Here are answers to some
frequently asked questions on tigers, International Tiger Day.
July 29 is celebrated
across the world as International
Tiger Day to raise awareness about the dwindling number of striped cats,
who are on the brink of extinction, and to encourage tiger conservation.
International Tiger Day was created in 2010 at Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit in
Russia. In the summit, governments of tiger-populated countries vowed to double
tiger population by 2022. Almost a decade has passed since then. Here are
answers to some frequently asked questions on tigers, International Tiger Day
and facts on the big cats.
Tiger population rising at
6% every year in India
Union Minister for
Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar, on Tuesday released
the detailed Status of Tigers Report 2018. According to the report, released on
the eve of Global
Tiger Day, tigers were observed to be increasing at a rate of 6 per cent
per annum in India from 2006 to 2018.
“There were nine tiger
reserves when Project Tiger started in 1973. Now, India has 50 tiger reserves.
Seventy per cent of the world’s tigers are in India and the conservation effort
has been a huge success," said Javadekar.
How many tigers are left in
the world?
Around 3,900 tigers remain
in the wild across the globe, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Since the
beginning of the 20th century, over 95% of the world's tiger population is
lost. A WWF report says that about a 100 years ago, there may have been over
100,000 tigers that roam in the planet.
Why are tigers important?
Since the tiger is an
“umbrella species”, its conservation enables the conservation of their entire
ecosystems. Several studies have shown that Tiger reserves harbour new species,
which are found practically every year. Tiger reserves have also improved the
water regimes in regions where they are located, improving groundwater tables
and other water bodies, thus contributing favourably to the climate.
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