The Indian tiger population has increased by 30% since 2014, according to encouraging figures released by the Indian Government on Monday.
The number of wild tigers has risen to 2,967 from 2,226, largely thanks to a nationwide conservation push.
Indian conservationists estimated the new figures could mean India is home to 70% of the global tiger population, in what Prime Minister Narendra Modi described as a "historic achievement."
It would mean India is on-track to honour its promise in the St Petersburg Declaration of 2010 to double its Big Cat population by 2022. As recently as 2010, the number of Indian tigers had plummeted to 1,706.
Studies have identified poaching and heightened human-tiger contact as the major causes of tiger deaths in India.
India’s human population has skyrocketed by 50% in the last 20 years, leading to greater encroachment into tiger habitats to create new homes and farmland. In some cases, tigers found exploring the new human settlements on their old land have been killed.
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To create new safe habitats for the creatures, the government has designated 140 new protected areas since 2014. Community reserves – buffer zones between protected areas so that tigers can migrate and reproduce – have also more than doubled.
Significantly, technology used during the four-year long Indian tiger census was also made available to conservationists: 26,000 cameras were used to take 350,000 photos across 380,000 square kilometres of known tiger habitats, allowing rangers to individually track each tiger and identify poachers.
The Government has taken a harder line on poaching in recent years and those caught on camera are sentenced to seven years in prison.
After initial bureaucratic hurdles, a fund compensating villagers to re-settle in areas away from tigers is up-and-running, while the Government has also introduced stricter laws around tiger tourism. Travellers are no longer allowed to visit breeding sites, which had disturbed newborns and their mothers.
Local governments were also encouraged to implement new policies – for example, nine underpasses were built in Maharashtra state to allow tigers to cross roads safely.
India’s neighbour Nepal also recorded very positive results, with the number of tigers there increasing from 121 in 2010 to 235 today.
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