St Petersburg, Russia:
In the 1940s Russia's amur tiger population was down to just 30, in 1947 it became the first country to declare the tiger a protected species. Now, the numbers are back to around 400.
It is this story that the world is hoping to repeat as heads of nations and ministers from tiger countries meet in St Petersburg, the aim is to double tiger numbers by the next decade.
Already Russia and China are cooperating to double the number of the amur species that once roamed through north China to Siberia.
"The plans are to relocate tigers from Russia to northern China and establish a matching viable population there. All together I think we can get about 900 amur tigers if we do everything right out of which 700 can live in Russia," said Igor Chestin, CEO, WWF Russia.
The forum is being called the last big push for the tigers but in India many conservationists have questioned what we can learn from the forum as tiger conservation has been a priority in the country for decades now.
"To say we have nothing to learn would be arrogance. In fact, from our neighbours Nepal if you look at revenue sharing with the local communities, Nepal is far ahead. All the park revenue is shared 50-50 - 50 per cent to the park management and 50 per cent to the local communities in the buffer area," said Dr Y Jhala, Scientist, Wildlife Institue of India.
With a tiger recently poisoned by locals in the Sariska reserve and man-animal conflict in areas around Corbett, how local communities can benefit from living with tigers is one area India can certainly improve upon.
While the challenges are many, can the Asian countries work together to bring back healthy tiger numbers. The way Russia managed with the amur, a global push is the need of the hour because if we can't save the tiger that's at the top of the food chain, then what hope is there for other species.
It is this story that the world is hoping to repeat as heads of nations and ministers from tiger countries meet in St Petersburg, the aim is to double tiger numbers by the next decade.
Already Russia and China are cooperating to double the number of the amur species that once roamed through north China to Siberia.
"The plans are to relocate tigers from Russia to northern China and establish a matching viable population there. All together I think we can get about 900 amur tigers if we do everything right out of which 700 can live in Russia," said Igor Chestin, CEO, WWF Russia.
The forum is being called the last big push for the tigers but in India many conservationists have questioned what we can learn from the forum as tiger conservation has been a priority in the country for decades now.
"To say we have nothing to learn would be arrogance. In fact, from our neighbours Nepal if you look at revenue sharing with the local communities, Nepal is far ahead. All the park revenue is shared 50-50 - 50 per cent to the park management and 50 per cent to the local communities in the buffer area," said Dr Y Jhala, Scientist, Wildlife Institue of India.
With a tiger recently poisoned by locals in the Sariska reserve and man-animal conflict in areas around Corbett, how local communities can benefit from living with tigers is one area India can certainly improve upon.
While the challenges are many, can the Asian countries work together to bring back healthy tiger numbers. The way Russia managed with the amur, a global push is the need of the hour because if we can't save the tiger that's at the top of the food chain, then what hope is there for other species.
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