India's Asiatic Lion Population Rises by 27% in 5 Years - Tiger Population up by 30% in 3 Years

[Chanakya's_Chant]

India's Asiatic lion population rising
Census finds 27% increase in number of endangered lions found in their only habitat in the world – the Gir forest of Gujarat​

Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica), are the smaller cousins of African lions. Above, a lioness with her cubs, in Gir Interpretation Zone or Devalia safari park, in Gir forest in Gujarat, India. Photograph: Matthias Graben/Corbis​

Wildlife experts have welcomed census figures showing India’s population of endangered Asiatic lions has increased in the last five years in the western state of Gujarat.

Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel said officials counted 523 lions, up 27% from the last census conducted in 2010 in Gir sanctuary, the last habitat for the big cats globally.

The census was conducted over five days earlier this month in the 20,000 sqkm (7,700 sq m) sanctuary and surrounding forest lands.

“There are 109 male lions, 201 females and 213 cubs in the Gir sanctuary and nearby forest areas of Junagadh district,” Patel said on Sunday.

Officials have said the experts conducting the census used a combination of direct sightings, photographs and GPS tracking technology to document each lion and avoid double counting.

About 2,500 people, including wildlife experts from India’s top universities, participated in the counting process.

The last census in 2010 showed 411 lions, up from 359 in 2005.

WWF India director Diwakar Sharma welcomed the numbers but said the larger population posed challenges for managing their habitat and conflict with humans.

“This is good news on the conservation front but bigger populations in bigger areas increases the challenge of managing land, human and animal conflict,” he told AFP.

“There (also) has to be some other place far away from Gir (for lions) so that in a time of catastrophe, we don’t lose the population.”

The Gujarat government is fighting a Supreme Court ruling in 2013 for some of the lions to be moved to a wildlife sanctuary in a neighbouring state to ensure their long-term survival in case of disease.

The cats are a subspecies of lion which are slightly smaller than their African cousins and have a fold of skin along their bellies. They are a major attraction for tourists to Gujarat.

India faces intense international scrutiny over its conservation efforts because it is home to many endangered species, including tigers.

Conservation efforts were hailed in January after 2,226 tigers were spotted in a country-wide census, a 30% increase in the population from 2010.

Authorities across Asia are waging a major battle against poachers, who often sell tiger body parts to the lucrative traditional Chinese medicine market, as well as other man-made problems such as habitat loss.

Source:- India's Asiatic lion population rising | Environment | The Guardian
India's tiger population increases by 30% in past three years; country now has 2,226 tigers - The Times of India

 

[IndoUS]

This is great, hopefully we will see a comeback for the Asiatic lions, maybe after the population is large enough we can try to introduce them to some other areas.

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

This is great, hopefully we will see a comeback for the Asiatic lions, maybe after the population is large enough we can try to introduce them to some other areas.

We actually should transfer them to wildlife sanctuaries across India so as to ensure their growth as well as long term survival - over the years the Gir sanctuary has become overpopulated - now the growth is happening outside the protected area in what are essentially human-dominated landscapes which is pretty risky.

And now the bad news... Overcrowding in Gir lion population is a 'time-bomb' for conservationists | Daily Mail Online
Asiatic lions face danger in 'overcrowded' Gir, some of them need relocation : West, News - India Today

 

[Lord ZeN]

Great
Actually steps taken during Modi ji's tenure as CM of Gujarat helped our majestic beats immensely to be back and kicking.

These majestic animals are truly our pride
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Gujarat’s Gir sanctuary now has 523 Asiatic lions | The Indian Express

 

[Providence]

Are they tagged or not ! The method of counting in India still follows a 16th century approach last i heard.

 

[Gibbs]

Great
Actually steps taken during Modi ji's tenure as CM of Gujarat helped our majestic beats immensely to be back and kicking.

-
Gujarat’s Gir sanctuary now has 523 Asiatic lions | The Indian Express

Mate this is a pic of a African Lion.. Asiatic lions do not grow large manes nor do they have dark shades of hair

 

[Providence]

Mate this is a pic of a African Lion.. Asiatic lions do not grow large manes nor do they have dark shades of hair

they actually do when brought to colder climates like in europe I have seen asiatic lions with large manes. But yeah you are right.

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

Are they tagged or not ! The method of counting in India still follows a 16th century approach last i heard.

India adopts the "Double Sampling Approach" of counting wildlife - a combination of direct sightings, photographs through camera traps, pug marks, scats analysis/sampling combined with GPS tracking technology to document each lion and avoid double counting.

The Recent Exercise
The Wildlife Institute of India, in collaboration with several other organisations and individuals, recently completed the most authoritative count of tigers till now. This was the third round of what has become a four-yearly exercise that started in 2006. The scientists relied on what is known as the double-sampling method for counting tigers.

