• The centrality of tiger agenda is an ecological necessity for the sustainability of our environment. At the St. Petersburg Tiger Summit in 2010, leaders of 13 tiger range countries resolved to double its number in the wild, with a popular slogan ‘T X 2’ but their goal seems nowhere in sight.

Some goals have been achieved :-

• Countries like India, Nepal and Russia have shown that tiger recovery is possible, despite challenges in poaching, funding and sustaining community livelihoods, which can be overcome with strong political commitment.
• India is among the tiger range countries that have registered an increase in the number of tigers in the wild. 
• Tiger monitoring is being implemented in 87 percent of sites. All sites surveyed in South Asian and East Asian countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Russia have management plans.

St.Petersberg declaration failed to ensure goals of tiger conservation:-

• The global status of tiger continues to be a concern.
  • Countries are still a long way from achieving the ambitious target set in 2010 of doubling the global tiger numbers by 2022.
  • Over one-third of tiger conservation sites in the world are severely at risk of losing their wild tigers , the majority of which are in Southeast Asia.
  • Many of these areas lack basic plans for effective management, with over 60 per cent of the sites facing several limitations in anti-poaching, according to the Conservation Assured Tiger Standards (CATS) survey of tiger sites done in 2018.
  • All the range countries face the challenge to balance the interests of conservation and development.
    • Four categories emerge in the context of tiger presence and status across the range countries:
    • forest with no tiger or prey, forest with few tigers and abnormal sex-ratio, empty forests, and impoverished land mass devoid of forest with habitat values.
  • There is little convergence and conversation.
    • It is has been founded that in the last century 97% of all wild tigers had disappeared, with only around 3,000 left alive. Tigers are on the brink of extinction.
    • Many factors have caused their numbers to fall, including habitat loss, hunting and poaching, climate change.
  • The age-old concept of GDP continues to dominate with negligible green accounting.
  • Carbon trading hardly has kick-started in tiger range countries, where it is required most.
  • The limitations of Environmental Kuznet curve, has not fostered advancement of green development with less polluting technology to save tiger forests.
  • Over the past few years, instances of tigers travelling hundreds of kilometres looking for territory have come to the fore.
  • Lack of manpower:-
    • There is a 29% frontline staff vacancy against sanctioned posts in the tiger reserves of India.
  • Due to lack of centralised data across tiger range countries, it is difficult to enforce laws.
  • Only 12.5 percent of the tiger conservation areas meet the globally agreed upon science-based standards.

Way forward:

• There is a need for country-specific differentiated approaches where there is high demand for tiger parts as well as countries which are home to tiger populations. 
• Effective management is thus the single most important action. To achieve this, long-term investment in tiger conservation areas is absolutely essential, and this is a responsibility that must be led by tiger range governments
• International engagements between border countries are important to address the threat of trafficking.
  • The momentum generated through national actions and global support must sustain in the face of economic growth agenda of the tiger range countries.
• A citizen’s charter is needed for green development within sustainable tiger landscapes.
• Better funding necessary:-
  • Low investment from governments in Southeast Asia was stated as one reason for the lack of management of these supposedly ‘protected areas
• Effective tiger management is impossible unless there are enough skilled personnel to do all the jobs required: stopping poaching, managing community relations, keeping visitors safe and ensuring safe havens for tigers and other wildlife.
• Better functional connectivity:-
  • National Tiger Conservation Authority and Wildlife Institute of India delineated the minimal tiger habitat corridors connecting tiger reserves for implementing landscape scale tiger conservation.
  • As a result all tiger reserves in India manage their tiger population based on a tiger conservation plan, which address specific prescriptions for core, buffer, and corridor habitats.