Tiger Summit 2010 at St. Petersburg

The Tiger summit 2010 at St. Petersburg, Russia, the first ever global tiger summit to save the tigers from extinction, from 21 November 2010 till 24 November 2010. The thirteen tiger-range countries namely India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and host Russia participated in the tiger summit. Besides these nations many international organisation on Tiger also participated. The nations and the organisations together endorsed a plan known as Global Tiger Recovery Programme to increase the number of wild tigers by double by the year 2022. Leonardo Dicaprio, the lead actor of titanic movie, donated 1 million US dollars to WWF (World Wildlife Fund) to support tiger conservation during his participation in the Tiger summit. The tiger summit at St. Petersburg was co-hosted by the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the World Bank President Robert Zoellick. The Tiger summit was the result of the efforts put by Global Tiger Initiative.

At present, the estimated number of tigers in the wild is 3200, which is at its lowest level. This means that the tigers are on the verge of extinction.
The number of tigers in the 20th century has decreased from 100000 to 3200. In the last decade alone, tiger numbers declined to 40 percent because of poaching, illegal wildlife trade, habitat loss and human tiger conflict.

Tiger, as a top predator, is important for the proper functioning of the ecosystem. The rate at which the number of tigers is decreasing can result into the loss of biological diversity throughout the entire Asiatic region.

Important Information
•The Hua Hin declaration on Tiger Conservation was issued at the First Asian Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation, in Hua Hin, Thailand on 29 January 2010.
•India has half of the world’ tiger population. At present, the number of tigers in India stands at 1411 according to the latest tiger census report released on 12 February 2010, by the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
•Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) is an alliance of governments, civil society, international organizations, international agencies and the private sector to save wild tigers from extinction.