8 Jan 2020


The National Tiger Conservation of India (NTCA) has proposed a revamp of their tiger monitoring program, after strong criticism from both independent scientists and media.

The Indian government has claimed that the national tiger population has more than doubled since 2006, but independent scientists have raised serious doubts about this claim.

"It is extremely unlikely that the number of tigers in India has increased in the way the government claims," said researcher Arjun Gopalaswamy in an interview with the Norwegian science news portal Titan.uio.no in late November. He is the Science Advisor, Global Programs, Wildlife Conservation Society and is based in India.

Professor Nils Chr. Stenseth from the University of Oslo (Norway) agreed. "Whenever empirical observations go against known ecological patterns, it calls for immediate scrutiny of the methodological validity of the analysis," Stenseth said. Stenseth and Gopalaswamy were authors of a scientific paper containing serious criticisms about India's claims of rising tiger numbers. 
 

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