Project Tiger is India’s flagship wildlife conservation program, launched on April 1, 1973, by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at Jim Corbett National Park to save the tiger from extinction. It was prompted by a 1972 census showing only 1,827 tigers remaining. Kailash Sankhala, the project’s first director, played a key role in its scientific planning, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) acted as the global catalyst for the project. Beginning with 9 tiger reserves in 1973, the project has expanded to include 58 reserves as of 2026, covering almost 2.5 percent of the country’s geographical area. Census reports from 2022 showed the presence of more than 3,600 tigers in India, constituting about 75 percent of the world’s wild tigers.
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