After 24% surge, India is now home to 75% of tigers in world

India recorded a 23.5% increase in tiger population between 2018 and 2022, taking the number of big cats in the wild to 3,682, more than the initially estimated 3,167 and accounting for 75% of the tigers in the world.

- Chetan Chauhan and Neeraj Santoshi

In April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had released an interim estimation of 3,167 tigers. India had 2,197 tigers in 2018, up from 1,411 tigers in 2006.

The increase shows the success of the country's 20-year-old science-based tiger conservation programme, experts said. Around 80% of the tigers (2,885) now reside in eight of the 18 tiger states, including Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Assam. MP has the highest tiger population of 785, followed by 563 in Karnataka and 444 in Maharashtra.

The central Indian and Western Ghats landscapes have contributed 2,526 tigers to the total number, making them the most dense tiger regions in the world, according to state-wise estimation reported on Saturday.

On the individual score, Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand and Kaziranga National Park in Assam continue to be most densely populated tiger reserves, with 260 and 104 tiger, respectively, with Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh and Bandipur in Karnataka in close pursuit.

Globally, the number of tigers increased from 3,890 in 2016 to 5,575 in 2023, with India and Nepal doubling the numbers, said a statement from the Global Tiger Forum on Saturday. The GTF counts vary slightly for the overall global figure, due to which India's share according to this total does not amount to the share released by the government.