0 to 48: Tiger numbers rise at Assam’s park
GUWAHATI: Ravaged by insurgency and rampant poaching for nearly two decades, Assam’s Manas National Park has recorded a massive spike in tiger population, from nil sightings in 2001 to 48 in 2021, with experts describing it as a “significant recovery”.
The national park, watered by the Manas river which flows from Bhutan through the Himalayas, has registered an estimated threefold increase, taking the tiger population from 10 in 2010 to 30 in 2020. In this year’s census by camera-trapping, 48 big cats were spotted, including 38 adults, three sub-adults and seven cubs.
“The findings have brought to everyone at Manas and shows that the efforts at tiger conservation have borne fruit. We have already surpassed the World Wildlife Foundation and Global Tiger Forum’s goal of doubling tiger numbers by 2022,” said Amal Chandra Sarmah, field director, Manas Tiger Project. “There were no tiger sightings in Manas between 2001 and 2004. In 2005, an image of one adult tiger was captured in the park in a camera trap...”
“It is evident that tigers are potentially flourishing in Manas and this significant recovery becomes a global example...”
The 12th annual camera trapcheer ping survey, conducted between December 2020 and May 2021, covered 876 sq km of the park and adjoining areas with cameras placed at 285 locations. It also found 37 leopards, and five other species of wild cats in the park and its adjoining areas.
From being enlisted in the ‘World Heritage Site in Danger List’ in 1992 to getting back its World Heritage Site status in 2011, Manas has come a long way in its conservation journey.
“Better management and protection measures have resulted in an increase in tigers in Manas... But in the coming years, focus should be given on management of the prey base, to curb deaths due to infighting,” said Bibhab Talukdar, CEO of Aaranyak, an NGO associated with the survey.