Balancing the population of both predators and prey was a key factor enabling a 50% surge in Madhya Pradesh’s tiger population, helping the State snag the top spot in the 2022 census, according to tiger experts. A senior Environment Ministry official told The Hindu that a similar strategy could help form a viable cheetah population, even as the project to translocate African cheetahs to M.P. has suffered six deaths.
An update to the 2022 tiger census publicised last week reported a total of 3,682 beasts, with M.P., for the second time in the last three censuses, reporting the maximum number of tigers at 785. The State has reported a 50% rise in the number of tigers since the last census, a jump exceeded only by Bihar, which has a much lower 54 tigers. While many factors contribute to a state’s tiger population, experts told The Hindu that the M.P. forest department’s strategy of actively moving tigers as well as their prey within the State, to balance predator and prey population, was a key indicator of success.
