European Union summit to take up tiger population

European Union and India will not just be deliberating on free trade and world food situation at the EU-India Summit next week at Marseille. Issue of India’s dwindling tiger population is also scheduled to be discussed during the summit.

The European Parliament on Wednesday passed a resolution asking both EU and India to renew their efforts in saving wild tigers, whose global population is now limited to mere 2,500. The resolution calls on both Europe and India to strengthen their efforts in dealing with organised wildlife crime networks and issue of protecting forest habitats. Conservationists fear that if present trend in tiger poaching continues, tigers will become extinct by 2025.

India, which used to boast of around 40,000 tigers till beginning of the last century, is now left with a little more than 1,400 tigers in the wild. The latest census on tiger population, which was made public earlier this year shocked not only tiger lovers in the country but animals groups worldwide. According to the report, India is left with only 1,411 tigers in the wild.

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