Source – India Today
News: It is an annual event observed every year on July 29, to raise awareness for tiger conservation and making efforts to save them from going extinct.
Background
- The Global Tiger Day came into existence in 2010 in Russia during the signing of Saint Petersburg declaration by 13 tiger range countries.
- The Heads of the Governments of Tiger Range countries had resolved to double tiger numbers across their global range by 2022 by signing the St. Petersburg declaration on tiger conservation.
- It is estimated that the world had lost around 97 per cent of wild tigers in the last 100 years and currently, only 3,890 tigers are left alive across the world.
Important statistics
- The tiger population in the country has grown from 1,400 in 2014 to 2,967 in 2019.
- Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand has the highest number of 231 big cats in the country.
- Nagarhole and Bandipore reserves in Karnataka have 127 and 126 tigers.
- There are no tigers left in Mizoram’s Dampa, West Bengal’s Buxa and Jharkhand’s Palamau reserves.