Zzzzzzzz. Verum’s crystal ball buzzed. She ran towards it and picked it up. The crystal ball was showing her stripes of yellowish-orange and black. Verum understood it perfectly. Her crystal ball had brought news about tigers from India.
“Mysticals, guess how many tigers India has now?” Verum decided to play a guessing game with her friends.
“100!” Orak guessed. “1500,” Felix said. “2000?” Scorch tried to guess.
“Wrong!” Verum said, “On the occasion of International Tiger Day (celebrated on July 29 every year), the Indian government announced that the country is home to 3,682 tigers now. That’s 75% of the tiger population in the world.”
“No way! That’s wonderful news, Verum!” Felix exclaimed in joy.
“Tigers are counted every four years in the country. The number of tigers increased from 2,967 in 2018 to 3,682 in 2022. Isn’t that awesome?” Verum said with a huge grin on her face.
“It is!” The Mysticals agreed.
“And out of all states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of tigers in the country,” Verum said.
“What is the reason behind this rise in tigers?” Scorch wanted to know.
“It’s all thanks to a special project called Project Tiger,” she added, “Decades ago, the population of tigers in India was dwindling fast. The royal Bengal tiger is the national animal of India. So, in 1973, the Indian government launched Project Tiger to keep the tigers safe. They created tiger reserves (forests) for the animals to thrive. As years went by, the population of tigers started increasing,” Verum said.
“And now 50 years later, we have thousands of tigers in the jungles of India. Kudos to the success of Project Tiger!” Felix said.