How wild tigers are reclaiming areas of their historic range

This Global Tiger Day, tigers—and the rest of us—have reasons to be hopeful. While only inhabiting a fraction of the space they used to occupy (92% of their historic range is now lost), tigers are slowly returning to the areas they once roamed. Together, governments, communities, and NGO’s like WWF, are helping tigers and, by doing so, supporting other wildlife and healthy ecosystems.

Here are a few regions in Asia where tigers are making a return:

Translocating tigers in India

The Terai Arc landscape in northern India, where Rajaji Tiger Reserve is located, is a diverse region home to an incredible array of wildlife, including tigers. However, towns and cities here continue to expand, putting increasing pressure on the natural areas which surround them. Rajaji Tiger Reserve has seen this impact more than most. A growing city, railway line, and highway have sliced through the center of the reserve making it near impossible for tigers to move between the eastern and western regions.

Since 2021, a total of five tigers has been successfully translocated from a nearby tiger reserve to the west of Rajaji Tiger Reserve. The translocation helped boost populations on the western side of the Rajaji. WWF-India supported the Uttarakhand Forest Department, Government of India, in these translocations and continues to support the State Forest Department in monitoring the movements of these tigers. Additionally, WWF-India is working to enhance functional wildlife corridors which will increase connectivity between tigers on each side of the reserve. It's hoped the tiger population will recover here in the years to come.

Returning Tigers to Central Asia

In Kazakhstan, a landmark conservation project returns wild tigers to a country and region where they have been extinct for more than 70 years. In late 2024, two captive Amur tigers were translocated from a tiger reserve in the Netherlands, to a semi-wild enclosure in Kazakhstan’s Ile-Balkhash Nature Reserve. The hope is that, as these tigers reproduce, future generations can return to the wild. This ambitious program led by the Government of Kazakhstan with support from WWF and the United Nations Development Project.

In the future, Kazakhstan plans to reintroduce more wild tigers in this landscape to support genetic diversity and build a healthy and stable population of wild tigers in Central Asia.