31 August 2019



BARIPADA: Despite the availability of vast forests, the rampant poaching of prey base and tigers has taken a heavy toll on the prized feline population in Odisha. The tiger population has remained static at 28 in the last four years.

While the all India results of 2,967 tigers in 2018 compared with 2,226 tigers in 2014 have brought cheer to tiger lovers, the Odisha count remaining static at 28 has become a cause of grave concern as the coastal state has not been able to add a single tiger in four years.

Questions are being raised on what happened to the new born tigers who are more than 1 year old since the census ignores tiger cubs less than a year old as their survival is uncertain.

In 2002, Odisha had reported 192 wild tigers including 60 cubs. Excluding the cubs to bring parity with the current count of 2018, there were 132 tigers which has now fallen to only 28. Thus in 16 years, Odisha lost 104 adult tigers despite the fact that at least Rs 60 crore has been spent on their protection and management.

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