International Tiger Day: Tiger population rises globally

After years of decline, the number of Bengal tigers has seen a slight increase globally.

Officials and experts said it was a result of continuous action and advocacy led by governments, law enforcers, and local communities, which began with the Global Tiger Summit in 2010.

Even though this development appears to be an auspicious one for conservation, the bump in the number of tigers is far below the target of doubling their number by 2022. The target was set by 13 nations at the 2010 summit in Russia.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently said there were 40 percent more tigers in the wild than previously thought with as many as 5,578 around the world. This was due to improved monitoring. The population is thought to be stable or increasing, it said.

The number of tigers in the Sundarbans was 106 in 2015. It increased to 114 in 2018. However, experts believe that there is a tiger habitation in Khagrachhari's Kasalong reserve forest with plentiful foliage and prey for the tigers.

"I recommend that the government take an immediate initiative to assess tiger presence in the area," he said, adding that locals claimed to have sighted tigers.

"Among the 13 nations native to tigers, the numbers have increased in many countries but the target of doubling the population by 2022 is yet to be reached. In Bangladesh, the population of the tiger also increased but it is very poor," M Monirul H Khan, chairman of the zoology department at Jahangirnagar University, told The Daily Star yesterday.

"If the improved protection given to tigers in the Sundarbans remains, the number will increase in the coming days," he said.

The world is observing the International Tiger Day today and Bangladesh has also chalked out some programmes, including rallies, to mark the day.

"During the tourist season, people are sighting tigers in the Sundarbans, which was rare. This indicates that the tiger population is on the rise but the exact number can be found only after completing a survey," Abu Naser Mohsin Hossain, divisional forest officer of the Sundarbans West Division, told The Daily Star yesterday.

"Earlier, around 23 percent area of the Sundarbans was protected but now it has been expanded to 52 percent," he said.

Bangladesh has taken steps to conduct a tiger census in the Sundarbans and reduce human-tiger conflict but the survey is yet to start due to fund shortages, said officials concerned.

Due to this, Bangladesh is likely to be without updated information about tigers in its territory when it joins the second tiger summit on September 5 at Russia's Vladivostock.

There is a possibility of the summit being held virtually or in another country, said officials of the department of forest.

At the summit, countries would submit reports to the Global Tiger Recovery Programme. There, the countries, government bodies, NGOs, and experts are to determine the next phase of the Global Tiger Recovery Plan.

Last month, experts and officials from Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and India held a meeting to prepare a draft of the national tiger recovery programme for each of the countries.

Bangladesh has already updated its National Tiger Recovery Programme (NTRP), effective from 2022 to 2034, with a target to double the tiger population in the Sundarbans.