Global Tiger Day… A visit to Valmiki Tiger Reserve
The Global Tiger Day is celebrated annually on July 29 to spread awareness about the need to protect tigers which are an endangered species. Tigers have lost 90% of their natural habitat and their world population is less than 4,000.
On International Tiger Day today, let us spread greater awareness on the importance of protecting tigers and the crucial role they play in preserving the ecosystems in which they live in.
History of Global Tiger Day
The realisation that wild tiger population has dropped by more than 95% since the beginning of the 20th century, led to the creation of Global Tiger Day. The day was marked for the first time in November 2010 at the ‘Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit’ in Russia, which aimed to promote a global system for protecting the natural habitats of the big cats and to raise public awareness and support for tiger conservation issues around the world.
Significance of Global Tiger Day
According to the WWF experts Darren Grover, the world had lost around 97 per cent of wild tigers in the last 100 years. Currently, only 3,000 tigers are left alive compared to around 100,000 Tiger a century ago.
Many international organizations, including the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI), are also involved in the conservation of the wild tigers.
The India success story
India’s tiger population currently stands at 2,967 which is 70 percent of the global tiger population. Till 2014, the tiger population in India was around 1,600.
The increase in the tiger population in India can be attributed to the launch of the tiger conservation programme-Project Tiger-in 1973.
On Tuesday, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar released the Tiger Census report. The minister said, “India is proud of its tiger assets. The country today has 70% of the world’s tiger population. We are ready to work with all the 13 tiger range countries in their actual management of tiger reserves.”