The tigers in the wild are critically endangered as there are only about 3200 left according to the World Wildlife fund. Only a century ago there were over 100,000 in the wild. If no action is taken, it is possible that tigers could disappear from the wild by the year 2022, just 10 years away. Ironically that is the Chinese calendar year of the tiger. The Chinese demand for tiger bone as a superstitious medicinal remedy is behind much of the tiger poaching that goes on.

In order to address this critical issue, the St. Petersburg International Tiger Forum, that ran through Wednesday of this week, and was hosted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, brought together heads of governments and ministers from the 13 countries that remain home to wild tigers. Attending were representatives of Bangladesh, Russia, Bhutan, China, India, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. These countries are expected to commit to take action to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022.

In Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already approved a law that sets jail terms of up to 12 years for deliberately killing tigers and other endangered animals in the South Asian country. A recent cabinet meeting also agreed to provide reparations to the families of victims killed or maimed by the animals that range between 100,000 taka ($1,415) and 50,000 taka. Each family will get 25,000 taka as compensation if wild animals destroy assets such as houses and crops. The Forests of Sundarbans in Bangladesh which stretch across the border of India currently only have about 400 tigers. There is no room for lip service anymore if we are to save the tigers of the world. Concrete action must be taken immediately.

The Endangered Tiger of the World ~

Tigers are native to much of Asia, from some of the coldest regions to the steamy rainforests of the Indonesian Islands. They are the top predator in every ecosystem they inhabit.

Until the 20th Century there were nine tiger subspecies that probably numbered over 100,000 animals. They included the giant 660-pound, or 300 kilo, Siberian (Pantera tigris altaica) and Caspian (Pantera tigris virgata; now extinct) tigers as well as the relatively small—and now also extinct—200-pound (90 kilo) Balinese tiger. Depending on whether there are any remaining South China tigers—nobody has seen one in years—there are either 5 or 6 tiger subspecies remaining in existence; all are endangered. All tiger subspecies put together currently amount to around 3,200 endangered tigers remaining in the wild.
See A Range Map Of All The Endangered Tiger Species
See Our Latest Update On The Endangered Tiger’s Status

The main reasons tigers are endangered—in most cases cases, critically endangered—are illegal hunting for their pelts, meat and body parts (used in folk medicines) as well as habitat loss that results from logging and other forms of forest destruction.

Fewer than 500 endangered Siberian, or Amur, tigers remain in the wild, all of of them in a small area of coastal Far-Eastern Russia. Although the population has appeared stable until recently, these tigers are threatened by poaching, habitat loss due to logging, road-building and development, as well as by the problem of inbreeding that has resulted from the fact that, before conservation measures were implemented in the 1930′s, the entire population had collapsed to around 40 individuals. Read more about endangered Siberian tigers.

The Bengal tiger (Pantera tigris tigris) is the most numerous of the endangered tiger subspecies, with probably fewer than 2,000 remaining at large in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan.

There are fewer than 500 each of the endangered Malayan tiger (Pantera tigris jacksoni), native to the Malay Peninsula, and the endangered Sumatran tiger (Pantera tigris sumatrae) which is found only on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra.

The Indochinese tiger (Pantera tigris corbetti) of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) probably numbers fewer than 500.

No critically endangered South China tiger (Pantera tigris amoyensis) has been sighted for a number of years, and the species may be extinct.

Along with the Balinese tiger, formerly found on the Indonesian Island of Bali and known to be extinct since the 1930′s, the Javan tiger (Pantera tigris sondaica), another Indonesia Island species, was also hunted to extinction, with the last one spotted in 1979.

The Caspian tiger—a huge, cold-climate species similar to the Siberian tiger, which once roamed the vast mountains of western Asia—has been extinct since the 1950′s.

Populations of all endangered tiger species continue to decline.
Source ~ All about Wildlife