International Tiger Day – July 29

International Tiger Day is an annual observance that aims to raise awareness about tiger conservation. This day is observed annually on the 29th of July. It is also known as Global Tiger Day.

When did it start?

The decision to observe International Tiger Day was made in the year 2010 at the Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit. The day was created to promote a global system to protect the natural habitats of tigers and to raise awareness and support for tiger conservation issues.

Need for this awareness day

At the time when this day was founded, wild tigers were too close to extinction. It was thus important to drive worldwide attention to the need of conservation of tigers so as to prevent them from extinction.

Pledge by Animal Welfare Organisations

In 2010, when the International Tiger Day was founded several animal welfare organisations pledged to help tigers to save them from extinction. The day aims to promote the protection and expansion of tigers’ natural habitats. For this several organisations work to raise funds that could be used in the conservation of tigers’ habitats. Several Projects are running in India as well as in different parts of the world to conserve the wild cats of the forest. One such project is Project Tiger.

Population of tigers over the years

Project Tiger: How India has kept its tigers alive?

India has made a lot of efforts for tiger conservation in the country. Bittu Sahgal, who is an environmental activist and writer and also the founder-editor of Sanctuary Asia (India’s leading wildlife and ecology magazine) says, “Had it not been for Project Tiger, the tiger would have been the first large mammal on earth to have disappeared,”. Sahgal is also a member of the National Board for Wildlife of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

He said it right. While there was a time when the world has seen about 1,00,000 wild tigers, only about 3,200 tigers were left in the world in the year 2010. The surviving wild cats could be classified in 6 species and a majority of them belonged to the species Panthera tigris, more popularly known as the Bengal tiger, which are found in India. With the Project Tiger, India succeeded in conserving several of them and for the first time in many years, their number is increasing.

Recent stats

As per the latest stats by experts, the number of wild tigers is on the rise. We now have around 3,890 tigers in the world. The credit to this increasing number goes to the enhanced conservation of this species that have resulted in the rising tiger populations in countries like India, Russia, Nepal and Bhutan.

Goal for the year 2022

When the International Tiger Day was created in 2010, they had set a goal to double the population of tigers by the year 2022. And now that we have some 3,890 tigers, the progress is visible.

Ginette Hemley, the Senior Vice President of Wildlife Conservation at WWF told that World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is determined to save one of the world’s most endangered and iconic species – tigers. He said, “Together with governments, local communities, philanthropists, and other NGOs, we’ve begun to reverse the trend in the century-long decline of tigers. But much more work and investment is needed if we are to reach our goal of doubling wild tiger numbers by 2022.”

Let’s raise awareness about the protection of the natural habitats of this iconic species so as to help their population rise in the coming years. And activities such as hunting and poaching are a big NOooooo… Hopefully tiger reserves such as the Ranthambore National Park, 168km from Jaipur will help in the achievement of the 2022 goal for tiger conservation.

Happy International Tigers’ Day 2016! Save Tigers!