International Tiger Day 2020- Headcount, India Status and Other Key Facts

Business Standard International Tiger Day 2020: Headcount, India status and other key facts

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.