India reports surge in tiger population

The announcement that India is now home to 3,167 tigers, an increase of 200 over the last four years, comes after figures from the latest tiger census were released in a ceremony on 9 April. Yet this is a tale that has been half a century in the making.

The new estimates were delivered in a report marking 50 years since Project Tiger, India’s flagship conservation campaign and the reason behind the current success, was first launched.

At the event, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s leader was reported by the BBC as saying India had "not only saved the tiger" but also given it "a great ecosystem in which to flourish".

But while India undoubtedly takes the plaudits, this is a story the whole world can celebrate. The country is home to an estimated 70% of the planet’s tiger population, and for the 10 million or so visitors it receives each year, many will arrive just to catch a glimpse of this famous big cat.

The impact of Project Tiger

The situation has not always been so positive though.  

When Project Tiger was launched in 1973 by Indira Gandhi, tiger numbers in India had been falling for decades. By the time the country achieved independence in 1947, there were 40,000 tigers left in the wild; just 25 years later, this was down to barely 1,800.

Hunting and poaching were rife. To combat these threats, laws were introduced and strengthened to make the killing or capture of wild animals illegal, and awareness drives were run in rural areas where human-tiger conflict is more common.   

However, at the heart of Project Tiger was the recognition that a wider net needed to be cast. As Indira Ghandi once put it: “The tiger cannot be preserved in isolation. It is at the apex of a large and complex biotope.”

As a result, the network of nine tiger reserves that existed at the launch of the project has since expanded to more than 50, opening up not just space for these big cats to roam, but an entire ecosystem in which they can thrive.

It’s a task that is still ongoing. In places such as Satpura Tiger Reserve, which has increased its tiger numbers from 13 (2010) to 48 (2021) over the past decade, more than 11,000 hectares of grassland was recently rewilded, while the number of prey in the park was boosted through community engagement, increased protection and reintroductions. 

Of course, the influence of tourism has had a positive effect too, with the money from visitors to parks such as Satpura – the only tiger reserve that offers walking safaris – providing the financial support to maintain these conservation areas and the awareness programmes that help keep tiger populations safe.  

The fight continues

The current good news is also tempered with the knowledge that the fight for tiger preservation is far from over.

While numbers are broadly on the rise, especially in central India, where tigers have entered new areas in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, in other parts of the country they have disappeared entirely. And in states such as Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh, for example, numbers are shrinking fast.  

Fifty years on, the plight of India’s tigers is better than it has been for some time. Yet, as their numbers are bolstered, the potential for human-tiger conflict increases and even more care is needed. It is a delicate balancing act. For travellers, however, the chance to glimpse one of the world’s rarest animals in the wild has few drawbacks, and this is one good-news story that you can actually see with your own two eyes.

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