All over India, tiger park authorities are engaged in counting their most precious cats. While the final count has not been made public yet, Kaziranga's core area has been researched thoroughly by Aranyak, a Guwahati-based NGO for nature conservation. Through camera trapping Aranyak researchers were able to establish a spectacular tiger density of 32 animals per 100 sq km in the core area. This is the highest density ever officially recorded in Asia.
The previously highest recorded density of tiger was 19.6 tigers per 100 sq km recorded in Corbett Tiger Reserve in northern India. The usual density of tigers varies from 3 to 12 tigers per 100 sq km in different tiger reserves throughout India.
Whether this means that the total tiger count in Kaziranga will be high as well, is yet to be established. As the high density has been recorded for the core area only, where prey density is high and disturbance relatively low, densities may be considerably lower in other parts of the 800 square km park.
At Diphlu River Lodge (run by JTI) we send clients into the park on a daily basis. Our four naturalists have had quite good tiger sightings during the past winter season. On average they saw a tiger in one out of ten jeep drives. Naturalist Bumoni holds the record with 13 sightings. One of these happened after a particularly disappointing 'no-tiger' drive. Just as Bumoni and his guests were about to reach the lodge, a tiger crossed the main road.