Why in news? To mark 50 years of Project Tiger, India’s flagship project to conserve and increase its tiger population, the environment ministry will announce tiger estimation numbers for 2022.

Highlights:

• The event also mark the release of commemorative coin of 50, and put out a document on evaluating effective management of tiger reserves and a vision document for tiger conservation.
• The commemoration event will take place in Mysuru and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release the latest tiger population numbers.
• India is only country that has conducted periodic assessments of tiger reserves.
• All tiger range country ministers are invited to participate on the occasion with important national and international NGOs and scientists.

About Project Tiger

• Project Tiger is a tiger conservation programme launched in November 1973 by the Government of India during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s tenure.
• The project was launched on April 1 at Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand.
• The area covered by the project has grown manifold since its launch. The initial coverage included nine tiger reserves spread over 18,278 sq km.
• At present , there are 53 tiger reserves over more than 75,000 sq km, or approximately 2.4% of the country’s geographical area, of tiger habitats under the project.
• The project aims at ensuring a viable population of the Bengal tiger in its natural habitats, protecting it from extinction, and preserving areas of biological importance as a natural heritage that represent the diversity of ecosystems across the tiger’s range in the country.
• In a testimony to the success of Project Tiger, in 2022, 54th tiger reserve in India was declared in Ranipur Wildlife Sanctuary, Uttar Pradesh, being the State’s fourth tiger reserve.
• The monitoring system M-STrIPES was developed to assist patrol and protect tiger habitats.
• Project Tiger was administered by the National Tiger Conservation Authority.

Tiger reserves in India

• India harbours more than 70% of the global wild tiger population, which is increasing at an annual rate of 6%.
• India doubled the wild tiger population in about 12 years, and much before the targeted year of 2022 as per the international St. Petersburg Declaration
• The tiger reserves are repositories for biodiversity conservation in the country. These ensure regional water security and carbon sequestration and thus contribute in accomplishing India’s climate change mitigation targets.