Over five decades, the government project has been successful, since from only 1,411 tigers in 2006, the population of these animals in India increased to 3,682 in 2022, official sources stressed.
Thus India became home to almost 75 percent of the world’s wild tigers. The country currently has 57 tiger reserves, covering approximately 83,000 square kilometers (km²) of forest.
Tamil Nadu alone is home to five reserves housing 306 tigers.
A major milestone came when India achieved its goal of doubling the number of these animals four years ahead of schedule in the St. Petersburg Declaration on Tiger Conservation, the Newsonair radio news service noted.
In 2023, the government established the International Big Cat Alliance, which resulted in added support for Project Tiger, in conjunction with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTAA), an agency of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
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