Tigers were declared a protected species in the 1970s when their population in India had dwindled to a dangerous 1,800.
Project Tiger, launched in 1973, has been a remarkable conservation success, boosting the tiger population to over 3,600 by 2023. Initially, it began as a centrally sponsored scheme covering nine reserves across Assam, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Bengal, spanning 14,000 sq km. Over time, the project has grown to include 58 tiger reserves, covering more than 84,487 sq km across 18 states, accounting for nearly 2.5% of India’s total geographical area.
Corbett National Park, home to the largest population of these tigers, was established in 1936 with the help of Jim Corbett. Originally called Hailey's Park, it was renamed in his honor in 1957.
The Amrabad Tiger Reserve in Telangana, which once had only three tigers, now boasts a thriving population of 36. Central to this remarkable recovery is a tigress named Farah, also known as F6. Since giving birth to two cubs in 2019, Farah has established herself as the matriarch of the reserve. She has given birth four times, with her latest litter in 2025 adding three more cubs to the population. Farah was named after Farahabad, where she was primarily spotted, an area that was once the hunting ground of the Hyderabad Nizam.
Tiger count has more than doubled in the last twenty years.