Dehradun to get country's first tiger cell at Wildlife Institute of India campus: Report

Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and National Tiger Conservation of Authority (NTCA) will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) over setting up of a tiger cell in the northern state of the country.

New Delhi: Dehradun, the capital city of the state of Uttarakhand, will get the country's first tiger cell at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) campus.

As per a report from TOI, WII and National Tiger Conservation of Authority (NTCA) will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) over setting up of a tiger cell in the northern state of the country on Saturday.

The cell will house a database of tigers and their DNA sampling from over 50 tiger reserves of the state. It will aid conservation efforts by keeping an update on tiger numbers as well as tracking poaching incidents throughout the country.

The cell will be headed by YV Jhala, senior scientist at WII, who will be supported by four other scientists.

“The cumulative data of countrywide tiger assessment which WII has been compiling for more than a decade will now be institutionalized in the cell,”Jhala told TOI.

Jhala added that the cell will also have a national tiger photo database which will be used for tackling poaching or wildlife crime incidents, adding that WII had been working at creating a stripes repository of tigers from India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

He also said that the tiger cell will give technical support to the Centre by giving clearances to developmental projects.

The latest data provided by the World Wildlife Fund and the Global Tiger Forum (GTF) revealed that the number of wild tigers has gone up globally by 22 per cent to 3,890, from the earlier 2010 estimate of 3200.

As per latest official count, India is home to 2,226 tigers, representing 70 per cent of the global population of the endangered big cat species.