Tiger population bounding back as Indian conservation changes stripes

Tiger parenting: A mother and her five cubs. Photo / Siddharth Singh via Parveen Kaswan, Indian Forestry Service

An Indian Forest Service officer recently happened across this magical moment of a "tiger mum" walking her five cubs through Dudhwa National Park.

Siddharth Singh took the family of striped cats to be a sign that conservation efforts were visibly turning a corner. The Indian government recently released its tiger census numbers indicating that the species had increased by 33 per cent since 2014.

After dipping to a low of just 1400 wild cats the population was recorded as 2977 in last year's census.

This makes the photo only more poignant.The family represents 0.2 per cent of the world's wild Bengal tiger population. In 2010 the ICUN Red List still assessed the wild Bengal tiger population as "decreasing".

However, with the success of the breeding programme it is hoped the tigers could soon outgrow their endangered conservation classification.

Singh's colleague at the Indian Forest Service, Parveen Kaswan, shared the image to his popular Twitter feed where it quickly attained viral popularity.

Since last Monday the tweet has gained 16000 likes and 4000 retweets, with Twitter users calling it "the most positive image I've seen in a while".

Singh was pleased to have his photo and the park's work seen by so many, calling it "the very purpose of conservation photography."

The Indian government has taken tiger conservation to heart as a project of special interest for the country.

When the latest tiger census numbers were released last year Indian PM Narendra Modi told reporters "With around 3,000 tigers, India has emerged as of one of the biggest and safest habitats for them in world."

Like a Kipling "Just So" story, Modi suggested the conservation programme was a sign that the country could change its stripes when it came to animal conservation:

"I just want to tell the people associated with this work that the story which started with Ek Tha Tiger [There Once Was a Tiger] and reach Tiger Zinda Hai [The Tiger is Alive] should not stop there. This will not work. The work towards tiger conservation has to be expanded and sped up."