India’s tiger census counts more cats in wild

NEW DELHI – India’s latest tiger census shows a sharp increase in the number of the endangered cats in the wild, raising hopes that conservation efforts are working, officials said Tuesday.

The census conducted in 2014 found at least 2,226 tigers in forests across the country, up from 1,706 counted in 2010.

Environment minister Prakash Javadekar described the figure as a huge success story and said it was the result of sustained conservation efforts.

“While the tiger population is falling in the world, it is rising in India. This is great news,” Javadekar told journalists in New Delhi.

Tigers in India have been threatened by rampant poaching and shrinking habitats from deforestation caused by power projects, roads and human settlements as the country pushes ahead with rapid industrialization and economic development.

The disappearance of forests has affected the availability of prey and led tigers to stray into human habitats.

Javadekar said more than 9,700 cameras were used in the massive count and the results are the most accurate in the past few decades.

Officials said nearly 146,000 square miles of forest area in 18 states were surveyed.

A century ago an estimated 100,000 tigers roamed India’s forests. Their numbers declined steadily until the 1970s, when India banned tiger hunting and embarked on a program to create special reserves and protected areas in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.