It is estimated that there are currently 3,900 tigers in the world, of which 2,226 are in India. Countries that attended the Russian Tigers Summit promised to double the population of the big cats until 2022. Nepal can be proud of being the first to keep this promise.
In the early 1990s, around 100,000 tigers were counted worldwide. Nine species lived in 13 countries of Southeast Asia. Three of them have already died out: Java, Balinese and Caspian tigers. Three of the remaining six species are at high risk.
Target for 2022
At the 2010 St. Petersburg Tiger Summit in Russia, all countries such as India, Nepal, Russia and Bhutan, in which the tigers live, pledged to double the number of the animals by 2022.
Nepal succeeded 4 years before the planned date. Nepal reported in September 2018, during the National Conservation Day, that the number of Bengal tigers in their territory had risen from 121 to 235 individuals since 2009. Nepalese experts hope to double their numbers over the next four years.
Bengal tigers were left only 7% of the original territory in national parks in Nepal. Chitwan National Park was declared the first to be accredited under the Conservation Assured Tiger Standards (CAITS) in 2015.
Habitat Decline
People have taken a large part of the tigers’ habitats due to urbanization, when their territories have been converted into fields and building plots. Tigers are hunted like trophies. Poachers are killing them to sell parts of their bodies for traditional Chinese medicine and their fur as home decoration.
According to estimates, there are about 2,500 individuals of wild Bengal tigers worldwide. It is found in isolated areas of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and West Burma. A substantial part, about 1,400, is in the care of India.
The tiger is classified as an endangered species. The Siberian, Bengal, and Indochinese tigers are very endangered.
We will monitor how other countries adhere to the commitment to double the population of endangered cats by 2022.
Source and credit: http://www.trueactivist.com/nepal-has-almost-doubled-its-number-of-wild-tigers-making-them-the-first-country-to-reach-their-pledge-to-protect-this-species-t1/, Ian Lindsay/Pixabay , Sasin Tipchai/Pixabay
