'India has habitat to sustain 2200 tigers'

TNN | Dec 11, 2011, 08.47AM IST BHOPAL: The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) member secretary Rajesh Gopal said on Saturday that India was having space to sustain around 2200 tigers. "I think that the country is having space to sustain 500 more tigers. Now we are having some 1700 big cats," Gopal said addressing a programme Save Tiger: Challenges and Future here, organized by an NGO. He said that 10 more tiger reserves are coming up in the country but even after it, the country was not having the habitat to sustain 500 more tigers. NTCA member secretary said that the man-animal conflict was on a rise due to the shrinking habitat of the striped animal adding that some instances of the big cats straying into human habitat have come to light. Gopal said that he was of the view that the Sariska and Panna became devoid of the tigers because the two places didn't have buffer zones. He said that buffer zone plays an important role in the protection of big cats. "India is having the largest number of striped animals among the nations having these endangered species," Gopal said. He said that India has taken a slew of measures to protect tiger which was missing in other countries having striped animals. Gopal recalled that after the number of wild cat dwindled drastically, the central government took many measures, including banning tiger hunting in 1970, and enactment of Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972. Tiger Task Force was constituted which was headed by former prime minister late Indira Gandhi in 1973. After this, he said the project tiger was launched first in Jim Corbett National Park on April 1, 1973. NTCA member secretary said that he strongly feels that the tiger won't become extinct in the country adding that in 90s and last decades there were apprehensions that big cat would vanish. "They all were proved wrong," he added. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhopal/India-has-habitat-to-sustain-2200-tigers/articleshow/11067211.cms