Releasing an updated report on India’s Tiger Survey from 2018, which put the country’s tiger population at 2,367 — unchanged from the government’s estimate last year — Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar said it was a matter of pride for India that it was a global exemplar in tiger conservation.

“We have 70% of the world’s tigers. We should be proud of the fact that we are leading the world in terms of ensuring that their population increases. This is India’s soft power,” he said at press conference on Tuesday.

Mr. Javadekar also announced that his Ministry was working on a programme to provide water and fodder to animals at the forest itself to deal with the challenge of human-animal conflict that was causing the death of animals. For this, Lidar-based survey technology will be used for the first time. Lidar is a method of measuring distance by illuminating the target with laser light and measuring the reflection with a sensor.

India has 2,967 tigers, a third more than in 2014, according to results of a census made public on July 29 last year. The present survey is a more granular estimate of these numbers.

Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of tigers at 526, closely followed by Karnataka (524) and Uttarakhand (442). Chhattisgarh and Mizoram saw a decline in tiger population and all other States saw a “positive” increase, according to a press statement.