A report released by the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) — Status of Tigers in India-2018 — has revealed that the country currently has 2,967 tigers as compared to 2,226 in 2014. While Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka top the list with 526 and 524 tigers respectively, Maharashtra too has recorded a 40 per cent increase in the count from 190 in 2014 to the current 312.

While the numbers have evoked mixed reactions from conservationists, they feel that an increase in the count also means added responsibility in monitoring and protecting the national animal. The National Tiger Conservation Authority comes out with a tiger census report every four years. The authority had divided India's tiger bearing habitats into five major landscapes — Shivalik Gangetic Plain, Central India and Eastern Ghats, Western Ghats, North Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra Flood Plains and Sundarbans, which included 381,400 km of forested habitats.