New Delhi, India – India’s population of wild tigers, which wildlife experts have long warned is on the decline, is sharply lower than previously believed, according to preliminary results of an exhaustive study of tiger habitats released Wednesday.
The study, conducted over the past two years by the government-run Wildlife Institute of India, found that the tiger population in some states may be nearly 65 percent less than experts had thought.
Full results of the study are not expected until late this year, but conservationists said the early results indicated the most recent tiger census – which found about 3,500 tigers – was far too optimistic.
“The results are depressing,” said Belinda Wright, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India and one of the foremost big-cat conservationists in the country. “But it’s a major step forward that a government study has finally come to terms with this disastrous decrease in tiger numbers.”
Poaching and encroachment on tiger habitat have savaged India’s tiger population, which a century ago was believed to number in the tens of thousands.
The key to protecting the animals now, according to experts who have reviewed the results, is ensuring tigers are able to hunt, mate and travel between the country’s protected reserves, ensuring enough prey for the cats and keeping inbreeding to a minimum.
“Our biggest challenge is to conserve these linkages between protected areas,” said Rajesh Gopal, secretary-general of the Tiger Conservation Authority of India. “Only then can we save the tiger.”
