Tiger population of Odisha remains unchanged

Bhubaneswar, July 28: The tiger population in Odisha remained unchanged as Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and Minister of State Babul Supriyo on Tuesday released Tiger Census report ahead of International Tiger Day on Wednesday. As per the latest report, the number of tigers in Odisha remained at 28. In 2002, Odisha had reported 192 wild tigers including 60 cubs. However, the tiger population declined to 28 in 2014 census. The tiger population has increased by roughly one-third in the country, i.e., from 2226 in 2014 to 2927 in 2018. The detailed report released today assesses the status of tigers in terms of spatial occupancy and density of individual populations across India. In addition to the summary report released by the Prime Minister of India on the "Status of Tigers in India" in July 2019, this detailed report compares information obtained from the earlier three surveys (2006, 2010, and 2014) with data obtained from the 2018-19 survey to estimate population trends at country and landscape scales, patch colonization and extinction rates along with information on likely factors responsible for changes in tiger status at the fine spatial resolution of 100 km. The report evaluates the status of habitat corridors connecting major tiger populations and highlights vulnerable areas that require conservation attention for each landscape. The report provides information on major carnivores and ungulates regarding their distribution and relative abundance.