The majestic feline with stripes inherited from his genes has no other equal in the animal kingdom as the real king of the jungle ‘Tiger’ has. With unmatched speed, strength, agility, and the will to dominate his or her area by an unequivocal show of the above qualities, no other animal in the entire ecosystem comes closer even by a whisker to tiger. India, one of those privileged countries blessed with an abundance of natural resources as well as flora & fauna realized the all too importance of this feline variety way back in March 1973 when it made this majestic animal as its ‘National animal’ junking its previous National animal ‘lion’.
With the highest ratio of Tigers abounding in its precincts in the world, India is one of those countries which sets the benchmark for ‘Tiger conservation to include his protection, habitation, upkeep and such associated issues. Realizing the typical ‘Numerouno’ position of this majestic beast in the entire ecosystem, several ‘tiger range’ countries (thirteen to be precise) came together and pledged to double the tiger population by 2022 under the ‘T X2 initiative’ way back in 2010 at ‘St Petersburg tiger summit’ on 29th July primarily to raise awareness about tiger conservation, the threats they face, and the importance of protecting their natural habitat.
It was primarily a heft given by the present Russian president Vladimir Putin who had made it his mission to save the ‘Amur tiger’. He signed laws that imposed significant tough punishments and lengthy prison sentences for the poaching, illegal trade, transportation or storage of tigers in Russia. The ‘Amur tiger center’ is an organization created by the Russian Geographical society on the orders of the present Russian president. This initiative of 13 ‘tiger range countries’ has not been lost on the world body of UN which too harbours a similar thought process backed up by its own myriad programmes in this arena.
As mentioned in numerous of my write ups earlier too, various world bodies have off late incorporated an abiding theme for an important issue or particular event that resonates worldwide and portrays a definite timeline in real terms as to achieving the stated development goals popularly called as SDGs (Sustainable development goals). When it comes to celebrating ‘International Tiger day-2025’, the theme of aligning the twin objectives of ‘worldwide awareness’ and also to ‘conserve’ such a majestic animal in its entirety ‘Harmonious co-existence between humans and tigers’finds its way unambiguously this year.
The very fact that the 13 ‘tiger range countries’ have selected the above mentioned theme for 2025, means that all is not well with the overall conservation efforts that go with this feline animal. Despite the beast overshooting its numbers as envisioned & part of conservation efforts till 2022 , the fact that an equally large numbers of tigers are falling dead or killed wantonly in various parts of the world paints an ambivalent future for this majestic king of the jungle. With India leading the charts in tiger conservation as well as killings of the same, shows the systemic rot in the country’s governance model which has come a big cropper in conservation of the national animal.
At the heart of these killings of tigers in India lie the age old ‘Man –animal conflict’; anarena which we have left unfettered for players like poachers, politicians, big game trophy hunters, inept forest department officials, an increasing pressure on the core & buffer zones of tiger reserves, insufficient interpretation of forest laws, pressure from indigenous (tribal) population on the tiger reserves and the ilk. Way back in 2010, when the ‘TX2 Concept’ took off from the initiative of 13 tiger range countries, the world population of tigers stood gingerly at roughly 3000, astonishingly less than 3% of their sum total of their 1900 population. The latest IUCN (International union for conservation of nature) report puts tiger population between 3726 to 5578 across the Asian& European Continent.
Let us do a country by country check of some of the ‘tiger reserve nations’ to find out the exact spread of these tigers this international tiger’s day to have an air of objectivity.
- India: Home to about 3,682 wild tigers as per the last ‘tiger census’ held in the year 2022, thus accounting to about more than 75% of the global wild tiger population.
- Russia: Approximately 750 Siberian tigers from its far eastern forests.
- Indonesia: The ‘Sumatran tiger’ though critically endangered as per the IUCN report still has about 400 of them rampaging in the forests of Sumatra island and elsewhere in Indonesia.
- Nepal: Home to about 355 plus tigers within their iconic tiger reserves/ national parks.
- Thailand: As on today the country hosts a figure of 179 to 223 wild tigers, a significant jump from its previous records.
- Bhutan: This landlocked country has 151 Royal Bengal tigers in its various forest sanctuaries and thriving too in the high altitude regions.
- Malaysia: The country presently has a total count of about 150 Malayan tigers, with numbers historically on the downward spiral due to a continuous barrage of poaching and allied activities.
