India was a land of Maharajas and tigers. The former is long gone and now it seems that the majestic tigers would also be a thing of past, if their number continue to fall so rapidly.
These are the shocking results that have come up in enumeration figures for the big cat in central India. As per the report, Madhya Pradesh has registered a maximum loss in tigers’ population just 265 in 2007, in comparison to 700 in 2005.

Tiger population is dismally low in other states as well. Chhattisgarh has 25 tigers left, Maharashtra 95 and Rajasthan only 32 in the state’s last pocket of Ranthambore. This time, to calculate the tiger population ministry of environment & forests has teamed up with WII.

A senior environment ministry official said:

MP’s case is symptomatic. It’s clear that India at best has just half of the tiger numbers earlier claimed.

With each year tiger population is getting down drastically but administration has failed to put a check. Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve appears to be the only safe habitat for the tigers where in 500 square kilometers as many as 112 tigers reside.

Raghu Chundawat, an independent tiger ecology expert said:

We must know the health of the source population inside these critical breeding areas because if these are in bad shape, the rest don’t matter so much.

Well, the declining tiger is a matter of grave concern. If nothing is done on time then that time is not far when tigers will exist only in zoos and Jim Corbett’s books.

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Source: thetimesofindia