International Tiger Day is celebrated every year on 29th July with a motive to spread awareness amongst the people about the extinction number of tigers in the country and the need to conserve their species.
As the figures suggest, there were more than 1 lakh tigers in the whole world in the 1910s. However, with the growing urbanisation and people crossing Jungle boundaries to urbanise the forest, somehow led to a frequent number of deaths for tigers.
Increase in the Tiger Population in the last 10 years
Some reports suggest that the global tiger population has been decreased by a whopping 95% in total since the advent of the 20th Century. In the year 2010, the world tiger population reached to 3200. This was an alarming event, which triggered the countries around the world to take action to conserve the extinction tiger species. In the same year, Russia hosted a summit in St. Petersburg to announce the day of 29th July as World Tiger Day. The event marked the response of people from around the world to enact tiger conservation programmes. The countries that partake the summit, committed to double the global tiger population by the year 2020.
As per World Wildlife Fund (WWF), as of now, the estimated global population of the tiger has reached 3900. Of the total population of tigers, in the whole world, currently, 2967 are in India in different tiger reserves around the nation. Thus, India is home to 70% of world’s total tiger population. If Individually India is to be looked upon, the in the year 2010, India’s tiger population reached 1706, which was recounted in 2014 to have reached 2226 tigers. In 2019, India has 2900+ tigers and it seems that India is really close to accomplishing the commitment of doubling the population of tigers in the country by 2020.
Source: www.jagran.com/
Reasons behind the decreasing Tiger Population
Apart from the urbanisation, illegal hunting wild animals, which is considered as a Macho Sport by many people, has been another major reason for the depletion in the number of tiger’s globally. Parts of Tiger Bodies, Tiger Skins, Bones, Leather are the raw materials for some of the luxurious Industrial products, which was another major reason for the killing of tigers.
Project Tiger
The credit of the increasing number of tiger population in India can be given to the Project Tiger of India. Project Tiger was started in the year 1973 by the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. The decreasing tiger population in the country called for an urgent need for tiger protection. Hence, Project Tiger was started. The project was aimed to preserve the scientific, economic, cultural and ecological values of the number of tigers in India. Around 50 tiger reserves were developed in India under this project.
As a result, India has come up as the greatest country in the world in Conservation of Tiger Species. Apart from India being the Global Tiger Capital, the beautiful state of Uttarakhand has become the Tiger Capital of India. As per various researches, it has been concluded that the state has the most number of tiger population in the world. Every single district of Uttarakhand spread across the Upper Himalayan Region, the central Himalayan & the plains, has had evidence of Tiger Presence in terms of camera tapes, paw marks and many more.
Tigers in India
This is the list which depicts the number of tigers in different places in India:
| Place | 2006 | 2010 | 2014 |
| Uttarakhand | 178 | 227 | 340 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 109 | 118 | 117 |
| Bihar | 10 | 8 | 28 |
| Andra Pradesh and Telangana | 95 | 72 | 68 |
| Chattisgarh | 26 | 26 | 46 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 300 | 257 | 308 |
| Maharashtra | 103 | 169 | 190 |
| Odisha | 45 | 32 | 28 |
| Rajasthan | 32 | 36 | 45 |
| Jharkhand | — | 10 | 3 |
| Karnataka | 290 | 300 | 406 |
| Kerela | 46 | 71 | 136 |
| Tamilnadu | 76 | 163 | 229 |
| Goa | — | — | 5 |
| Assam | 70 | 143 | 167 |
| Aurnachal Pradesh | 14 | — | 28 |
| Mizoram | 6 | 5 | 3 |
| West Bengal | 10 | — | 3 |
| Sundarban | — | 70 | 76 |
| Total | 1411 | 1706 | 2226 |
Source: www.livehindustan.com
Tiger Criminals
Although, the world is getting aware, there are still some people who are untouched with the danger of losing a natural species. In a recent event that happened in the last week of July-2019, people of a Pilibhit, a small village in Uttar Pradesh, 240 km away from Lucknow, a group of villagers had beaten a tigress to death by beating her with bamboo sticks.
The crime of the innocent animal was that she was roaming in her natural habitat in the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, while a villager came across her and she injured the villager. The villager’s outrage had put her life to an end. The post-mortem report suggested that the tigresses, who was around 6 years old, died of the broken ribs and internal injuries. The forest department had registered an FIR against the 31 identified killers from a video that was made with a commentary while the tigress was being beaten to death. However, only 4 have been arrested up until now.
This is happening in a nation, which is being considered as the epitome of the tiger reserve and conservation around the world. According to a report of Economic Times, between 2008 to 2018, around 961 people have been arrested in case of tiger poaching. They are collectively responsible for killing around 384 tigers in the country. Imagine what would have been the count, if the tigers would have not been killed?
Punishment on Tiger Killing
The punishment for killing a wild animal in India is that the accused can be arrested and investigated by the forest officers, followed by hearing before the magistrate. Further, if the accused is proven to be guilty, then they shall be sentenced for an imprisonment of 3 to 7 years along with a penalty, which may from Rs. 10,000/- to rs. 50 lakh.
Source: www.wpsi-india.org
Recent Event
The Prime Minister of India, who is known for his healthy lifestyle, unforeseen political moves and versatile participation in everything, has joined Micheal Grylls, famously known as Bear Grylls. Bear Grylls is the man of the “Man Vs Wild” show of discovery channel who is famous for teaching survival skills to people around the world for over a decade now. On the occasion of “International Tiger Day”, the PM has joined Bear Grylls to spread awareness in India and around the world about forest and wildlife conservation. The show is being shot in the Uttarakhand’s Jim Corbett National Park and it will be broadcasted on Discovery Channel on 12th August 2019 at 9.00 Pm.
Species of Tigers
Currently, the world has already lost 3 species of tigers to extinction. The living tiger species around the world are Siberian Tiger, Bengal Tiger, Indochinese Tiger, Malayan Tiger, Sumatran Tiger. The lost species include Bali Tiger, Caspian Tiger & Javan Tiger. The number of tigers may have been decreasing until the last decade, but it has taken a u-turn and has been increasing at a good pace for the last 10 years.
This proves that human has the ability to destroy as well as conserve nature.
With this article, we all should make a commitment to ourselves to save the
tigers and eradicate any possibility of their extinction.
