger conservation in India. The website is a refreshingly candid venture that promises to be a transparent official record of deaths of the big cats in India. It gives tiger reserve directors and chief wildlife wardens in India the ability to key-in crucial information about tiger deaths, poaching and seizures.

Conservation experts have been crying foul for long on the lack of accurate information on such issues. The website answers a lot of questions raised time and again by NGOs and conservation workers and should go a long way in assisting anti-poaching efforts.

By significantly simplifying the tiger death reporting system and even findings of post mortem examinations, the government has shown its willingness to go a step further in its seriousness over transparency in wildlife conservation efforts.