By 1972, India had almost lost every single tiger. This is how it turned around.
In the early 1900s, India's forests are absolutely full of tigers. Something like 40,000 of them roaming free. Then over the next several decades, that number has been fallen down.
Maharajas turned tiger hunting into a flex. And the Britishers started calling tigers "vermin" and paying people bounty money to shoot them. Between 1875 and 1925 alone, an estimated 80,000 tigers were killed.
By 1972, someone finally did a proper count. And The number finally came out was 1,827.
Only 1,827 tigers left in entire country. The animal that once seemed impossible to lose was suddenly got close to extinct
Something had to change
In that same year, on 21 August 1972, the government passed the Wildlife Protection Act hunting a tiger stopped being a sport and became a crime. A year later Indira Gandhi launched Project Tiger, and It started small, just 9 reserves, places like Corbett, Manas, Palamau, Similipal. Ranthambore, Kanha, Melghat, Bandipur and Sundarban. India started with these 9 tiger reserves across 14,000sq km.
And Today there are over 50 tiger reserves spanning 75,000+ sq km. The population that once bottomed out at 1,827 has climbed back to 3,600+ as of the last count. India now holds roughly 75% of all wild tigers left on the planet.
It's easy to forget how close we came to losing them completely.
One law. One decision. One species pulled back from the edge.
So the next time you see a tiger in the wild, don’t just admire it, remember that this story could have ended differently.
Thankfully, it didn't.