Context
Global Tiger Day is celebrated every year on July 29th as a way to raise awareness about this magnificent but endangered big cat.
Background
- The day was created in 2010 at the Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit.
Protection Status
- Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule I
- IUCN Red List: Endangered
- CITES: Appendix I
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- The Heads of the Governments of Tiger Range countries at St. Petersburg, Russia, had resolved to double tiger numbers across their global range by 2022.
- The countries thereby signed the Petersburg declaration on tiger conservation.
- It was also decided to celebrate July 29 as Global Tiger Day across the world.
- India’s fulfilment of its resolve to double tiger numbers, four years in advance to the target year of 2022.
- India now has nearly 70% of the global tiger population.
About Project Tiger
- Aims at conserving India’s national animal i.e. Tiger.
- Launched in
- The tiger reserves are constituted on a core/buffer strategy.
- The core areas have the legal status of a national park or a sanctuary, whereas the buffer or peripheral areas are a mix of forest and non-forest land, managed as a multiple use area.
- The Project Tiger aims to foster an exclusive tiger agenda in the core areas of tiger reserves, with an inclusive people oriented agenda in the buffer.
- It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change providing central assistance to the tiger States for tiger conservation in designated tiger reserves.
- The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is a statutory body of the Ministry, with an overarching supervisory / coordination role, performing functions as provided in the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
Present status
- India is the land of royal tigers and the current tiger population stands at 2967 which is 70% of the global tiger population.
- Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of tigers at 526, closely followed by Karnataka (524) and Uttarakhand (442).
- The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has launched the M-STrIPES (Monitoring System for Tigers – Intensive Protection and Ecological Status), a mobile monitoring system for forest guards.
- The Project Tiger, launched way back in 1973, has grown to more than 50 reserves amounting to almost 2.2% of the country’s geographical area.
