India is ready to take leadership role and work with other tiger range countries for the management of reserves, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Tuesday and asserted that all tiger reserves in the country are in good condition.
Speaking after releasing an over 600-page report of the fourth All India Tiger Estimation 2018 on the eve of Global Tiger Day, he said India is proud of its tiger achievements and despite scarcity of land and rainfall, it boasts of eight percent of world's biodiversity.
"In 1973, there were just nine tiger reserves which has now increased to 50. It is important to know that none of these reserves is poor quality.
"Despite India's constraint of 2.5 percent of global land, 4 percent of rainfall and 16 percent of world's human population, India is home to 8 percent of world's biodiversity which includes 70 percent of world's tiger population," he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in 2019 released the tiger estimation report as per which, India recorded 2967 tigers, more than double the number from 1411 in 2006.
Javadekar said India is ready to work with other tiger range countries in tiger conservation.
"We are ready to take leadership role and work with all 12 tiger range countries in their training, capacity building and in actual management of tiger reserves," he said.
There are currently 13 tiger range countries- India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
According to the report on the condition of all 50 tiger reserves, Madhya Pradesh has the maximum number of tigers followed by Karnataka.
The minister also said that India has achieved the feat in not just tiger conservation but other species too.
"Today, India not only has tigers, but 30,000 elephants, 3,000 one-horned rhinoceros and over 500 lions besides variety of other flora and fauna," he said.
The event was also attended by Minister of State for Environment Babul Supriyo who said India's contribution to tiger conservation is so fascinating that the Guinness Book of world records has acknowledged it.
"I salute the frontline staff for working hard and helping India in more than doubling the tiger population," he said.
Sanjay Kumar, Director General, Forests, said that tiger reserves in India have improved and it is a great achievement.
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