NEW DELHI, July 12 (NNN-UNI) – The fourth cycle of All India Tiger Estimation 2018, entered the Guinness world record for being the world’s largest camera trap wildlife survey, officials said Saturday.
“India has fulfilled its resolve to double the tiger numbers four years before the target. The country now has an estimated 2,967 tigers, as per the latest census. With this number, India is home to nearly 75 percent of the global tiger population and has already fulfilled its resolve of doubling tiger numbers, made at St. Petersburg in 2010, much before the target year of 2022,” Javadekar said.
India’s federal Environment and Forest Minister, Prakash Javadekar, described the achievement as a great moment which is a shining example of Atma Nirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India).
The citation at the Guinness World Record website says, the fourth iteration of the survey — conducted in 2018-19 — was the most comprehensive to date, in terms of both resource and data amassed.
“Camera traps (outdoor photographic devices fitted with motion sensors that start recording when an animal passes by) were placed in 26,838 locations, across 141 different sites and surveyed an effective area of 121,337 square kilometres. In total, the camera traps captured 34,858,623 photographs of wildlife (76,651 of which were tigers and 51,777 were leopards; the remainder were other native fauna). From these photographs, 2,461 individual tigers (excluding cubs) were identified using stripe-pattern-recognition software,” the ministry quoted Guinness World Record as having said.
The All India Tiger Estimation, done quadrennially, is steered by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, with technical backstopping from the Wildlife Institute of India and implemented by State Forest Departments and partners.
The latest results of 2018, shown that India now has an estimated 2,967 tigers out of which 2,461 individual tigers have been photo captured, a whopping 83 percent of the tiger population, highlighting the comprehensive nature of the survey.– NNN-UNI
