Save The Tiger : Environment for UPSC Exams

• As per World Wildlife Fund and the Global Tiger Forum (GTF) data, the number of wild tigers has gone up globally by 22 per cent to 3,890, from the earlier 2010 estimate of 3200.

• As per WWF, 100 years ago there were 100,000 wild tigers. By 2010, there were as few as 3,200.

• As per latest official count, India is home to 2,226 tigers, representing 70 per cent of the global population of the endangered big cat species.

• Therefore, in 2010, tiger range governments agreed to act to double wild tigers by the next Chinese Year of the Tiger in 2022. This goal is known as Tx2.

• The Government of India has taken a revolutionary initiative for protecting its national animal, the tiger, by launching the ‘Project Tiger’ in 1973.

• Project Tiger is an ongoing 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.