Update: An earlier version of this story quoting news agency PTI erroneously said that the tiger count had doubled since 2014. The error is regretted.

Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi releases All India Tiger Estimation 2018 on #InternationalTigerDay. https://t.co/4y6iemCLzS — ANI (@ANI) 1564373648000

NEW DELHI: India, with around 3,000 tigers, is one of safest habitats for the tigers in world, PM Modi said on Monday as he released the All India Tiger Estimation Report 2018.Lauding the efforts of conservation, PM Modi said, "It was decided in St. Petersburg that target of doubling tiger population would be 2022, we achieved it 4 years in advance."PM Modi said that his government is committed to taking all possible steps and supporting all efforts to protect the tiger.As per the latest census the population of the tiger has increased to 2,967. "In five years, the number of protected areas increased from 692 to over 860, community reserves from 43 to over 100," the PM informed."Today, we can proudly say that with nearly 3,000 tigers, India is one of the world's biggest and most secure habitats," the PM added.Reflecting on the debate between environment and development, the Prime Minister said that a healthy balance between the two is possible."I feel it is possible to strike a healthy balance between — development and environment. In our policies, in our economics, we have to change the conversation about conservation," he said.Divided into four phases, the survey began last winter and is the fourth version of the quadrennial exercise, whose earlier versions were held in 2006, 2010 and 2014.The 2018 census though has been the most technologically intensive wildlife enumeration exercise ever undertaken by the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun — an Environment Ministry-funded body tasked with coordinating the exercise since 2006. For starters, the number of camera traps used for data collection this time around has been around 15,000, up from the nearly 9,000 used 13 years back.While the 2014 census pegged the total number of striped big cats in the country at 2,226, the 2010 census put the figure at 1,706 and the 2006 version at 1,411, indicating that tiger numbers have been on the up.