Every year, July 29 is celebrated as International Tiger Day. The main objective of this day is to create awareness about the importance of preserving the tiger population in the world and their natural habitat. Once, the Indian forests were replete with wild tigers, over the years, their population dwindled significantly so much so that they were on the verge of extinction.
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the tiger population worldwide dropped by more than 95% over the last 150 years. This beautiful big cat was threatened due to many reasons like poaching, climate change, increased tourism activities, loss of natural habitat, and spread of diseases among tigers.
However, because of the continuous efforts by various governments to conserve tiger population and their natural habitat, their numbers are on the rise. Currently, the total population of tigers around the world is about 3900 and more than 2900 tigers live in the forests in India.
Since 2022 happens to be the Chinese year of the Tiger, it has been marked as the year when WWF aims to double the number of wild tigers in the world to 6000.
World Tiger Day came into existence in 2010 during the Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit held in Russia to encourage tiger conservation. During the summit, a declaration was issued to save tigers and all the tiger-populated countries in the world vowed to doubt the population of wild tigers by 2022.
Since 2010, every year, many animal welfare-related organisations like WWF, Smithsonian Institute and IFAW, organise many events to celebrate the day and raise awareness to save tigers.
Raise awareness
It is quite sad that many people worldwide have no idea about the threat that the tigers are facing. So, this day presents a great platform for the wildlife enthusiasts, animal welfare foundations to raise awareness of the issue by sharing videos, infographics and other suitable content to get more and more people involved in working for the cause.
Help raise funds for tiger charity
Many international organisations use the World Tiger Day to raise funds from the people to carry on their conservation efforts. If you resonate with the cause, you can donate funds for such charity organisations and encourage your friends and families to donate as well.
Celebrate the tigers and humans bond
Although human actions are responsible for the dwindling tiger population, it is also true that the efforts of wildlife lovers are trying hard to preserve the tigers and their natural habitat. So, the international tiger day gives people an opportunity to celebrate this bond.
India is home to about 80% of the tiger population in the world. And, a lot of credit goes to the tiger reserves in India that play a vital role in preserving the big cats in the forests. Until 2019, there were more than 50 tiger reserves in India. These protected forests ensure that tigers are saved from illegal poaching, and trading activities.
These Tiger reserves also encourage tiger tourism and raise funds for the protection of the forests and the tigers. Some of the popular tiger reserves in India are Nagarjunsagar Srisailam, Kaziranga National Park, Bandhavgarh National Park, Jim Corbett National Park, to name a few.
As the world celebrates International day of tiger, we have compiled some amazing facts about tigers.
