International Tiger Day 2022: World has more big cats in captivity than in wild
International Tiger Day is celebrated globally on July 29 to raise awareness and a sense of responsibility among individuals, communities and governments to protect and preserve the tiger, whose population is fast diminishing from Earth.
UN took to Twitter on the occasion and said: “In the last century, the global tiger population has declined by 95 per cent, in part, due to trafficking. Today, there are more tigers in captivity than in the wild.”
As per the organisation, a good number of tigers are believed to be held captive in breeding facilities throughout Asia.
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The International Tiger Day was introduced in 2010 after it was discovered that 97 per cent of tigers had disappeared in the past century.
The species have been classified under the ‘endangered’ category.
As per the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the South China Tiger is believed to have gone extinct.
WWF estimates the global number of tigers in the wild to be around 3,900. The organisation is working since 2010 to double the number of wild tigers to over 6,000 by 2022- the Lunar year of the Tiger.
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According to WWF, India has the largest number of wild tigers.
It says that more than 8,000 tigers are being held captive in tiger “farms” and breeding centres across the world, with roughly three-quarters of them being in China itself.
The organisation informs that since the beginning of the 20th century, the number of wild tigers dropped by more than 95 per cent.
As per the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), 134 tigers in Maharashtra have died since 2017, of which 17 died in 2022 and 40 died in 2021.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin tweeted on Friday: “Tamil Nadu is home to nearly 10 per cent of India’s tiger population with 264 tigers as per NTCA.”
India is home to 70 percent of the world’s tiger population.
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With 524 tigers, Karnataka has the second highest population of big cats in India.