India’s 2018 tiger census has entered the Guinness Book of World Record. It has become the largest ever camera trap wildlife survey. The fourth edition of the census, carried out between 2018-19. It was “the most comprehensive to date, in terms of both resource and data amassed.”. This was mentioned in the the Guinness Book of World Record on its website.
Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change Prakash Javadekar wrote: “Under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, India fulfilled its resolve to double tiger numbers 4 years before the target through #SankalpSeSiddhi. The All India Tiger Estimation is now in the #GuinnessWorldRecord for being the largest camera-trap #wildlife survey, a great moment indeed & a shining example of #AatmanirbharBharat!”
In 2018, India had as many as 2,967 tigers in the wild. Most of them were found in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. The paired camera traps were placed at 26,760 different locations across 139 study sites. They soon generated 35 million photos: 76,523 tiger and 51,337 leopards. An estimated total area of forest studied was 381,200 km2 (147,181 sq mi) and the survey equated to some 620,795 labour-days.
PM Modi released the data revealing the population of the tigers had jumped from 2226 in 2014 to 2967. This increase in the Tiger population proved that India is one of the secure habitats for the Big Cats.
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