Project Tiger was launched on 1 April 1973 at Corbett with nine reserves. After the 2005 Sariska crisis, a 2006 law created the NTCA. India's tiger estimate ro…
Hunting, the skin trade and forest loss had cut tiger numbers; by July 1970 tiger hunting was banned nationwide.
The first all-India census, using pugmarks, found about 1,827. The Wild Life (Protection) Act passed the same year.
Nine reserves, about 18,278 sq km, chosen to protect whole forests, not just tigers.
The network grew to 23 reserves by 1997, but poaching for skins and bones cut numbers.
Every tiger in Sariska was poached while records still showed them. A Tiger Task Force followed.
A new law created the National Tiger Conservation Authority and a wildlife crime bureau.
Camera traps replaced pugmark counts, which had over-counted. The new baseline: 1,411.
Yes. Tigers were airlifted from Ranthambhore, India's first wild-tiger reintroduction. Panna followed in 2009.
Numbers rose every cycle: 1,706 in 2010, 2,226 in 2014 and 2,967 in 2018.
The 2022 estimate: 3,682, about 75% of the world's wild tigers.
Madhav became the 58th, after two new reserves in late 2024: about 84,488 sq km in all.
166 tigers died in 2025 and 30-35% live outside reserves. A new census began in January 2026.
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