India’s Tiger Population Doubled in 12 Years Thanks to Conservation Efforts

The tiger population in India doubled between 2010 and 2022 — from 1,706 tigers to approximately 3,682 — through conservation efforts focused on protecting them from habitat loss and poaching; making sure they have enough prey; increasing community living standards close to tiger areas; and reducing human-wildlife conflict, a new study has found.

India is now home to approximately 75 percent of the world’s tiger population, according to estimates from the National Tiger Conservation Authority, as The Associated Press reported.

“Recovery of large yet ecologically important carnivores poses a formidable global challenge. Tiger (Panthera tigris) recovery in India, the world’s most populated region, offers a distinct opportunity to evaluate the socio-ecological drivers of megafauna recovery,” the authors of the study wrote. “Tiger occupancy increased by 30% (at 2929 square kilometers per year) over the past two decades, leading to the largest global population occupying ~138,200 square kilometers. Tigers persistently occupied human-free, prey-rich protected areas (35,255 square kilometers) but also colonized proximal connected habitats that were shared with ~60 million people.”

The researchers found that some communities located near tiger habitats have benefited from an increase in tigers due to the foot traffic and revenue generated by ecotourism.

The study, “Tiger recovery amid people and poverty,” published in the journal Science, said India’s success shows that conservation can benefit biodiversity as well as local communities.

This tigress has reclaimed the ancient fort within Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve and made it her home. Protection, prey, peace, and prosperity have been key factors in the tiger recovery within India, according to a new Science study. Learn more in this week's issue: https://scim.ag/42yn5Ra

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— Science Magazine (@science.org) January 30, 2025 at 2:05 PM

“The common belief is that human densities preclude an increase in tiger populations,” said lead author of the study Yadvendradev Jhala, a senior scientist with the Bengaluru-based Indian National Academy of Sciences, as reported by The Associated Press. “What the research shows is that it’s not the human density, but the attitude of people, which matters more.”

Ecologists and wildlife conservationists said India’s tigers and other wildlife would benefit from source data being made available to a bigger group of scientists. Indian government-supported institutions collected the data for the study.

According to ecologist Arjun Gopalaswamy, who is an expert in wildlife population estimation, estimates from the official tiger monitoring program in India have been “contradictory” and “chaotic.” Gopalaswamy said some of the study’s figures are much higher than earlier estimates of tiger distribution taken from the same datasets. However, he said the findings seemed to have corrected an anomaly related to the size of the tiger population and their geographic spread that had been repeatedly flagged by scientists since 2011.

The researchers found that tigers had disappeared in some places not in close proximity to protected areas like wildlife sanctuaries or national parks. Tigers had also vanished in forested areas with increased human use and more frequent armed conflicts, as well as in areas that had become more urbanized.

“Without community support and participation and community benefits, conservation is not possible in our country,” Jhala said.

Ravi Chellam, a wildlife biologist who was not part of the study, pointed out that, though tiger conservation efforts were encouraging, protections needed to be extended to additional species in order to better maintain the whole ecosystem.

“There are several species, including the great Indian bustard and caracal which are all on the edge,” Chellam said, as The Associated Press reported.

Tigers roam across roughly 53,359 square miles of India, about the size of New York state. However, only 25 percent of that area is protected and has plentiful prey, with 45 percent of the big cats’ habitat shared with approximately 60 million people.

“Habitat loss, prey depletion, conflict with humans, and illegal demand for their body parts, combined with low densities and large space requirements for viable population, have driven large carnivores to numbers at which many have lost their functional role and some are on the brink of extinction,” the authors wrote in the study. “Tiger absence and extinction were characterized by armed conflict, poverty, and extensive land-use changes. Sparing land for tigers enabled land sharing, provided that socioeconomic prosperity and political stability prevailed. India’s tiger recovery offers cautious optimism for megafauna recovery, particularly in the Global South.”