Furious over media queries on failure of Madhya Pradesh for not only losing Tiger State tag, but further slipping to number three, Forest Minister Gaurishankar Shejwar on Wednesday said, “It hardly matters that we finish fourth or tenth in terms of tiger count at the national level. We made the best possible efforts and it is due to our efforts that the tiger count has increased in the State.”
During the last census in 2010, MP had lost Tiger State tag to Karnataka and had got the second spot while this time the State slipped further to the third place after Karnataka and Uttaranchal.The Opposition Congress also took a dig at the State Government.
Shejwar said this while responding to media queries on fresh tiger count released by MoEF in New Delhi on Tuesday. “MP finishes fourth or tenth in tiger count, it doesn’t matter,” the distressed Minister replied when asked about Tiger State tag. The Minister was continuously reaffirming that MP would regain its tag but had backtracked as initial estimates were received by November.
The top forest department officers, however, remained busy in New Delhi, seeking clarifications from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) whether figures of Satpura tiger reserve were part of the MP’s quota of tigers or not.At present the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is busy compiling tiger count at Satpura afresh through camera trapping.
Meanwhile, the surge in tiger numbers has relieved forest officers. Apart from designated protected areas, other areas including Datia, Sheopur, Barwani, Rewa, Kerwa forests in Bhopal, Balaghat, Chhindwara, Dhar and Khargone also have stray tigers, a senior officer from forest department’s wildlife wing claimed. “It’s unlikely that these stray striped cats would have made it to the tiger count which initially relies on beat wise tiger territories,” the officer added.