GUWAHATI: Tiger conservation at the Manas National Park has achieved great success in 2020-21. The Project Tiger programme has witnessed an increase in tiger population. In just one year, the park added 16 tigers. At present, according to a survey, the total number of tigers in the park stands at 46. The survey was conducted using camera traps inside Manas National Park. The survey revealed that there are 16 male adults, 19 female adults, 3 elderly and 7 cubs inside the national park.
“A rise of 16 tigers, which is over 50 per cent, in a year is indeed a remarkable achievement and the increased sightings indicate that conservation efforts are working in the park,” said Park Director Amal Chandra Sarma to a wire agency.
In 2016, 350 square kilometres were added to Manas National Park. Four tigers have been detected in the new area. In 2006 only one tiger was identified through camera traps. Slowly, with measures like smart patrolling and awareness taken by the park authorities and government the number of Bengal Tigers increased to 10 in 2010 and in a decade reached 30 by 2020.
In the last one year the tiger population at Manas National Park reached 46. It shows the tiger conservation’s success at the park. The ‘Manas Tiger Team’, a twelve-member mobile patrolling unit was recently honoured with the ‘Highly Commended’ certification at the 2021 International Ranger Awards (IRA).
Manas covers an area of 39,100 hectares and is bounded to the north by the forests of Bhutan. The Manas Wildlife Sanctuary is part of the core zone of the 283,700 hectares Manas Tiger Reserve.
