Key Drivers of Tiger Extinction in India

The research highlights a paradox: Economic prosperity can aid recovery when on-consumptive use of ecosystems like tourism, but it also fuels urbanisation and intensive land-use change, which suppress tiger numbers. 

“Tiger recovery is constrained at opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, by intensive urbanisation and by poverty,” the authors wrote.

The study stresses the importance of legislative protections such as the Wildlife Protection Act and the declaration of protected areas, calling them the “cornerstone of tiger recovery”. Weakening these safeguards, the authors warn, would have “far-reaching ramifications” for tiger conservation and biodiversity.

They recommend targeted biodiversity recovery in poor districts, which could restore tiger populations across 10,000 sq km. Achieving this, they argue, requires investment in social development, with governments, civil society and scientific institutions ensuring benefits are shared with local communities.

Revenue-sharing models already used in some tiger reserves, where a portion of tourism income is directed to nearby communities, could provide a “win–win” strategy for both people and wildlife.

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