From the dire state of tiger population just 16 years ago, India has come a long way in scripting a success story of wildlife conservation.
India’s tiger population has risen over a landmark figure of 3,000, as was revealed by the latest tiger census data. Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the figure during the 50th anniversary commemoration of Project Tiger. From the dire state of tiger population just 16 years ago, India has come a long way in scripting a success story of wildlife conservation.
How India woke up to the problem of depleting tiger population?
When the tiger census 2022 data was revealed on Sunday, the population stood at 3,167. This was a rise of 200 in the last four years. But back in 2008, an alarming report from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had revealed that the number of tigers had dropped by 60 percent in just 10 years. This was a grave situation, with tigers becoming endangered. 1,411 is a number etched in our minds thanks to ‘Save the Tiger’ campaign by a telco featuring cricket star MS Dhoni.
Since then, urgent action has helped the tiger count steadily rise. From 1,411 in 2006, tiger population climbed by nearly 300 to 1,706 in 2010. In the next census in 2014, a massive rise of over 500 took the tiger population to 2,226. Another significant rise of over 500 tigers was revealed by the 2018 census data as the population of the big cat reached 2,967. Growing at a rate of 50 annually in the last 4 years, it now stands at 3,167.
But this was not the first alarm around tigers in India’s history. The first jolt came in the 1970s when India was left with just 2,000 tigers, a far cry from the over 50,000 that reigned over India’s forests a couple of centuries ago. As authorities woke up to the alarm, the tiger conservation framework was strengthened with the launch of ‘Project Tiger’ in 1973. Inda banned hunting and named the Royal Bengal Tiger as the national animal.
Efforts were made on several fronts. Crores of rupees were invested in conservation of tigers. Scientists studied the behaviour of tigers to enable us to offer them more suitable environments to thrive. Vigilance was heightened and major crackdowns were undertaken to tackle organised poaching of the big cat. Entire villages were relocated to minimise human-tiger conflict.
The project started with conservation covering 9 tiger reserves in an area of more than 18,278 sq km. In 2006, there were 28 tiger reserves. Today, the country is home to 53 tiger reserves spread over an area of over 75,000 sq km. This is nearly 2.4 percent of the geographical area of India. Today, India is at the forefront of the global tiger conservation mission. India is home to 70 percent of the tiger population in the world.
The mission ahead
On the occasion of 50 years of 'Project Tiger', PM Modi also launched a trailblazing project called 'International Big Cat Alliance' (IBCA). The project will focus on protection and conservation of seven major big cats of the world - tiger, lion, leopard, puma, jaguar, cheetah and snow leopard. The PM also released a booklet ‘Amrit Kaal Ka Tiger Vision', detailing the tiger conservation vision for the next 25 years.
(Inputs from agencies)
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 "Success story: How India went from 1,411 tigers to 3,167 in 16 years?")
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