International Tiger Day 2020: Why The day is Important And How it Came Into Being

There has been a rapid decline in the number of tigers living in the wild globally in recent years.

India’s favourite and national animal the tiger is facing the threat of going extinct around the world, with the country said to be hosting 70 per cent of the global tiger population. Worldwide there are under 4000 tigers left in the wild and India’s tiger population stands at 2967. On Global Tiger Day or International Tiger Day, which is marked on July 29 every year, we raise awareness about protecting tigers and their habitats.

Tigers have lost 90 per cent of their natural habitat due to many reasons, and International Tiger Day aims to promote a global system by which the natural habitats of tigers can be protected. The day also helps raise public awareness about tiger conservation and encourages people to support it.

International Tiger Day was created during the Tiger Summit that took place in St. Petersburg in Russia in November 2010. The day brought together some 500 representatives of the 13 Tiger Range States, the partner organisations of the World Bank’s Global Tiger Initiative and other important institutions that were working for the conservation of tigers.

There has been a rapid decline in the number of tigers living in the wild globally in recent years, with only 3,200 to 3,500 estimated to be in existence. Raising an alarm, it led to the Tiger Summit being held, where goals were set to establish a global system to preserve and restore tigers in the borders of its historical range and to mobilise world public opinion in favour of tigers.

World Bank’s Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) developed the Global Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP) with the goal to double the number of tigers by 2022, which happens to be the year of the tiger in the Chinese calendar. Range Countries, that is, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Russia, have put together a portfolio of 80 priority activities to reach these goals.