Guwahati, January 9: Assam forest and environment minister Rockybul Hussain on Monday announced that the Royal Bengal tiger population in Assam has increased to 143 in 2011. The last tiger census in wildlife protected areas was completed in December last.
“We used camera trapping method in tiger census in the state. The method is internationally recognized. In Kaziranga National Park KNP), we have 118 Royal Bengal tigers. It has the highest density of royal Bengal tiger in the country”, said Hussain.
In the KNP, there were two incidents of Royal Bengal tigers coming out to the fringe and killed villagers separate incidents in November last year.
“According to the experts, tigers come out from its habitat for two reasons. When its population increases, the new generation pushed out the older ones and the other reason has been due to the shortage of food. There is no shortage of food for tiger in Kaziranga. This indicates increase of Royal Bengal tigers in Kaziranga”, said Hussain.
The state forest minister said that population of Royal Bengal tiger in Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park has also been increased in the last six years. Apart from Kaziranga and Orang National Park, the Nameri National Park and Manas National Park in the state also has witnessed the increase in the population Royal Bengal tigers.
The Project Tiger was launched in three wildlife protected areas of Kaziranga, Manas and Nameri in the state. The state forest minister added that elephant population in the state was also increased from ‘5246’ in 2002 to ‘5620’ in 2011. According to last river dolphin census in the state, there are 258 river dolphins in the state.
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