India's tiger reserves helped wild tiger numbers more than double since 2006
In 2006 India counted just 1,411 wild tigers, the lowest figure ever recorded. By 2022 the census found 3,682, roughly 70 percent of all the wild tigers on Earth. Much of that recovery rests on a network of protected tiger reserves that began with nine sites in 1973.
Project Tiger launched in 1973 under the Wild Life (Protection) Act of the previous year, run by the national environment ministry to protect the Bengal tiger and its habitat. The original nine reserves covered about 9,115 square kilometres. By the late 1980s there were 15, by 1997 there were 23, and as of March 2025 India had designated 58 tiger reserves spanning roughly 84,500 square kilometres. More than 1,100 tigers were already thought to live inside them by 1984. A dedicated National Tiger Conservation Authority now oversees the network.
Each reserve has two layers. A core zone is kept free of human activity, while a surrounding buffer of forest and farmland allows community development and regulated tourism. Funding comes from the central government, but each state must draw up a Tiger Conservation Plan and staff the reserve to protect tigers, their prey and fellow predators. Wildlife corridors linking reserves let tigers move and interbreed, keeping populations genetically healthy, and the reserves double as research sites for studying behaviour, climate effects and human encroachment.
The count has climbed steadily: 1,706 in 2010, 2,226 in 2014, a jump of 30.5 percent, then 2,967 in 2018 before the 2022 total. Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra lead the country with six reserves each.
The reserves differ enormously. Nagarjunasagar Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh is the largest at more than 3,296 square kilometres, while Orang in Assam covers just 492. Jim Corbett holds both the biggest population, 231 tigers, and the highest density. At the other extreme, surveys recorded no tigers at all in the Dampa, Buxa and Palamau reserves, a reminder that protection on paper does not guarantee animals on the ground.
Source: Tiger reserves of India
