India's population of wild tigers, the largest in the world by far, has risen above 3,000. But Indigenous groups warn that preservation efforts are forcing them out of their ancestral land.
In India, the recovery of tiger numbers comes at a priceImage: Varun Thakkar/AP Photo/picture alliance
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced that the country's tiger population has steadily grown to over 3,000.
The census found there were 3,167 tigers in the wild across the country — up from 2,967 four years ago.
"Our family is expanding," Modi said at a ceremony in the southern city of Mysuru. "This is a success not only for India but the entire world."
The country's flagship conservation program, Project Tiger, began in 1973 after a census found India's tigers were rapidly becoming extinct through habitat loss.
"India is a country where protecting nature is part of our culture," Modi said. "This is why we have many unique achievements in wildlife conservation."
Also on Sunday, Modi launched the International Big Cats Alliance that he said would concentrate on the conservation of seven big cat species — the tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, puma, jaguar and cheetah.
But voices in India are increasingly questioning the culture of conservation which they say has focused on preserving wildlife over people and their communities.
How are Indigenous groups affected?
The current model of conservation centers around creating reserves that can function undisturbed by humans. But experts warn that this method often ends up uprooting Indigenous communities that have lived in the now-protected forests for millennia.
The Indian government’s tribal affairs ministry has repeatedly said it is working on Indigenous rights.
But about 1% of the more than 100 million Indigenous peoples have been granted any rights over forest lands so far.
From Rudyard Kipling's 'Jungle Book' to hit Netflix docu-drama 'Tiger King,' the ferocious, majestic and now-threatened tiger has been widely depicted in film, TV and literature.
Image: AP
Adrift at sea
"Life of Pi" is a philosophical novel by Yann Martel that won the 2002 Booker Prize for Literature before a lush big screen adaptation won four Oscars in 2012, including best director for Ang Lee. The surreal survival story sees shipwreck survivors Pi Patel and misnamed Bengal tiger Richard Parker float adrift at sea on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean.
Image: AP
'Tyger tyger shining bright'
This opening line of "The Tyger" by English poet William Blake was part of his "Songs of Experience" collection, and is among the most recognizable in English poetry. It explores Christian religious paradigms, questioning how a God could have created an animal so ferocious as a tiger alongside gentler creatures like lambs. Pictured here is Blake's own writing and illustration.
In Rudyard Kipling's "Jungle Book," Shere Khan is a ferocious Bengal tiger who "hates man with a vengeance [...] because he fears man's gun and man's fire" and the threat to his alpha animal status in the jungle. Seen here is a still from the beloved 1967 animated Disney version where Shere Khan meets Mowgli, the "man cub" who he's determined to expel from his territory.
Image: picture-alliance/Mary Evans Picture Library/Walt Disney
A more congenial kitty
Not all tigers in literature have a bone to pick with man though. In A.A. Milne's beloved "Winnie the Pooh" children's book series, Tigger is Pooh's happy, energetic and sometimes troublemaking tiger friend. Tigger bounces around often to experience joy, sometimes even bouncing on others. He's also known to misspell English words like "ridicarus" for "ridiculous."
Image: Buena Vista/dpa/picture alliance
An imaginary friend
Often cited as the last great newspaper comic, cartoonist Bill Watterson's "Calvin and Hobbes," which ran from 1985 to 1995, follows the adventures of the mischievous boy Calvin and his best friend Hobbes — a tiger that may or may not actually exist. Named after 16th-century theologian John Calvin and 17th-century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes respectively, the strip celebrated imagination.
Image: Courtesy of Heritage Auctions/dpa/picture alliance
'Sandokan' — the tiger of Malaysia
Italian author Emilio Salgari wrote this fictional tale of a 19th-century prince-turned-pirate, first published in 1883. The last of a dynasty of Borneo rulers, Sandokan avenges the murder of his parents by colonialists, and becomes known throughout the South China Sea as the "tiger of Malaysia." But the story and films (such as pictured above) are better known in Europe than in Malaysia.
Image: United Archives/IFTN/picture alliance
Eye of the Tiger
The unmistakable opening riff of the Rocky 3 theme song has become a pop culture staple — especially when accompanying narratives of never-say-die type protagonists. Written and performed by the United States band Survivor, "Eye of the Tiger" has been used as an intro music by conservative US politicians. But the band has demanded that political campaigns cease using the song.
Image: imago stock&people
White tiger
Another Booker Prize winner, "The White Tiger" is a novel by Arvind Adiga. Adapted into a film for Netflix in 2021, it tells the story of Balram Halwai, a poor Indian driver whose street smarts see him break free from serving his rich masters to become a "self-made entrepreneur." A visiting school inspector once called him the "white tiger" while noting his potential, despite his humble origins.
Run by Buddhist monks, the once popular Tiger Temple in Bangkok was open to paying tourists who could pet, feed or take pictures with the tigers for additional fees. Animals rights groups, however, had long alleged animal abuse and trafficking. It was shut down in 2016 after police raided the site and found 40 dead tiger cubs in the temple's kitchen freezer, along with other animal body parts.
Image: Sakchai Lalit/AP Photo/picture alliance
Art for conservation
A detail of the rug "Ode to the Tigers of Bandhavgarh" by Indian-born, London-based artist Raqib Shaw is seen here as part of the "Tomorrow's Tigers" project in 2019. Ten tiger-themed rugs by international artists were put up for sale at Sotheby's auction house in London. It was part of a World Wide Fund for Nature's project to raise funds and awareness to double wild tiger numbers by 2022.
Image: Matt Dunham/AP Photo/picture alliance
'Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness'
If the title of the Netflix series doesn't make you question the legality of the business of big cat breeding in Florida, the shady characters might: Self-styled Joe Exotic breeds tigers for profit, while a "conservationist" tries to shut him down, Carole Baskin who runs Big Cat Rescue. In January 2022, a court upheld Exotic's 21-year sentence for plotting to kill Baskin — and for animal abuse.
Image: Imago/Netflix
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Sharachchandra Lele, of the Bengaluru-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, told the AP news agency the current conservation model is outdated.
"There are already several examples of forests used actively by local communities and tiger numbers have actually increased even while people have benefited in these regions," he said.
Others have said engaging communities is the only sustainable way forward as well.
Human-tiger conflict remains a big challenge in the country of over 1.4 billion people. Tigers or wildlife more generally, increasing in numbers in ever-shrinking spaces, tend to turn to human dominated areas, killing people or livestock for survival.
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Lowest ebb in 2006
India's researchers use camera traps and computer programs to individually identify each animal.
About three-quarters of the world's wild tiger population lives in India. Scientist believe that over 100,000 tigers were living in the wild globally in 1900, but this fell to a record low of 3,200 in 2010.
The fall of tiger population in India tells a similar story — when it gained independence from Britain in 1947, India alone is believed to have had a tiger population of around 40,000. Over subsequent decades, this declined to about 3,700 in 2002 and a record low of 1,411 four years later.
