International Tiger Day

Every year on July 29, we celebrate International Tiger Day to spread awareness about the conservation of tigers. This year, we are celebrating the 13th anniversary of World Tiger Day. This day was established in 2010 at the Saint Peterburg Tiger Summit in Russia. At the summit, 13 tiger range countries (countries where tigers roam freely) came together to discuss the rapid decline in tiger population. The countries that participated in the summit included India, Nepal, Malaysia, Laos, Nepal, China, Bhutan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Russia, Myanmar and Cambodia. The summit decided on the goal to double the tiger population by 2022. This year was chosen because it was the Chinese Year of the Tiger.

Tigers were declared an endangered species in 1986. The tiger population of the world has now reached a stable point. It has increased by 40% in the past 7 years starting from 3,200 in 2015 to 4,500 in 2022. This data has been confirmed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species Assessment presided over by Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization. Even then, tigers remain an endangered species.

To raise the number of tigers in India, Project Tiger was started 50 years ago in 1973. During that period, only 268 tigers were present in India. As of now, India has 3167 tigers. India is also home to 70% of the global tiger population.