Under the agreement of Human Environment Conference 1972 (Stockholm) the Project
Tiger was launched with the help of the World Wildlife Forum (wwf) in 1973. At
present, there are 48 tiger reserves in India.The tiger population in India stood at 2,226
in 2014
The last four tiger reserves have been announced in 2011. They are – Philibhit (UP),
Sahyadri (Maharashtra), Ratapani (Madhya Pradesh) and Sunbeda (Orissa).
The Sunderbans area in West Bengal is famous for Royal Bengal Tiger.
The lion is found (in a natural way) only in India, besides Africa. In India, its only one
natural habitat is in Gir forests (saurashtra) in Gujarat. In 1972, the Gir Lion Project was
launched for its protection.
Project Crocodile was launched in 1975. Programmes are being run at several places for
encouragement of its protection and safe reproduction. Among them, Tikrapara (Angul,
Orissa), Mahanadi (Orissa), Kukrail (Lucknow) etc are prominent.
The National Chambal Sanctuary (Madhya Pradesh) is important for protection of
crocodiles.
