The much-awaited numbers are out now. The Ministry of Environment & Forests released the all-India Tiger Estimation Report for 2022. As per this estimation report, Indian forests are home to 3682 wild tigers an increase of roughly 700 tigers since the last estimation in 2018, which estimated the tiger count as 2967. Please note that 3682 is an estimation based on the low and high ranges (3167-3925). Experts say we could easily have close to 4,000 tigers in India within and outside the protected areas.
India now accounts for 75% of the World’s wild Tiger Population, in line with our commitment made during the Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit in 2010. All thirteen Tiger Range countries (countries where tigers roam freely in the wild) had committed to double their tiger numbers by 2022. As per the 2010 estimation we had 1706 big cats in Indian forests and now we have more than double of tiger numbers in 2010.
Madhya Pradesh with 6 Tiger reserves- Kanha Tiger Reserve, Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, Panna Tiger Reserve, Pench Tiger Reserve, Satpura and Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserves continues to be India’s ‘Tiger State’ with 785 tigers followed by Karnataka and Uttarakhand with 563 and 560 tigers respectively. Most of the tiger states have reported an increase in Tiger population except Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Arunachal Pradesh reporting a decline in tiger numbers over previous years.
This massive exercise was completed with the help of 32588 camera traps installed over 641,450 sq km forest area utilising 641102 man-days. India now has 54 tiger reserves across the country but a sizeable population of tigers exist outside the protected areas as well.
| Estimated tiger numbers in each landscape from 2006 to 2022 | |||||
| State | Tiger Population | ||||
| 2006 | 2010 | 2014 | 2018 | 2022 | |
| Shivalik Hills and Gangetic Plains Landscape | |||||
| Bihar | 10 | 8 | 28 | 31 | 54 |
| Uttarakhand | 178 | 227 | 340 | 442 | 560 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 109 | 118 | 117 | 173 | 205 |
| Shivalik- Gangetic | 297 | 353 | 485 | 646 | 819** |
| Central Indian Landscape and Eastern Ghats | |||||
| Andhra Pradesh | 95 | 72 | 68 | 48 | 63 |
| Telangana | – | – | – | 26 | 21 |
| Chhattisgarh | 26 | 26 | 46 | 19 | 17 |
| Jharkhand | 10 | 3* | 5 | 1* | |
| Madhya Pradesh | 300 | 257 | 308 | 526 | 785 |
| Maharashtra | 103 | 168 | 190 | 312 | 444 |
| Odisha | 45 | 32 | 28 | 28 | 20 |
| Rajasthan | 32 | 36 | 45 | 69 | 88 |
| Central India & Eastern Ghats | 601 | 601 | 688 | 1,033 | 1439 |
| Western Ghats Landscape | |||||
| Goa | – | – | 5* | 3 | 5 |
| Karnataka | 290 | 300 | 406 | 524 | 563 |
| Kerala | 46 | 71 | 136 | 190 | 213 |
| Tamil Nadu | 76 | 163 | 229 | 264 | 306 |
| Western Ghats | 402 | 534 | 776 | 981 | 1087 |
| North East Hills and Brahmaputra Plains Landscape | |||||
| Arunachal | 14 | 28 | 29 | 9 | |
| Assam | 70 | 143 | 167 | 190 | 227 |
| Mizoram | 6 | 5 | 3* | 0 | 0 |
| Nagaland | – | – | – | 0 | 0 |
| Northern West Bengal | 10 | – | 3* | 0 | 2 |
| North East Hills, and Brahmaputra | 100 | 148 | 201 | 219 | 236 |
| Sundarbans | 70 | 76 | 88 | 101 | |
| TOTAL | 1,411 (1,165-1,657) | 1,706 (1,507-1,896) | 2,226 (1,945-2,491) | 2,967 (2,603-3,346) | 3682 (3167-3925) |