The first stage involved ground survey by the forest department. More than 44,000 staff of the forest department surveyed a total of 9,309 grids, each 10 km x 10 km in area, to collect evidences of tiger presence — pugmarks, scat, scratches on trees or other such unmistakable signs of tiger presence. Not finding any such sign in an area did not mean no tiger was present. It only meant there were no detectable signs of its presence. A total of 3,78,118 square km of forests was surveyed in this exercise.

The next stage involved camera trapping. Based on the ground surveys, 9,735 locations were chosen for installing cameras. These cameras are heat and motion sensitive. They lie idle till they detect any motion or a sudden change in temperature. Which means, they capture just about anything that moves — other animals, even birds. All these get captured by the camera. Strictly speaking, the WII exercise is not restricted to tiger counting. It is about assessing numbers of other wild animals as well, mainly the big carnivores.

The images of the tigers captured have to be de-duplicated to find the number of individual tigers. Each tiger is known to have a very unique stripe pattern. This is used to differentiate one tiger from the other. While this differentiation can be done relatively easily with the naked eye in case of two or three tigers, comparing a large number of images becomes difficult. The researchers have developed a software that matches the stripes on any one image with those on all the other images and throws the best five matches. These are then analysed manually to assess whether the selected images are of different tigers. In the recent survey, the camera trappings threw up images of 1,540 distinct tigers. Therefore, this number has been established beyond doubt.

The exercise does not end here. It’s impossible for the cameras to capture every single tiger present in India. So, based on the ground surveys and camera trapping methods, an extrapolation is done to estimate the number of tigers in the entire country.

As Yadvendradev Jhala of the WII, one of the lead researchers in the exercise, admits, it is in this extrapolation that some people find faults. “But this extrapolation is done on very sound statistical and mathematical methods. It is not an arbitrary exercise. It is the best way of estimating tiger populations in places where the tigers have not actually been sighted,” he says.

The scientists use as many as 22 variables to estimate the number of tigers in an area where cameras have either not captured any image or where cameras could not be installed. These variables, like the abundance of prey, the quality of forests, the altitude, distance from roads, distance from human habitations, abundance of livestock, are then correlated with areas in which tigers have indeed been sighted. Each of these variables are assigned different weightage. Based on the aggregate score of these variables, a tiger population is estimated. This method is applied even to areas where cameras have made a few sightings, working on the assumption that not all tigers would get photographed.

At the end of this extrapolation, the WII team reached a figure of 1,950 tigers in areas where cameras had been installed — 1,540 of which had been sighted and the rest on extrapolation. This is a number that cannot be disputed by anyone, says Jhala.
Working on further extrapolation in areas where cameras could not have been installed, the researchers concluded that there were about 300 more tigers, raising the number to 2,226.

Karanth, one of the collaborators in the project, is also among the critics. He says the double sampling method is “not refined enough to generate tiger numbers. It is also not the best to estimate where tigers are found”. Instead, he has been pushing for a method called ‘occupancy sampling’, “which tells more about how tigers are distributed. Since 90-95 per cent of tigers can be accurately counted using camera traps, there is no need to rely on the estimates from double sampling,” he says.

There is no disagreement, however, that tiger numbers have indeed shown a very healthy improvement in the last four years.

Jhala says there is documentation that shows there were around 40,000 tigers about 200 years ago. While there is no way the country’s tiger population can go anywhere close to that number, he says another 1,000 to 1,500 tigers can easily be added to the population. Karanth says Indian forests have the capacity to accommodate between 5,000 and 10,000 tigers.

Source:- Tiger census: Count the stripes | The Indian Express | Page 99

 

[Ryuzaki]

rise is due to vedic math.They are decreasing every day

 

[Lord ZeN]

Mate this is a pic of a African Lion.. Asiatic lions do not grow large manes nor do they have dark shades of hair

But the other three certainly are

 

[ito]

Mate this is a pic of a African Lion.. Asiatic lions do not grow large manes nor do they have dark shades of hair

They do grow. It depends on the temperature. If the temperature is high they shed their mane. The following is a Indian lion in a UK zoo.

Asiatic lion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Gibbs]

They do grow. It depends on the temperature. If the temperature is high they shed their mane. The following is a Indian lion in a UK zoo.

Asiatic lion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yes.. Tks for the correction.. Asiatic lions are characterized by the mane running down its stomach

 

[Providence]

They do grow. It depends on the temperature. If the temperature is high they shed their mane. The following is a Indian lion in a UK zoo.

Asiatic lion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

LOL would you believe, I saw that Lion last weekend in chester Zoo

 

[Nityam]

Are they tagged or not ! The method of counting in India still follows a 16th century approach last i heard.

Is that what you Heard ?

I heard the white man hunted most creatures to extinction. So you should worry about your own since you have good reasons to.

 

[IND151]

A nice news indeed...............