Though 29th July 2025 is rung year after year as ‘International Tiger Day’ but with more than 70 % of world wild tiger population in 58 Tiger reserves of India, it is prudent that India be placed as a template for all other 12 Tiger range countries to either shed or emulate bad or good practices respectively that goes to identifying with conserving this majestic beast.
The above though is not an effort to undermine albeit the core ideas as postulated in 2010 St Petersburg ‘World Tiger Summit’ for the readers of this article of mine. It would stand to logic that India being the sole holder of maximum wild tigers in the world should ‘walk the talk’ and lead the tiger range countries for whatever was enshrined in the ‘World Tiger Summit’ at St Petersburg’ in 2010. Towards this end and putting tiger at the center of its national identity by proclaiming the beast as its ‘National animal’ India kick started its much touted ‘Project Tiger’ way back in 1973; which still by global standards is the longest and most successful conservation programme in the world.
Subsequently the NTCA (National Tiger Conservation Authority) was formed as an apex body primarily as a statutory body to ‘Project Tiger’ so that compliance of its directives became legal. NTCA also envisaged fostering of center-state relations in management of tiger reserves, by providing a basis for MOU with states within India’s federal structure. The biggest draw of this body was addressing livelihood interests of local/ tribal population in areas surrounding these tiger reserves. With just more than 10% of Indian population under the arc of tribal areas that include these tiger reserves, is it any wonder that NTCA’s core interests should be revolving around this facet?
The fact that India as on today has 58 Tiger reserves covering nearly 2.3% of its land, up from 9 tiger reserves in 1973 reflects the unflinching resolve in going the whole hog to give a heft to its national animal. The NTCA & WII (Wild life institute of India) coordinate the 4 year tiger census, which counted 3,682 tigers in 2022 up from 1,706 in 2010 and 1,411 in 2006. These gains reflect improved protection, enhanced patrolling (e.g. M-STrIPES technology), conflict management cum mitigation plus prey density management. As if this was not enough the country launched 2 years back in April 2023 it’s much famous IBCA (International Big Cat alliance) funding it with US $ 100 million, to conserve tigers along with lions, leopards, snow leopards and jaguars.
With 11 countries now part of this IBCA, Indian efforts are now at the center of tiger conservation in the world. Since governmental efforts are alone not enough in such a mammoth task, education of locals in the form of ‘Wild scouts initiative’ especially in the terai belt of Uttrakhand and UP teach rural youth and farmers how to avoid encounters and safeguard livestock with measurable reductions in ‘man-animal conflict’ scenario. But not all is rosy on the conservation front of tigers in various states of India.
In Maharashtra alone, in the present year of 2025 seventy five tiger deaths were recorded till date accounting for roughly 30% deaths in India mostly via poaching, electrocution or territorial fights. Simultaneously 22 tiger deaths were recorded in ‘Tadoba –Andhari’ tiger reserve near Nagpur thus highlighting the urgency of co-existence.
In order to touch future goals of ‘tiger conservation’ in a more reliable manner, the present ‘tiger range countries’ numbering 13 have envisaged the following:
- Reach or exceed 5000 wild tigers globally.
- Promote co-existence models as standard in these tiger range countries.
- Terminate illegal trade via intensified maritime and land patrols.
- Expand community monitoring and conflict education programmes.
- Strengthen anti –poaching technology and tech driven habitat planning.
- Advance legal framework and enforcement networks via IBCA, and national statutes.
International tiger day- 2025 stands at a very crucial juncture for the sheer large spectrum of problems afflicting this majestic beast of nature. Though the 13 tiger range countries have been grappling for the last 15 years with gargantuan problems connected with the conservation efforts, the only silver lining in this whole gamut of issues is the constant upward curve of number of tigers increasing as well as thriving in their various habitats spread over continents. But that alone shouldn’t be our saving grace in an otherwise dismal scenario of protecting our national animal from ‘anthropogenic depredations’.
Let this ‘International Tiger Day’ of 2025 be an ‘inflection point’ that surely leads this majestic animal to its truly royal stature. The stature of dominating the ecosystem by virtue of nature’s gifting of some of thefinest qualities on this feline variety of animal kingdom.
(The writer is a retired army officer and a regular scribe of Rising Kashmir. He can be approached on his email—[email protected])
