India has 2,967 tigers, revealed the results of 2018 tiger census conducted by the country
This census entered the Guinness Book of World Record for carrying the largest ever camera trap wildlife survey
Do you know that India accommodates a total of 2,967 tigers, which is 75 pc of the global tiger population?
The surprising and proud facts were revealed in the recently announced 2018 tiger census conducted by India which also made India stand with head high for making a world record of carrying the largest ever camera trap wildlife survey.
This census entered the Guinness Book of World Record.
The Guinness Book of World Record carries the message on its website, saying “The fourth edition of the census, which was carried out between 2018-19, was “the most comprehensive to date, in terms of both resource and data amassed.”
Terming this achievement a great moment, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar in a tweet message said that this is a shining example of Atma nirbhar Bharat which in the Prime Minister’s own words, was attained through sankalp se siddhi.
India’s 2018 Tiger Census makes it to Guinness Book of World Recordshttps://t.co/mitsdyrTW6
via NaMo App pic.twitter.com/hWD9X9l5XM
— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) July 12, 2020
The citation at the Guinness World Record website reads- “The fourth iteration of the survey – conducted in 2018-19 – was the most comprehensive to date, in terms of both resource and data amassed. Camera traps (outdoor photographic devices fitted with motion sensors that start recording when an animal passes by) were placed in 26,838 locations across 141 different sites and surveyed an effective area of 121,337 square kilometres (46,848 square miles). In total, the camera traps captured 34,858,623 photographs of wildlife (76,651 of which were tigers and 51,777 were leopards; the remainder were other native fauna). From these photographs, 2,461 individual tigers (excluding cubs) were identified using stripe-pattern-recognition software.
As well as unprecedented camera trap usage, the 2018 “Status of Tigers in India” assessment also conducted extensive foot surveys that covered 522,996 km (324,975 mi) of trails and sampled 317,958 habitat plots for vegetation and prey dung. It’s estimated that the total area of forest studied was 381,200 km2 (147,181 sq mi) and cumulatively the collection and review of data equated to some 620,795 labour-days.”
The All India Tiger Estimation done quadrennially is steered by the National Tiger Conservation Authority with technical backstopping from the Wildlife Institute of India and implemented by State Forest Departments and partners.
The latest results of 2018 tiger census had shown that India now has an estimated 2967 tigers out of which 2461 individual tigers have been photo captured, a whopping 83 % of the tiger population.
