In 2023, India celebrated 50 glorious years of Project Tiger. When the nation became independent in 1947, the tiger count in the country was estimated to be between 40,000 – 50,000. But, when the first official tiger census took place in 1972, the results were appalling – the animal was tethering on the brink of extinction with an abysmal count of less than 2000. The first all-India tiger census figure via pugmark tracking identification, the traditional method used at the time, put the number at 1827.
