India has 1,706 tigers in the wild, marking an increase of 295 in the big cat's numbers, says the tiger census released on Monday. But Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh called the findings a mixed bag as tiger occupancy area has shrunk by nearly 22 per cent due to poaching and development.

The Sundarbans mangrove forests have been included in the census for the first time, with 70 tigers in the area. The rest of the country now has 1,636 tigers, marking an increase of 12 per cent over the 2006 figure of 1,411 tigers.