India's tiger conservation policy, under Project Tiger, has been the most successful programme towards conservation of the big cat, according to a new study.

“Beginning in the early 1970s, conservation initiatives helped establish a large number of tiger reserves, particularly in India, Nepal, and, to a lesser extent, in Thailand, Indonesia, and Russia,” the study said which has been published in the current online edition of the PLoS Biology.

The report mentioned, “Probably the most successful of these, at least initially, was Project Tiger in India, which was launched in 1972 with the political support of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.”

The report identified 42 ‘source sites’ across the Asia that might help in tiger conservation.

“India with 18 ‘source sites’ found special focus as the most important country to undertake tiger conservation in future,” the report authored by Joe Walston, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Asia Programme, and others.

The report is based on studying tiger conservation located at the different parts of the world.

But the report also criticised the policy makers of the few countries. According to report, “Wild tiger numbers are at an historic low. There is no evidence of breeding populations of tigers in Cambodia, China, Vietnam, and DPR Korea.”

The study further revealed that less than 3,500 tigers across the world remain in the forests, while about 1,000 are breeding females. “Current approaches to tiger conservation are not slowing the decline in tiger numbers, which has continued unabated over the last two decades,” the report noted.  

The study identified the loss of the tigers is due to overhunting of both tigers and their prey, and by loss and fragmentation of habitat. “Much of the decline is being driven by the demand for tiger body parts used in traditional medicines,” the report commented.

With 70 percent of the world's wild tigers in just six per cent of their current range, efforts need to focus on securing these sites as the number one priority for the species not," said Walston.

Read the report