Facts about the International Tiger Day

The Big cats need your helping hand!

Wednesday, 29th July 2020

On the 29th of July each year the International Tiger Day is observed to remind the nation and the world of the need to preserve and protect tigers which are gradually becoming extinct. Nearly 90% of the natural habitat of tigers has disappeared overtime and the world population of tigers is now below 4,000. Once it was realized that the ‘Big Cats’ may become extinct any moment with their population dropping to over 95% since the start of the twentieth century, a special day was created to honor the Tiger population and spread awareness regarding their protection…that’s how the International Tiger Day came into being!

This special day was marked in the November of 2010 for the first time at the renowned 'Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit' held in Russia. The summit aimed at promoting a global protection system for the natural shelters of the tigers and to spread awareness among people and offer support for issues related to tiger conservation across the globe.

International Tiger Day is celebrated pompously in India as our country boasts of having nearly 75% of the total tiger population of the world. Year 2020 marks the 10th International Tiger Day.

Passionate wildlife enthusiasts and many Union Ministers took to Twitter to share many interesting facts related to the day.

“15 months, survey of 3, 81,400 sq km of forest area and 5, 93,882 man days…,” the video said. “Project Tiger was launched in 1973 with just nine tiger reserves. Today, India has 50 reserves with 2,967 tigers,” tweeted Mr. Prakash Javadekar; the Environment Minister. Mr. Javadekar also posted a video to showcase the immense success that has been achieved in the direction of tiger conservation.

Source: Times of India