Bhubaneswar: While the all-India tiger census report 2018 released on Monday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought cheers to animal lovers across the country, the Odisha count at 28 tigers came as rude shock for the nature-loving people of the state.
Odisha has not been able to add a single tiger in four years.
Barring Odisha and a few other states, most of the other provinces have done well adding huge numbers in the four year period after 2014.
‘Since there were 28 tigers in 2014 in Odisha what happened to the new born tigers who are more than 1 year old (The census ignores tiger cubs less than 1 year old as the survival is uncertain). The state should have added at least 12 to 15 tigers during the last four years. The only possible explaination is rampant poaching which is taking a heavy toll of tigers in Odisha,’ said Dr Biswajit Mohanty, secretary of Wildlife Society of Odisha.
In 2002, Odisha had reported 192 wild tigers which included 60 cubs. Excluding the cubs to bring parity with current count of 2018 there were 132 wild tigers which has now fallen to only 28.
“Thus, we have lost 104 adult tigers in Odisha in the last 16 years though at least Rs 60 crore has been spent on their protection and management by the state,” said Dr Mohanty.
