India to soon send some tigers to Cambodia as part of a deal between the two countries to help reintroduce tigers into Cambodian forests. India, which has carried out a similar translocation for African cheetahs, is exploring the possibility of tiger translocation to Cambodia.
India and Cambodia recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on biodiversity conservation, with a special focus on tiger reintroduction.
Cambodia’s last sighting of a tiger in the wild was in 2007. In 2016, the country’s conservationists declared that tigers were “functionally extinct” in Cambodia. In 2017, the country decided to reintroduce tigers into its forest again.
India's Project Tiger
India will soon have more than 3,000 tigers, making it the nation with 70% of the world's wild tiger population. Given that the country's tiger population is growing at a 6% annual rate, the number of tigers may also be higher than 3,500.
As part of its plan to protect tigers in the wild, India launched Project Tiger on April 1, 1973. Initially, the project only covered nine tiger reserves. Now, the country has 53 tiger reserves, showing the success of the project.
India will soon mark the completion of 50 years of Project Tiger and will release the latest tiger census data next month.
