HYDERABAD: Telangana is home to 26 tigers, as per the Status of Tigers in India-2018 report released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Monday. This is the first time that the number of tigers has been officially declared for the State by the Central government, as the last tiger estimation report released in 2014 had provided tiger numbers for undivided Andhra Pradesh.
While there was no separate number provided for Telangana in the 2014 report, the State’s forest department in a media release on Monday claimed that the number of tigers in 2014 was 20 in the State - 17 in the Amrabad Tiger Reserve and three in the Kawal Tiger Reserve, indicating that there has now been an increase in number of tigers in the State by six.
The Telangana forest department had another reason to pat itself on Monday, as the Central government also released the Monitoring Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) report, in which the two tiger reserves of Telangana was placed in the ‘Good’ category.
Kawal Tiger Reserve improved its ranking from ‘Fair’ in the MEE-2014 report to ‘Good’ in the latest edition. However, it barely scraped through to the category, as it achieved a score of 60.16 per cent. Tiger reserves that score between 49-59 per cent are rated as Fair and those that score between 60-74 per cent are rated Good. However, the Amrabad Tiger Reserve scored better at 71.09 per cent, inching close to the ‘Very Good’ rating which requires a score of above 75 per cent. The MEE report is based on the assessment of how well the tiger reserves in the country are being managed and their effectiveness in conservation, undertaken by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), in partnership with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
The tiger census was carried out in Telangana from June 23 to June 30 last year. The total number of tigers estimated in the country stands at 2,967, as per the report, with Madhya Pradesh recording the highest number of tigers at 526, followed by Karnataka at 524. Uttarakhand came third with 442 tigers.
Increase by six tigers
While there was no separate data provided for Telangana in 2014, the State’s forest dept on Monday claimed the number of tigers in the State then was 20, indicating that there has now been an increase of
six tigers
Tiger scare in two villages of Adilabad
Adilabad: Inhabitants of Komatiguda and Chalpalaguda villages in Wankidi have locked themselves in their houses, after reports of a tiger being spotted in the area emerged. A big cat had reportedly been roaming the area and attacking their cattle. Forest officials said the tiger had moved to Kagaznagar forest and the villagers had no reason to worry