Bringing Back The Tiger

Just over a decade ago, leaders of all 13 tiger range countries came together in a bold and inspiring pledge to save this iconic big cat. Their pledge? To double tiger populations by 2022, the next Chinese Year of the Tiger. So, with seven months to go, who is on track to deliver?

- Katie Stacey

The sun was getting low over Bardia National Park, Nepal. As wildlife photographer Emmanuel Rondeau and his guide made their way back to camp, they spotted a group of chital deer not far from the park’s border. Huddling tightly and casting furtive glances towards the undergrowth, the deer’s behaviour suggested they were not alone. But it was impossible to identify any potential threat in the metre-high grass.

The guide pulled up next to a tree and began to climb. Emmanuel followed. Suddenly, the guide stopped in his tracks, and uttered the one word Emmanuel had hoped to hear since he’d started his quest five years previously: “Tiger!”

It took a moment for Emmanuel to spot his quarry, perfectly camouflaged among grasses burnt yellow by the sun. It was his first wild encounter with a tiger after documenting the big cat, first in Russia, then Bhutan and now Nepal. As if that wasn’t enough, the guide then spotted a second tiger, lying quietly in a closer patch of vegetation. Emmanuel was incredibly lucky. After decades of uncontrolled persecution and relentless habitat destruction, wild tiger populations have declined by more than 95 per cent – from an estimated 100,000 to as few as 3,200 12 years ago.

With the species this far gone, it has become clear that saving tigers from extinction will only be achieved through global co-operation. And so, in 2010, leaders from 13 tiger range countries came together in St Petersburg for the first International Tiger Conservation Forum. There, they endorsed a Global Tiger Recovery Programme (GTRP) and made an unprecedented pledge: to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022, the next Chinese Year of the Tiger.