Sudarsan Pattnaik Celebrates Milestone of Project Tiger

Puri: Internationally-acclaimed sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik celebrated milestone of India’s Project Tiger with special mural as population of big cats rises to 3167 in the country. In a bid to commemorate Project Tiger’s completion of 50 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the latest tiger census data in Mysuru on Sunday, 9 April.

He announced that as of 2022, India has 3,167 tigers. Census data was last released in 2018, when India had 2,967 tigers. Project Tiger, which was launched in 1973 by the Indira Gandhi government, completed its golden jubilee on 1 April.

In mid-1960s, it was found that the tiger population was on the brink of extinction in India due to hunting and habitat loss. As a result, tiger hunting was banned in 1968. The need for a nationwide act for the protection of wild animals, birds and plants and issues related to ecological and environmental security of the country was realised. The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, came into existence.

After tiger was declared the national animal in 1973, the ambitious ‘Project Tiger’ was launched by then Union tourism minister Dr. Karan Singh at nine prime habitats of the country. From nine, the number of tiger reserves have grown to 54.